In case you don’t read the Boing Boing blog (you should), Cory Doctorow’s book Down And Out In The Magic Kingdom has just been published (in the US at least). Apart from Cory’s status in the blogging community (he has even set up a new blog for the book itself, the buzz around it, details of personal appearances, etc.), why is this of note? Well, he has also released the electronic text of the novel under a Creative Commons license.
Basically, he’s encouraging you to download it, copy it, and share it with your friends–so long as you make sure that he is attributed as the author, and you don’t create any derivative works from it. You can grab it as plain text, HTML, or easily printable PDF.
So what do you think this is going to do? Is it going to reduce the sales of the book itself? Is he robbing himself? Or is it going to bring his work under the noses of people who might not otherwise been aware of it? Are these people going to plunk down money for the dead trees version if they enjoy the free download?
I’m inclined to think that this is a good thing. I think it will probably stimulate sales, and grow Cory’s fan base. But possibly because this is a rare event. If all authors make their books available for free at the same time as releasing the tangible edition, will anyone raise an eyebrow any more? Will everyone then adopt a “try before you buy” stance, and only pay when they think they have received value?
One thing I’m sure of, is that this is going to happen more and more. Prentice Hall is already publishing a series of books under an open license, where the text will be available for free when the book is published. The Baen Free Library has been around for a couple of years now.
The world of publishing is on the cusp of some major change. It’s going to be interesting to see where it ends up some ten years from now.
Update: See also the interview with Cory Doctorow on the Creative Commons web site.