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92 Comments
- Schneckehaus, on 01/02/2008, -5/+57This guy is embracing the new world and making a smart choice for both his future sales and his recognition.
I applaud his expirement and have suggested it to another friend of mine who is an author. - lordtyros, on 01/02/2008, -1/+40Smart guy. There's no way I would ever have read this book until now. Now that it's sitting on my desktop, there's about a 40% chance that I'll eventually read it.
- Error601, on 01/02/2008, -7/+38Free propaganda! Say it isn't so!
- Carbito, on 01/02/2008, -0/+22I got it before the server died, mirror at: http://xarb101.info/Republic_ebook.pdf
- billyoneal, on 01/02/2008, -2/+22Server going down in 5.....4.....3.....2....1....
- inactive, on 01/02/2008, -1/+18how can an e-book be page turning?
- FatPhizzle, on 01/02/2008, -1/+13my chances are more like 5%. i really never get to pdf files. don't know what it is but i just hate reading them.
- bradcrc, on 01/02/2008, -3/+13DRM infested tightly-reigned media, or just completely free...
I think the answer is somewhere in the middle. :) - tehxen3, on 01/02/2008, -5/+14women are gay... lolocaust, dugg!
- sapo916, on 01/02/2008, -3/+11You make sense.
- formergthing, on 01/02/2008, -0/+8The sad thing is, nobody would care if you did.
Not that you're not a worthy author, but authors making their books free only becomes news after you have a publishing deal or some king of recognition.
I'll read your book though, if it were free. - neiffer, on 01/02/2008, -0/+8#2 on Amazon's alternative history list? Sign me up! :S
- noseeme, on 01/02/2008, -1/+9What the ***** is a book?
- bertbaby, on 01/02/2008, -4/+11A very good read!
- lostmongoose, on 01/02/2008, -0/+7more DRM free ebooks in multiple formats: http://www.baen.com/library/
- Chandon, on 01/02/2008, -1/+7Just because there appear to be two sides to an issue *does not* mean that the correct answer lies somewhere between them.
- inactive, on 01/02/2008, -2/+7Wow. of all the sad patheic fanboys, you are the saddest.
- whatthefu, on 01/02/2008, -2/+7I'm an aspiring writer and I doubt I'd have the balls to do this. Touche.
- ChiKoo, on 01/02/2008, -1/+6Dude, can't u just delete your own? Or... just stop coming onto digg?
- compgeek, on 01/02/2008, -0/+5just got this looks like an interesting read I'll definitely read it when I get the chance
dugg in support of non DRM - HesNikke, on 01/02/2008, -0/+5iPhone version -> http://podiobooks.com/title/republic
I've been "reading" it on my iPhone since june... good book... i wish episodes came out faster! - MacEnvy, on 01/02/2008, -0/+4Cory Doctorow has been doing this for a few years too. I really hope more writers do - it's wonderful publicity at this stage.
And remember folks - if you like it, cough up a little cash and support forward-thinking content-creators! - bubbaz3d, on 01/02/2008, -0/+4Someone should mirror this or make a torrent so this guy gets the book to whomever would like to read it.
- inactive, on 01/02/2008, -0/+4DRM cannot work. There is no DRM scheme that isn't trivially bypassed. The snake-oil DRM software salesmen are a bunch of charlatans. All Digg readers should boycott DRM infested media - they'll soon get the message, and stop wasting our time!
- bwa236, on 01/02/2008, -0/+4I'm downloading at 5.5Kb/s. Now I remember what dialup is like!
- phatalbert, on 01/02/2008, -0/+4Torrent here
http://www.mininova.org/tor/1079685 - ZeroIce, on 01/02/2008, -0/+4You are stuck in the world of Digg FOREVER!! muahahaha
- cdawzrd, on 01/02/2008, -0/+3I just finished reading the whole thing. It was captivating.
- Nidy1, on 01/02/2008, -1/+4Wow, I'm pretty sure you're why artists don't let people pay what they think is fair for their work. Thanks.
- inactive, on 01/02/2008, -0/+3Oh god no. O.o
- PleaseJustDie, on 01/02/2008, -0/+3I thought perhaps by the title it might be the book Brandon Sanderson (Author taking over to finish the 12th book of the Wheel of Time) is giving away. He's releasing a book on his website as it is written and each revision as its updated until its complete and will be published.
