Will free books get you hooked?
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Publisher Tor has made another book available for free download: it’s Brian Francis Slattery’s ‘Spaceman Blues,’ described as ‘a literary retro-pulp science-fiction-mystery-superhero novel.’ The book was originally fished out of a pile of unsolicited manuscripts, and it caught the eye of Liz Gorinsky:
When I think back to why I first picked up this book and started reading it, I can’t help recalling a line Brian wrote on his cover letter when he first submitted the book to us a bit over five years ago: ‘This book is painted in browns and grays, sparked by sudden fires. I suspect it is not for everyone, though I hope it is for you.’
‘Spaceman Blues’ is a savvy choice, as Slattery’s new book, ‘Liberation: Being the Adventures of the Slick Six After the Collapse of the United States of America’ is out this month. While the storyline of the new book is not connected to the first, it’s clear that the hope is the free old Slattery book will so whet people’s appetites for a new Slattery book that they’ll be happy to pay for it. It’s an after-school-special-drug-dealer model of promotion: the first one is always free.
I’m interested to hear if this literature-pusher strategy is working for Tor. Since I am enthusiastic both about new publishing strategies and free stuff I downloaded an earlier offering, John Scalzi’s ‘Old Man’s War.’ But I admit, I never read past the first page of the PDF. It’s too unweildy, I forget where I save my PDFs, and I spend so many hours staring deeply into the glowing screen of my computer that it’s no fun to read a novel that way. (I wound up buying a brand new print edition of ‘Old Man’s War,’ so it all worked out for Tor in the end).
Have you tried downloading a free book, from Tor or another publisher? Did you read it? Can giving away free copies of books work?
-- Carolyn Kellogg
