Take a free book, but pay it forward
The publishing industry is suffering from growing pains, especially in the advent of e-books. One Masschussetts publisher is trying something new: Giving away books for free.
An open book next to a stack of books. (iStockPhoto)
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Links
- Concord Free Press
Visit the Press's website to request your own free book and see how people are paying it forward.
TEXT OF STORY
Kai Ryssdal: Amazon announced the other day that for the first time e-book sales have topped the number of actual books sold. Not promising news for a publishing industry that's already dealing with slowing print sales. They're down about a billion and a half dollars over the past two years. But a changing business model works both ways.
From Vermont Public Radio, Jane Lindholm reports on a small publishing house trying something completely different.
Jane Lindholm: A few years ago, writer Stona Fitch was getting ready to publish his fourth novel, "Give + Take," when his editor changed jobs. That left Fitch's book orphaned. So he decided to start his own publishing house -- with a bit of a twist. The Concord Free Press, based in Concord, Massachusetts, gives its books away for free.
Stona Fitch: Our books, on the back where you normally find the price, it says "zero." There's a sticker on the front that says "100 percent off."
Well-established writers donate their work to the Press for a limited run of about 2,500 copies. The designer does the work pro bono too. So the only costs the Press has to cover are printing and postage.
Fitch: Each book costs roughly the same amount as a very bad slice of pizza.
Lyn Cosby is one of those readers, in Birmingham, Alabama. She got her hands on the book "The Next Queen of Heaven" by "Wicked" author Gregory Maguire after seeing it on a book review website.
Lyn Cosby: I'm always up for a free book. And just a few days later, it was in my mailbox. You know, I didn't know what to expect, but it had this great cover design... I mean, it was a real publishing house book!
Cosby gave $110 to a local arts charity and passed the book on to her daughter. She's now waiting for her next Concord Free Press title to arrive in the mail.
Now, you might think booksellers would balk at giving books away.
Cashier: How are you today?
Customer: Good. How are you?
But independent store owners are enthusiastic. Like Chris Morrow, at the Northshire Bookstore in Manchester, Vermont.
Chris Morrow: Something like this was low effort on our part, and it benefits our customers, which is something I'm always looking to do. And the whole notion of paying it forward is appealing on many levels. So it was really a no-brainer for us.
And publisher Stona Fitch says the concept is catching on. Readers find one another and trade copies via Facebook. And writers flood the Press office with manuscripts.
Fitch: I'm not suggesting that it is the answer to any of the woes that traditional publishing face. That would be stupid. But generosity-based publishing, as it's come to be known, provides an alternative -- and a viable alternative -- to the standard way of commercially producing a book.
And, in fact, Concord Free Press books can go on to commercial success after their initial limited run. That orphaned novel that inspired Fitch to start the publishing house in the first place -- "Give + Take" -- will be published by St. Martin's Press this summer for $23.99 a copy.
I'm Jane Lindholm, for Marketplace.
Comments
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From Las Vegas, NV, 07/29/2010
In your story, you state that "e-book sales have topped the number of actual books sold," according to Amazon. As excited as I am in the increased popularity of e-books, this statistic is sensationalistic, and your statement is categorically wrong. Amazon announced that e-book sales in their store topped only hardcover book sales, a misleading statistic in itself. This number fails to take into account numerous other important factors: How did e-books fare against paperbacks (which sell much faster)? What price points were the e-books sold at (which could have been as low as $.99, clearly a different market entirely than the $25 hardcovers)? How many of those books were available in only e-book form (and therefore only marginal competitors)? How were these numbers affected by the recent price drop of the Kindle itself? Is the pie itself is growing as people continue to buy hardcover books but now also buy more self-published or indie works?
Statistics presented by corporations should be always be looked at critically.
(To give credit where it's due, although the statistic left a suspicious taste in my mouth when I first heard it, these specific questions came from an article over on Directory Journal called "Be Careful What You RT: Mashable Spreads Amazon’s Hype via Twitter Sheep".)
07/28/2010
"e-book sales have topped the number of actual books sold."
the story i saw all over the news said e-books just topped HARDCOVER books at AMAZON ONLY. where did you get your info from? i think it is completely wrong. thanks.
07/28/2010
Baen has been doing this for some time. They have a number of series of books. The kind of thing you wouldn't want try to get into in the middle. As a way of increasing people's interest and Baen's sales of new books in the series they put the first few books of many series out for free.
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