It was
inconceivably weird, and yet it made the artists who embraced it rich as
hell. The artists who demanded that radio just *stop* went broke, ended
up driving taxis, and were forgotten by history.
I know which example I intend to follow. Giving away books costs me
*nothing*, and actually makes me money. But most importantly, it
delivers the very best market-intelligence that I can get.
When you download my book, please: do weird and cool stuff with
it. Imagine new things that books are for, and do them. Use it in
unlikely and surprising ways. Then *tell me about it*. Email me
(doctorow@craphound.com) with that precious market-intelligence about
what electronic text is for, so that I can be the first writer to figure
out what the next writerly business model is. I'm an entrepreneur and I
live and die by market intel.
Some other writers have decided that their readers are thieves and
pirates, and they devote countless hours to systematically alienating
their customers. These writers will go broke. Not me -- I love you
people. Copy the hell out of this thing.
* Medium Term
There may well be a time between the sunset of printed text and the
appearance of robust models for unfettered distribution of electronic
text, an interregnum during which the fortunes of novelists follow those
of poets and playwrights and other ink-stained scribblers whose
industries have cratered beneath them.
Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25