Can Giving Books Away Pay Off? No Starch Press Publisher Bill Pollock on his decision to offer two of his key titles as free downloads.
As Pollock waits to see what effect this move will have on book sales, he spoke with Book Business Extra about how he came to make this decision.
Book Business Extra: Why did you decide to provide these two titles as free downloads?
Bill Pollock: The reason we’re doing it is that we have to do something. You watch music publishers fight P2P, [and] it’s a pointless fight. All it’s done is alienate millions of people. … I don’t know if you’ll see the same [level of traffic] with people downloading books as you do with music. But if you’ve got an Amazon Kindle, you may think, “This book is cool, but I really don’t want to pay for it. Someone told me I could go on [an illegal file-sharing site] and fill it up for free.” … This is happening. It’s not going to shrink.
- Companies:
- No Starch Press