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elfsCharlie Stross, Cory Doctorow, and the late Jim Baen must be giggling with glee today, and the poor sods over at SFWA are wringing their hands in sheer terror as the bulldozer of history approaches their cardboard clubhouse.
The Man Booker Prize is a literary prize awarded each year for the best original full-length novel, written in the English language, by a citizen of either the Commonwealth of Nations or the Republic of Ireland. I've actually never read a Booker prize winner, although I have read books by Banville, Atwood, Ishiguro, and Amis, so I suppose I have some casual interest in who has won. The prize has attracted criticism in recent years for nominating "dark and unreadable" books to the prize.
To counter that charge, the Booker Prize Foundation is now negotiating with the nominees to put all its shortlist nominees online, free for download.
The article says, "The downloads will not impact on sales, it is thought. If readers like a novel tasted on the internet, they may just be inspired to buy the actual book." One publisher poohs the idea, saying that an excerpt would be better and that this is just an experiment along the lines of Radiohead's "any price you want" album release last month.
The Man Booker Prize is a literary prize awarded each year for the best original full-length novel, written in the English language, by a citizen of either the Commonwealth of Nations or the Republic of Ireland. I've actually never read a Booker prize winner, although I have read books by Banville, Atwood, Ishiguro, and Amis, so I suppose I have some casual interest in who has won. The prize has attracted criticism in recent years for nominating "dark and unreadable" books to the prize.
To counter that charge, the Booker Prize Foundation is now negotiating with the nominees to put all its shortlist nominees online, free for download.
The article says, "The downloads will not impact on sales, it is thought. If readers like a novel tasted on the internet, they may just be inspired to buy the actual book." One publisher poohs the idea, saying that an excerpt would be better and that this is just an experiment along the lines of Radiohead's "any price you want" album release last month.
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Date: 2007-10-19 04:30 pm (UTC)I'll be interested to see how that pans out.
Date: 2007-10-19 05:55 pm (UTC)It will be interesting.
Re: I'll be interested to see how that pans out.
Date: 2007-10-19 08:45 pm (UTC)They've been running that for *years*. Along with cheap ebooks with no copy protection. And the occasional "freely distributable" CD in their books,
And the evidence says that it *increases* sales.
yeah, I've been a fan of the Baen site for a while...
Date: 2007-10-19 09:12 pm (UTC)So we'll see.
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Date: 2007-10-19 07:23 pm (UTC)But at least it's being done.
Wouldn't Booker prize sales boosts be a known entity?
Date: 2007-10-19 09:56 pm (UTC)"Free" is a great alternative to "unknown"
Date: 2007-10-19 09:58 pm (UTC)If your potential sales would otherwise be just a few thousand units, free distribution is a great way to attract more readers. You may find more than a few thousand new readers who will then buy your next book.
But c'mon, Elf, that's irrelevant to the most successful professional writers-- particularly the ones who get most of SFWA's attention. Get a title on the New York Times bestseller list and you'll see 100 times more paper copies sold than would ever be downloaded.
Jim Baen's policy was to give away books that weren't worth putting back into print. You don't see Baen Books giving away many (any?) books that are selling well in print. In fact, if you look at the Baen Free Library list, most of those books are early entries in ongoing series; they're meant to draw in readers who will then pay money to bring themselves up to date with paper editions. Hardly an attempt to overturn anyone's apple cart, hmm?
Anyway, having the Booker Prize Foundation say it will try to negotiate the free distribution of nominated titles is a long way from saying the deal's done. Let's come back in a year and see if they're successful before we draw any conclusions. This isn't even a real experiment yet, just a thought experiment at best.
So nobody is "vindicated" by this. There's no "bulldozer of history." That's all grossly overstated. And nothing here justifies cheap shots at SFWA, or implying that SFWA and Jim Baen would have been at odds over this story.
Maybe the situation will change in ten years, when good ebook technology has been around for a while and people have had a chance to get used to electronic distribution as a reasonable alternative to print. But for now, nearly all book reading involves a printed edition, and this little thought experiment doesn't mean anything.
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Re: "Free" is a great alternative to "unknown"
Date: 2007-10-20 05:31 am (UTC)I put more stock in my (and Elf's) crystal ball than yours. ;)
These are new times, with new distribution channels, new marketing models, and a population with changing expectations as to how media will get from producers to consumers.
The flailing about by the **AAs of the world is one sign of this change... and announcements like this are another.
A drop of water is nothing... but put enough of them together, and you have a tidal wave.
You seem very proud of your crystal balls
Date: 2007-10-20 05:50 am (UTC)In the meantime, some ball polishing might be in order.
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I guess this is the part...
Date: 2007-10-20 07:27 am (UTC)