Free e-books by Neil Gaiman and Hugo Winner Robert Charles Wilson—and a free intro French textbook
Neil Gaiman’s American Gods wil be available for a month for viewing online, although, alas, it can’t be downloaded (HarperCollins page and Gaiman blog entry, via Mobile Read). It’s s-l-o-w browsing. Perhaps Harper would do better to make a downloadable copy available for a limited time. Even a DRMed copy would be better than the current arrangement.
Meanwhile TOR’s e-book giveaway continues, with Robert Charles Wilson’s Spin being the latest download available in PDF, HTML and Mobipocket. TOR says: “Within a day or so of sending us your 
address, you should receive an email with a download link for this week’s free book.” In addition, TOR will offer free wallpapers from “some of the best artists in science fiction and fantasy.”
Related: Gretchen Angelo’s Liberte, a free intro to French (via Ficbot’s freebie site). A Yale Ph.D. in French, she teaches the language and literature at California State University, and Ficbot praises the book as “complete and very polished-looking.” The TeleBlog draws its share of readers in France, and I’d welcome their opinions of the Angelo book. In honor of France and its people, perhaps the book can be made available not just as a PDF but also in the French-originated Mobipocket format—much easier to read on handhelds than the Adobe format is.
February 29th, 2008 at 9:14 am
Every time I go to the Tor site, they tell me they cannot enroll me at this time. Did I miss the window or do they just have a problem with people from Texas?
Rob Preece
Publisher, http://www.BooksForABuck.com
February 29th, 2008 at 9:27 am
Regarding the above, maybe there is a cookie in your browser that messes things up. Try delete the Tor cookie and try again.
February 29th, 2008 at 10:41 am
The American Gods “release” makes no sense at all. Only online and only for a month?
First off…the book has been out for a while, so there are probably several pirate versions out there if you look for it.
Second off…it is available as an eBook from Fictionwise and other sites. Why not provide a link there? So that folks can get alternative versions, if they want.
Make it free for a month, keep the DRM, if you want. But the method of online reading with slow servers…stupid.
February 29th, 2008 at 2:37 pm
Rob - I got the same message from the Tor site… and then a week later began receiving the free ebook links in my email. So I’d guess you’ve registered, and the books should be “in the mail.”
The American Gods release did what they may have wanted… at least from me. I had never read Gaiman before, so I read a few pages, then a few more, and then went to fictionwise and bought it.
I am alos anxious to read Old Man’s War… which will then have me purchasing the rest of the series. The benefit to this is that it allows you to read a little to determine if a particular author is of interest… much like reading a few pages in a book store.
February 29th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
“Mobipocket format—much easier to read on handhelds than the Adobe format is.”
With all the “e-babel” out there, really the only universal format right now is plain text—that way, people can convert it to the device of their choosing. I can read Mobipocket on my Dana, but not on my ebookwise. I can read PDF on my Macbook, but not on my Dana OR my ebookwise
February 29th, 2008 at 6:35 pm
Excellent points, Joanna. Let’s just say “much easier to read on many but not all handhelds.” Thanks. David