factoid | giving them away
As part of Harper Collins’ online book experiment they offered Neil Gaiman’s American Gods free for a limited time. The experiment generated a debate both on and offline on why publishers should offer free material online and whether or not it would undermine booksellers.
Gaiman’s book had 68,000 unique visitors and 3 million book pages viewed. The site traffic is impressive but the increase in sales is even more significant. Since the launch of the site sales of American Gods have risen 300%. (more)
An idea worth investigating for Irish publishers to promote books internationally, at little or no cost??
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[...] Maybury posted yesterday about Harper Collin’s free book experiment, in which they allowed everyone to read Neil Gaiman’s American Gods for free online. (Not, strictly speaking, a new idea, but still.) [...]
[...] has two posts on downloadable books here (and here) following the post on Neil Gaiman and Harper Collins’ success . I think books are the medium most likely to succeed with this kind of model – apart from the [...]
[...] David Maybury, in a very interesting post is reporting on Harper Collins’ online book experiment. Colm O’Brien on E.M.Esg makes some interesting addition to the Downloadable books theme! [...]
[...] Collins have released the details about their online book giveaway – this one. Breaking it down, case by case it looks like the experiment was a huge success. The fact that Neil [...]