Comments on: Did Tor’s free e-books boost sales?

By: Thoughts of a Game Developer » Digital Survival in the Age of Piracy

Thoughts of a Game Developer » Digital Survival in the Age of Piracy — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 03:09:55 +0000

[...] online in digital format. Tor Books, for example, released electronic versions of some books and saw physical sales of those same books increase by 0-30% (but not decline). This isn’t terribly surprising since people prefer physical copies of [...]

By: Chad Winters

Chad Winters — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 20:12:52 +0000

my anecdotal evidence:

I am just finishing the 3rd “Mistborn” book by Branbdon Sanderson. I love the series but I never would have started (or heard about it) if the first one had not been given away free. I have since bought both sequels and will likely buy several of his other books as well. And I have read all 3 on my Kindle. So, at least for series’ and probably for an author’s whole list….if you can get a fan through a free ebook, they are more likely to buy your other stuff than they were before.

By: Fred Kiesche

Fred Kiesche — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 01:37:22 +0000

Yes, I used “scads” twice. It has been a long week, too many short nights, and a long day!

By: Fred Kiesche

Fred Kiesche — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 01:36:26 +0000

There are scads of books that I downloaded for free at Baen’s Free Library…that I later paid for (you can “donate”)…and I have bought in “deadtree”, sometimes in paperback, sometimes in hardcover–sometimes both.

With the Tor books, there are a few I have bought in “deadtree”, but not as much as Baen as I’m not as familiar with the authors. As I read the eBook versions, that situation will change.

And if Tor ever gets its act together and does what it started to do with Baen–release scads of their books, DRM-free, in multiple formats–I’ll buy them. Especially Vernor Vinge, a lot of the special Orb editions for folks like Vance and Wolfe and scads of others.

By: HamsterDesTodes

HamsterDesTodes — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 13:49:16 +0000

I think its pretty obvious that >AT THE MOMENT< free eBooks boost dead-tree sales or at the very least dont have no negative effect. But one of the reasons (IMHO the main reason) for this is, that most people dont like to read long texts directly from a PC screen or even a notebook.
As soon as eBook-readers like Kindle or CyBook are more common, the Flint Effect (love the name!) will lessen, perhaps even become negative.
Im not very hopefull that free eBooks will have a future, just look at the clamour the music industry produces….and as soon a significant number of people who buy books have eBook readers, the publishers will be in the same situation the music industry sees itself in (not that I agree with that view btw) with with all these cd writers out there.

By: Terry Shaw

Terry Shaw — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 20:29:20 +0000

As far as I’m concerned, the verdict has long since come in on the positive effect of free e-books. Three years ago I discovered the Baen Free Library. Since then I have purchased over fifty e-books from authors who I had either never heard of or who I had declined to try out (David Weber, Eric Flint, John Ringo, David Drake etc.) along with many books from authors who I had read in the past, but whose more recent works I had missed. ( Mercedes Lackey , Mike Resnick etc.)

I’m now downloading all of my Baen titles to my new Kindle. I guess the only negative effect of my move to e-books is that I have only purchased half a dozen paper books in the last three years. But that’s great for the environment.

Something authors should consider is that there is no three month shelf life for e-books. Once their books are available online they are there forever.

By: Do free ebooks increase book sales? « The Book Publicity Blog

Do free ebooks increase book sales? « The Book Publicity Blog — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 15:00:22 +0000

[...] The jury seems to be out on whether this move affects sales and if so, by how much. Today, TeleRead posts some feedback from a couple Tor authors about how they feel their free ebooks affected hard [...]

By: Yoda47

Yoda47 — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 13:32:55 +0000

To be perfectly honest, I haven’t bought any of the Tor Free books.

To be even more honest, I’ve only had time to read one of them so far. (Old Man’s War)

I thinking about getting a paperback copy, but I’m not not sure yet. I do plan on buying the sequel at some point.

By: Rich Adin

Rich Adin — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 13:31:55 +0000

I can tell you that in my case I have purchased or preordered from Barnes & Noble 11 hardcovers of books in the past 4 months from SciFi/Fantasy authors that I had never read before as a result of being able to read some of their older work as free ebooks.

In the past, I had avoided books by Eric Flint, David Weber, and John Ringo, for example, because the cover artwork turned me off. When I received my Sony Reader last Christmas and discovered that I could try some of their books for free from Baen, I did — and discovered that I really do like their writing style. So now I buy them for my pbook library, as well as for my ebook library.

And, importantly, I have recommended these authors to friends who also hadn’t read them before. Plus they are on my list for books to buy for holiday gifts.

By: Nate the great

Nate the great — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 11:57:13 +0000

Eric Flint pointed out this out six years ago. Now that there is corroborating evidence, I think it needs a name: the Flint Effect.

Flint Effect:

a, Releasing a title as a free ebook will cause an increase in sales in the paper editions;

b, Releasing the first title in a series as a free ebook will cause an increase in sales in the paper editions of the rest of the series.

http://www.baen.com/library/palaver6.htm

By: Бесплатное распространение электронных книг увеличивает продажи б

Бесплатное распространение электронных книг увеличивает продажи б — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 09:24:48 +0000

[...] виде, так и на другие книги этих же авторов) на 20–50%.Did Tor’s free e-books boost sales? | TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home « Последняя [...]