[extropy-chat] finding old (and new) sf

[David Lubkin]

Damien wrote:

>When someone like Charlie Stross or Cory Doctorow releases a book under 
>CC, it is ancillary to paper publication, and their hope is that readers 
>who get enthralled by the e-text will get tired of reading on the screen 
>and pick up a copy at the bookstore, or via Amazon. CC release is thus a 
>form of advertising; the revenue still comes from the paper books.

Indeed, a free download is best structured to be inconvenient to read, even 
if it is ostensibly in a print format.

I encountered something similar in a consulting job. We were generating 
printed quarterly reports for company A to give to their customers. I had 
ideas on making it much more convenient, such as real-time reports the 
customer could view over the web. Turns out a major reason they wanted the 
printed reports is to have a regular excuse for their sales force to call.

The moral for me, and perhaps others on-list, is that people almost always 
behave rationally and if one doesn't think so, one may not be looking at a 
wide enough range of considerations.

>  What I'm still toying with is the possibility of making this novel 
> available for download at no charge, while inviting readers who enjoy it 
> to send us, say, a dollar or two via PayPal.
>
>Charlie had 22,000 downloads fairly quickly when he put his new 
>singularity novel ACCELERANDO up for grabs. My question: how many people 
>would feel an impulse to pay the author a couple of bucks in gratitude for 
>having the book might available in this way? Would anyone here be likely 
>to do so?

I wouldn't, although I have paid for pdf documents. Because the content was 
not available on paper, because it was substantially cheaper, or because I 
needed it *now*.

Commerce is more dependable than charity. (Quoth the libertarian, 
paraphrasing David Friedman.)


-- David.