If anyone is interested...
http://www.brandonsanderson.com if you want to check it out, the book he's giving away is called Warbreaker, he has it for download as a word document. Its a pretty good book, but its not complete yet, the story is all there, but as he revises it It'll get fleshed out a bit more and some grammatical errors will be fixed. Right now its on revision 3.5 of an estimated 10 or so. - thedigitalkach, on 01/02/2008, -0/+3I'm reading it now and so far it's quite entertaining. I'll have to push this book at the bookstore I work for if I enjoy it.
- darny, on 01/02/2008, -2/+5two words...scott sigler.
- formergthing, on 01/02/2008, -1/+3I wish more authors would do this - and I'm sure they would if they could. The sad state of affairs for authors these days is that publishers force you into giving up your rights to the book as soon as they agree to publish it.
Want to give it away? Too bad. You just have to trust that your publisher is going to promote it in the best way possible. If they drop the ball, you're out of luck.
Only big name authors can usually get a publishing deal without giving up rights to their books - I don't know how this guy did it, but I am definitely curious! - jmk4422, on 01/02/2008, -0/+2He had me at: "The real danger we face, as individuals and as a nation, is of becoming so convinced that our own point of view is the correct one that we become unable to listen to anyone else's." I don't know if the book is good or not yet, but I will read it, if only for the intriguing introduction.
- CheapMonday, on 01/02/2008, -0/+2Getting 0.7kb/sec downloading it. 50mins for 2.1MB file..
Server must be swampped - devzer0, on 01/02/2008, -0/+2"I think the answer is somewhere in the middle."
In the medium term, you're probably right. Long-term, of course, trying to sell something that is by nature completely non-scarce is silly. In the future, artists will have to make money in a different way. - FatLoser, on 01/02/2008, -2/+4Make sure you have him submit his to Digg also... free advertising regardless of the quality of his writing.
- dsendecki, on 01/02/2008, -0/+2My favourite (I help to run it) small press has been doing this for years — granted its poetry, so might not be diggworthy, but you can download non-DRM poetry texts here: http://www.ahadadabooks.com/component/option,com_d ...
- navitatl, on 01/02/2008, -1/+3Charles Stross already did that. I'm pretty sure his book is tons better, too.
- inactive, on 01/02/2008, -0/+2Why?
If you're an aspiring writer, then your best strategy is to get as many people aware of your material as possible. The best way to do that would be to make it all publicly accessible.
If what you write is good and you're truly talented, then you should have no problem with getting recognition.
If you're a mediocre author and what you write isn't that great to begin with, well, then the success you're hoping for was never in your future.
The same applies to music. Want to get recognized? Release your stuff without limits. If your music is good, you'll get noticed. If you're pop band #2893, then don't expect much either way. - inactive, on 01/02/2008, -0/+2Some authors aren't in it purely for money, that want people reading their work because they actually enjoy writing and want people to enjoy their writing. Some like the idea of knowledge being free and loike ideas such as creativecommons, examples would be http://www.accelerando.org/book/ , http://vrinimi.org/rainbowsend.html , http://www.kschroeder.com/Ventus/ - Many of these authors are writing about things that relate to the ideals of creative commons and are computer scientists/freesoftware advocates etc...Bother Accelerando and Rainbows End have quite a lot about copyright and such.
Sometimes the author just wants their message to be heard.
And from a money perspective it still makes sense, most people won't read a book on a computer, but the author will get publicity out of it (10,000 diggers already). The people that do read the book on the computer can recommend it to others who might go and buy a copy. A publisher might read it and want to actually publish it. This however will probably change in the future when ebook readers are very cheap and are as convenient as regular books, there already down to $150 it won't be long until there $50 and then $5 as the technology continues to advance making them cheaper to manufacture. - Schneckehaus, on 01/02/2008, -0/+2He's still in the early stages of his first book, only a few hundred pages finished, and he's working on his phd right now, so he's had to set it aside for a bit.
- chokeaduck, on 01/02/2008, -0/+2Because most people hate Adobe Reader. Of course they could use FoxIt Reader, most of the features with none of the bloat, but eh...
- inactive, on 01/02/2008, -0/+2Staring at a tiny, backlit screen while trying to read a book sounds like the last thing on earth I'd wanna do.
- Portwineboy, on 01/02/2008, -2/+3I bought this from Amazon last week and it's being delivered tomorrow. Sorta bummed I spent the $17 now...
- Pulpfiction23, on 01/02/2008, -1/+2That don't make sense. Bitch
- bowens44, on 01/02/2008, -0/+1no
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