doctorowOne

Doctorow, Cory. //Give it away//, Forbes (December 2006). John S. Rampersaud Writing has been a conception of man from the early days of life, with cave paintings tells the story of the hunters encounters with giant beast and other tribes engaging in battle for survival. The paintings on the wall are free stories for anyone who encounters them and is able to decipher what the there meanings are. Doctorow takes his stories give away a digital copy for free to anyone who is interested in his book which is a great marketing scheme to promote ones reputation. He gives his fans a chance to be able to read his book for free on-line, but then charge anyone who is interested in purchasing his book in paper. I find this to be very help full to the consumer because if the book bores them or if they just could not get into the book it self, the reader does not have to worry that he wasted money on a book that he will never read again. If the book hooks the reader, they have the ability to go out and buy the book for there own pleaser and reader wherever and whenever they want. The digital book is nice but it is not particle for anyone who likes to move around from place to place reading at point they have free, but a book has the ability to allow the read to freedom to move around and not be held back. Most literature is not presented to the consumer in digital form making it hard for them to actually go out and buy the book because the consumer does not know it the book is good or not and waste money on something that would be useless to them. Giving a consumer that chance to try-out the book before buying gives them a better turn around because the consumer will tell there friend to the read the book digitally and if they like they ca buy it on paper. Yes, there are some people who are took keep and would just read the book digital and not buy the paper copy but a true novelist will want to show off there collection f novels they have read to show their interests. Many stores will give away free items if they are trying to promote their work and for Doctorow, he has found a niche on how to be user friendly to his fans but yet still make money off of his work.

Steven Ho Doctorow's tactic of giving away free ebooks to promote selling hardcopy books is a sounds very strange. In reality, has worked out well for him. I think it's a great idea and more authors should follow his trend. Giving away free e-books has many upsides. It lets potential buyers sample his work, and also advertise for him. Doctorow worries about the future of piracy if ebooks become more popular then hard copies. He shouldn't worry too much, as the market of digital media is quite similar. For example, it is very simple to pirate music online these days with all the P2P programs. Yet people are willing to purchase music through the iTunes store. iTunes prices music at affordable prices and also makes it very simple to download and transfer to ones iPod. I think if they approach the market right, selling eBooks will be alot more efficient then hardcopies. This will allow consumers to instantly purchase books they want from home.

Karen H.

If the goal of business is to make a profit it at first seams strange that giving away the product would prove profitable. However, this technique was not created by Doctorow or by the internet. It is not uncommon for a bakery to give out samples of it's baked goods to entice customers to purchase. The cosmetic industry is famous for giving away samples to their clients in order to encourage purchase of products. What is unique of Doctorow's practice is the giving away of complete works; Though, the results are the same, name recognition, creation of a positive memory, new business and repeat business.

Doctorow also proves the old proverb "What you give out in slices comes back in loaves.' The practice of publishing his manuscripts for free on line use is a minimal cost to Doctorow but the returns are great. What is interesting is Doctorow's attitude which is not to make a huge profit, but to be nice. The boost in sales is a welcome yet most likely unexpected bonus.

@ Karen H. James Le Well you don't exactly have to have a positive memory to recognize a name. Sometimes good and bad experiences can be remembered quite clearly. Surprisingly, terrible hideous things can become popular and be profited upon. YouTube can most likely point out a few of those..... Anyway, my point is that spreading work/information to the masses, no matter how good or bad it is, will gain acceptance by at least one person. I'm not sure about Doctorow's attitude being nice by spreading free literature. I think it might be the other way around. He might seem nice because he has already made a profit....

James Le After reading Giving it Away, I can also agree that the internet hasn't hindered the world of literature and its authors. It has benefited it by luring in a larger audience and even increasing sales. Just like how we have access to Doctorow or Lessig's collection. Thanks to the internet and the availability of ebooks, we have discovered new literature and authors. As a consumer, the availability of literature online has made quite convient for one to find a literature of interest. Even a glimpse or preview of written work can encourage the reader to purchase it. While in the mind of an author, I can imagine the initial hesitation of spreading one's work in such a web. After some results are fed back there would be no denial. The act of spreading their work online is just a minor loss next to a huge gain. There is also the talk about the future of literature being purely digital. The question of whether that will be feasible or not is not important. What is important is the author's choice on whether to use the internet or not. The internet is here now so why not use it?

Jose Vargas Reading "giving it away" got me thinking. Is it really neccasary to just give away your whole book? Im thinking as if this was me in this situation. If i was an author of a book, giving away the WHOLE book wouldn't be the best idea because i wouldn't make any money. Nowadays with everything that people can do with the internet they can read any book for free, so if i have a paper copy i would like to sell it instead of giving it away. I do agree that giving something out will promote your reputation though, but maybe giving out a sample or a demo of something just to give a little taste of what the product is going to be. i agree with karen products like cosmetics do give out samples to customers but they are usually small little bottles that you cant buy. food warehouses give out samples of their food but just a little taste not the whole meal. In an authors point of view i would probably give out a demo of my book. maybe 3 or 4 chapters. That way if the reader is interested, they may or may not come and buy the rest of the book. Its kind of like video game demos. The company will only have you play a level or two or maybe even half an hour to get a feel of what the game is going to be like. in the sense of the player, if the player likes it or not, he or she will decide to purchase the game or not. But even video games can be downloaded for free over the internet so because of this, the company or the maker of the product should sell their stuff and not just give it away. I feel like the consumer can lose money or not even make any if their WHOLE stuff is being given out. Does anybody else agree? or im i getting to greedy?

