The other day I wrote the post Giving it away for free: Obscurity vs. Making Money as a Writer. In it, I argued that giving books away for free is not going to hurt a writer’s career. In fact, free books can give writers (especially unknown writers) a boost and increase sales of future books.

The post was prompted by an article I read by Angela Hoy from http://www.writersweekly.com entitled Think Twice Before Giving Away Your Entire Book Online for Free. While I have a lot of respect for Angela and read her weekly newsletter every week, I have to disagree on this point.

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The debate about whether or not it’s a good idea for authors to provide their work for free (especially back titles) continues to rage on around the internet. I usually think of this in terms of ebooks, as they are easier to give away for free without the burden of printing and shipping costs.

The main argument in favor of giving your works away for free goes something like this: You provide an ebook or two for free, and it will give readers a sampling of your work, enticing them to buy future ebooks that they would, of course, pay for. This has worked for many authors who claim that giving their stuff away does increase their sales of other books.

On the flip side, the argument against giving your work away for free is that readers will expect it for free and will expect the same thing with all of your books, thus no one will want to pay. Why pay when you can get it for free, right? The other issue that comes into play here is that authors should be fairly compensated for their work.

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Ever since I became an ebook evangelist I have promoted the idea that ebooks are the perfect platform to offer more than just the text of the novel/short story. What does this mean? An enriched ebook offers a glimpse of a working author in a “behind the scenes” sort of fashion.

While there are any number of ways to enrich an ebook, I always envisioned them with rough drafts (so the reader can see how the story evolved), outlines, interviews, alternate endings and more.

Bestselling novelist David Baldacci has done just that with his new book Deliver Us from Evil (aff link). According to Galley Cat, he’s offering an enriched ebook with a smorgasbord of features including a video tour of his office (I love seeing author’s working spaces), audio Q & A about the book, research material, deleted scenes (including the original ending) and other goodies that will enhance the reading experience.

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I know I’m a little late jumping on the horse here, but this week from March 7-13 is officially Read an E-book Week – meant to promote ebooks to the general public and to celebrate the new era of digital publishing that ebooks have ushered in.

I’ve been reading ebooks for a while now, so I’m already reading an ebook. More specifically, I’m reading Stephen King’s Under the Dome (aff link). It’s the perfect novel to read as an ebook because the hardcover version is heavier than a brick. No way I’m lugging that thing around town with me.

I’ll be posting a review right here on Brad’s Reader when I’m finished with King’s magnum opus.

How are you celebrating Read an E-book Week? What ebook are you reading? Leave a comment below and share your answer!

The largest book retailer in the United States is making the bold move of considering bundling ebooks and print books. Barnes & Noble, who came out with their own ereader Nook last November, will begin testing the idea within the next few months. This is according to a recent article on Publishers Weekly and the Teleread blog.

I’ve been advocating for this type of bundling for a while now. The obvious advantage is that you can read the print version in the comfort of your own home, and then take the ebook version with you while you’re on the go. This would work especially well with dinosaur-sized books like Stephen King’s Under the Dome (which I’m currently reading as an ebook). If I had bought King’s latest magnum opus as a hardcover, you certainly wouldn’t see me lugging it around so I could read a few pages in the doctor’s office waiting room.

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Over the last year I’ve talked to a lot of people with e-readers. A majority of them have the Amazon Kindle, a few Sony Readers and a handful of the new Barnes & Noble Nook. Everyone says the same thing: They love their ebook reader. Those with the Kindle or Nook, which can download ebooks wirelessly tell me that they read a lot more with the e-reader than before.

Surprisingly (at least to me), the one subject that never comes up is DRM. I’ve “educated” a lot of newbies to the world of ebooks about the dangers of DRM, and most simply aren’t that worried about it. Their main concern is ease-of-use. Downloading an ebook via  a wireless network with the touch of a button is quick and easy – instant satisfaction with no tech skills required.

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Teleread might just be one of the oldest advocate of digital books on the net. David Rothman started Teleread back in 1992, advocating national digital library systems, and has kept it going ever since. The blog reached a new milestone after being sold to North American Publishing Company. The move is a very positive step, not just for Teleread, but for blogs everywhere. It’s one more example of how blogs are mainstream and won’t be going anywhere soon.

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I know a lot of my readers on this blog are interested in ebooks, publishing news, self-publishing, writing and so forth. How do you keep up with all these topics without spending all day searching the interwebs. Of course Google is probably the first place you’ll search. But Google has tools that will allow you to stay current on just about any topic without wasting a lot of time.

When I first began Brad’s Reader, my main focus was on literature and writing. Since the world of literature is so big, I needed a way to see all the important bits of news and related blog posts at-a-glance. What did I use? I created a Google Alert using the search term “literary news”.

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So far I’ve been silent about the recent feud between Amazon and the publisher Macmillan because there have been so many articles, blog posts, forum comments and other coverage, that I didn’t want to contribute to all the ‘noise.’ However, there is a slightly new development in this story that I do feel it’s worth writing about.

Today the Author’s Guild released a statement that pretty much supports Macmillan in the feud. There’s really nothing surprising about that since the Guild usually supports the large publishers and higher ebook prices. The Author’s Guild believes that if Macmillan succeeds in having more control over ebook prices, it will be good for the industry as a whole:

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Oh Apple, how you disappoint me. It appears that the new iBooks app for the newly announced iPad will be bogged down with DRM, making it hard (if not impossible) to share ebooks you buy from Apple. I’ve had a hard time getting specifics, but I found a few reputable blogs posting the same thing.

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