Heretics

Seth, I just listened to Hot Tub Cast 03 and I wanted to let you know that I'm in your corner. I honestly can't understand why the publishing industry isn't warming to this new way of getting books 'out there'. Ever since I've discovered the podcasted books and all the free things that come with it, I have only been buying books from these authors, because they are people I'm getting to know and like. I'd much, much rather give money to people I like than to people I don't know. When an author dares to give his stuff away for free, he's putting a lot of confidence in his audience and to me that's a really big deal. I want to repay that confidence by buying those books or by spreading the word. I think you're right when you say that giving away just a few chapters of the book in pdf looks cheap. I never download pdf files when it's only a few chapters (what in the world can I do with that? It makes no sense), but I always download the complete pdf files of a book. I never read those, except when I want to look something up (the 'find' option works way better in pdf than in a real book...). To me, a pdf file is just a very nice extra feature every book should have. Ah, but I'm preaching to the choir here ain't I. And maybe we are just an exception to the rule, but I don't think so. I think the rules are changing and the publishing industry should really hop on this train before they miss out on a lot of the action.