Cory Doctorow is smart to be offer his books for free download. Anything text-based or in an audio format can be obtained very easily now. Radiohead had a big issue with I-Tunes because they wanted to force people to buy their entire album instead of just singles(and don't forget the Napster disaster). Radiohead is dumb to try to limit their fans downloading privleges (Whats wrong with singles anyway, honestly tell me one song that's on the Thriller album that's not Thriller). Giving people access to free stuff spreads the word around fast. For promotional purposes it is very good to offer free downloads because more downloads mean more possible sales for the future. If someone is extremely determined anything can be found on the internet for free. -Mark Homayouni

Jeffery Reynolds - While I agree with Doctorow that giving books away for free can be a successful and lucrative part of being an author, I find his premise that giving away his books for free costs him nothing to be very short sighted and inaccurate. First and foremost, there is the obvious cost of creating and hosting a web site. Even if you create it yourself and host it on a server at your own home, you are still paying for some sort of internet access, most of which is charged based on the amount of bandwidth you use. Then there are the hidden costs, such as the time and effort to maintain the server and web site, the time and effort spent writing the book in the first place, and even the cost of the computer equipment and software needed to create the book and distribute it. The fact remains that distribution costs something, and costs a whole lot of something if you are the original author.

Wendy Lohr

No matter what complications might arise from having a book published, the biggest obstacle always seems to be marketing. How do I get the word out to potential readers that I have something that may be worthy of their time? Doctorow's method of providing free e-book versions of his books is actually quite intelligent, from the marketing perspective. He made the comment that if someone truly wants to read indepth something he's written, they will actually pay the amount for a hard copy of the book. So, essentially, his e-book is meant to whet the reader's appetite and if the reader is convinced it will be worth their time to actually sit down and read the entire book, then it is very likely they will purchase it. For anyone who is an avid reader, actual books are still the preferred method of reading a story. You can't curl up on the couch or in a hammock and read a computer screen. Plus, there's a certain satisfaction that comes from physically turning the pages of a book, seeing the ink stains on ones' thumbs, and finally making it to that last sentence on the last page that can't be captured by digital copies of books. So, I believe that Doctorow has a very sound method in distributing his books in a free e-book version; for those who skim, they'll skim through a few pages and then move on to something else. But for those who truly read, they'll have a chance to determine if it's something worth the time and money and will probably end up buying the book. This, in turn, creates a profit for Doctorow and everyone is happy.

Kyle Long After reading the article, “Giving it Away” Doctorow made a success with the big risk he took into publishing his novels for free online because his plans could have backfired. In today’s market society, it has become extremely challenging to legitimately give something free away without disagreements from a third party. Publishing companies strive to profit in some way with eBooks. I highly agree with the fact that Doctorow wants encourage his readers to look at his novels regardless if they decide to purchase a book or not. He clearly stated that he would not be losing sales but winning an audience. The eBook was mentioned in the article that it was a social object and that it’s spread among others through many means whether it’s a friend or something else. Doctorow related to a past experience that he encountered in an old job. Audiences spread the word on eBooks that intrigue them and is the main reason why Doctorow has become so successful. His free novels online have granted him a fan database and in return, became profitable for Doctorow.

I also have to agree with Wendy that the biggest obstacle is marketing mainly because so many people try to come up with new innovations to help promote product marketing. It’s become a Hit or Strikeout chance in the world when someone is trying to make it in the industries.

Doctorow’s approach was unique but bizarre in terms of someone who was not looking for profit from their work but was rewarded later on with profit.

Sam Sachs @ Kyle I agree with the entire "audiences spread the word on eBooks that intrigue them and is the main reason why Doctorow has become so successful". Alot of artists have a hard time making a name for themselves. Gaining a fan database will produce a profit in the long run, because if people like someones work they are more than likely going to buy a hard copy of it to keep.

Andrew Montgomery - Steven I agree with you, and all of your exmaples, I also really like the idea of "Giving it Away" by Doctorw and his theory. I personally dont like to read novels and to be able to read the first few chapters of a book online to see if I am interested would easily suck me in. The theory in my opinion would work. When I was in highshcool I used to go out and buy a few books a month. If the first few chapters sucked I would throw the book out, or lose interest(As my football mind wasnt really patient) Doctorw way of giving books for free online would have worked for me, and I think would work for alot of the younger generation too. Let someone read your book online, if they show interest they will purchase it. That is genuis and a great idea. Not to mention now a days with the internet's marketing your novel would be veiwed by millions online if it was for free. Doctorw's tactic of "Giving it Away" is pretty damn smart in my eyes.

Andrew Montgomery @ Jeffery Reynolds - Jeffery is right I mean your not truly getting the novels for "free" I mean all of his logic makes perfect sence, yeah Doctorw's tactic is working but at the end of the day hes losing out on money most likely and people are not truly getting the novels for "free" You create the book but at the end of the day is it worth it creating a website to distribute out your novel for free? Makes you wonder