I’ve been thinking lately of ways to give away digital copies of my books when you buy a hardcover. There are some issues with this.
I don’t know much about the logistics; it may be impossible. If there is a way to make this work, I’d propose it to Tor and Harriet for A Memory of Light .
Here’s a reddit thread where I mention issues with the process. Weigh in here or in that thread to give me advice.
The only way I could think of would be to include one-time use codes with the books. But what’s to stop people from selling?
Yeah. The other problem with that is securing the code. Books aren’t wrapped up, so the code could be scratched off/stolen easily.
My preferred method would be to put a code in a book that, then, you can redeem for free or a small price. But how do we secure it?
You don’t. Your stuff is already being pirated and publishers shouldn’t consider those lost sales. Trust people a la Apple.
I’m not worried about piracy. However, a digital code that can be used many times seems foolish. A one-use would be stolen.
One use has to be secured, or the person buying the book is in danger of being ripped off.
Multi-use means that we’re hosting the book, and paying the bandwidth, for those who want to pirate. Bad idea, I think.
I’ll host it for you. :) No charge.
Lol. One other problem is that this needs to be reasonable enough to the publisher’s ears to get them to go along.
My point exactly. Big Pub doesn’t get the new model. They consider pirated copies as lost sales. See Seth Godin for new model.
The publishers aren’t as ignorant as you think. The investors, however, are another story. (You’re right about them.)
Tor has done plenty of giving away free, DRM-free ebooks. They did it with Mistborn, for example.
Ah! To me as an outsider they are one and the same. :)
Publishers and editors in sf/f tend to be techies. Notice that Cory Doctorow, with Tor’s blessing, releases all of his books for free.
How is Marvel doing it? They don’t tend to wrap Comics either.
I think you order directly from them, and they send you the comic and deliver through their own secure app.
Baen used to put a CD copy of the book inside the hardcover versions of @davidweber1 Honor Harrington books.
I asked if we could do that, and the answer was that it was expensive enough it couldn’t become the standard.
Maybe like a gift card where it’s only active after purchase?
Yeah, this is probably the best idea. I don’t know how hard that is to accomplish, though.
A lot of textbooks used to include a disc in the book for additional material. Discs are a bit harder to steal than codes.
Textbooks also have a much larger profit margin than novels. I asked about discs for my last book, and the publisher said no.
They said it was just too expensive.
Old school tech, I know, but how about a coupon you have to fill in with your email address then post back to the publisher?
Ha. You know, I never thought about that. The problem is, how do we keep people from stealing them out of the books?
People with a nice hardcover don’t want to cut their book apart to get a coupon.
Here are a couple of problems with what people are suggesting. 1) We don’t want to shrink wrap books, but a code can be stolen very easily.
Anything involving the retailer verifying a code, or printing one out, requires large-scale involvement of retailers.
That’s not something I can change. They may be working on this already. I want something I could take to Tor, that we could do in house.
Or if you’re talking about securing the code in the book…it seems easy enough with textbooks. Peel-off? :)
People would walk into the store, peel off the sticker, write down the code, then sell it or use it.
How do you stop people from sharing a hardcover copy?
The physical product can be made to set off an alarm. A code can be copied and carried out.
Could codes be single use? That would largely get around the securing problem?
People would walk into the store, write down the code, go home and download the book.
What about one-time scratch codes like what’s used on gift cards?
Those are usually activated by the retailer. I’d love for us to be able to do that, but it would involve more than I can do.
Another issue with this is that if I did it, I would need it to work for indy booksellers and not just Amazon/Barnes & Noble.
Can you sell the digital copy at http://tor.com, which provides a coupon for the hardcover?
This is actually what I proposed to Tor a few years back, and they said they didn’t want to offend the retailers.
I still like the idea, though.
I won’t have time to reply to everyone here, but keep sending thoughts. I’ll read and see if I can come up with something to take to Tor.
How about this: Put the code in the book. Don’t secure it. Each code works three times. Hope people don’t abuse it.
That risks punishing the person who buys the book (but their code has been stolen and used.)
More on the A Memory of Light ebook thing. What would you guys think if I tried to talk Tor into a ‘special edition’ release.
A kind of ‘boxed set’ that came with hardcover, ebook, audiobook, a medallion or other keepsake, and maybe some interviews with me & Harriet.
Shrink wrapped & sold at bookstores for, say, $50 instead of $30? Does that get too far away from the ‘free ebook w/the hardcover’ concept?
It does seem to defeat the purpose, as far as most people would be concerned. Though many would buy it.
A Memory of Light e-book release announced with three month gap. Can you explain the rationale behind this? Lot of vitriol on Tor site.
Harriet worries, among other things, at the impact on the bestseller lists by releasing at the same time.
Ebooks make her uncomfortable.
Making us wait three three months for the A Memory of Light ebook is very obnoxious and shows contempt for the fan base. I have been reading…
…WOT since 1992 and deeply resent this type of staggering.
I’ve been working on it. The delay is not Tor, but Harriet, who worries at the implications of releasing an ebook immediately.
She originally wanted a six month, or longer, delay. I was able to persuade her to move to three months.
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