When I began web design in 1996, publicity and marketing were purely print entities for publishers.
Few authors had email. Fewer still had websites. Publishers were just starting to realize the power of the internet(s). They relied on bookstores to spread the word about forthcoming books while releasing hundreds of advanced reader copies into the wild to generate knowledge and discussion among the booksellers—and among the fans.
It is truly amazing how far technology and our use of it has come.
Suvudu.com has been evolving as well since we launched at the San Diego Comic Con last year, slowly upgrading into the initial idea we had for this site. It has been really exciting to be a part of. We started with the blog, moved into a forum and today sees another step in that evolution.
A few more steps remain. But as a reader and fan, today’s step is one I am truly excited about!
Welcome to the Free Library!
Here is the official press release:
| NEW YORK, NY – March 4, 2009 – Random House, Inc. today unveiled the first five titles in its new Suvudu Free First Book Library. Designed to introduce new readers to popular and acclaimed science fiction and fantasy series, the Suvudu Free First Book Library allows readers to access free digital copies of the first book in each series. The program launches with access to the following novels:
The books will be made available through Random House’s science fiction/fantasy portal, Suvudu.com (http://wp.suvudu.com), as well as on other content services, including Scribd.com and the Stanza ebook reader application for the iPhone. |
The Free Library will allow readers to try these new books. And perhaps more importantly I think, if you’ve read any of these books already and call yourself a true sci-fi/fantasy aficionado, you can now point your friends and family to these books to either find a new favorite author or understand your obsession a bit better. The books are free—spread word around!
This is a section of the site we will be growing into every month. So be sure to check back and see what other books we feature!
But right now, try our new Free Library!
This definitely caught my attention immediately! Thank you very much and I look forward to more so I can convince more people to read the books I like!
Well, I am certainly very (pleasantly) surprised!
Well I guess my blog comment kind of jumped the gun – http://www.di2.nu/200903/04.htm – because for some reason things weren’t quite live in the morning in Europe.
But I’m not terribly please with only havîng the PDF format offered. Not so cool for those of us with ebook readers that display things better in other formats (mobi, lrf, etc.)
I concur with Francis and suggest offering both MS Reader and Mobipocket formats as well as PDF. Very few of us who read ebooks regularly do so on a computer, and PDF just does NOT work on most readers and PDAs
Cool I’m a fan of free stuff. Who isn’t?
I like that Random House has made books available for download for people who can’t afford them. Now my questions. How much memory does it take to download the book and do you get the whole book? What’s to keep the unscrupulous person from printing the book and selling it themselves? Sorry Cynic in me is showing.
Great article by the way Shawn! Very informative.
Francine
I’d rather pry my eyes out than try to read PDF files on my 8.9″ netbook screen. And no way I’m sitting at my desktop to read them.
I hate books in PDF format with the burning heat of a thousand fiery suns. Give me Mobipocket or eReader or SOMETHING that actually WORKS on my little netbook.
Wow, give something away free, people cry about it.
We’ll look into what you all are saying. It is certainly a valid point.
Yeah, I realize it’s kind of ungrateful to complain about the format, however, PDF is pretty much useless as an eBook format. Most portable readers don’t handle it well, it doesn’t resize well and the formatting is fixed, so it doesn’t adapt well to different devices. Mobipocket or Microsoft lit would be better, unprotected (DRM is a waste of energy on everybody’s part), even better. Look at the Baen Free Library (http://www.baen.com/library/defaultTitles.htm), based on books I’ve downloaded from there, I’ve purchased close to 300 eBooks from their site. And oddly enough, despite the fact that they are DRM free, I feel no compulsion to spread them around and give other people copies. Funny, how that is.
I was excited about this website–until I found that the books were in pdf format only. After about half an hour of working with the first file, I determined that I couldn’t get it onto my Sony e-book reader in legible format. I won’t bother trying with the other four books now.
Would I pay for e-copies of these books if they were not DRM’d and if they were in rtf format? Yes, absolutely. I buy lots of books from Baen. But pdf files? As long as I can’t put them on my Sony e-book reader and read them comfortably, I won’t bother to download them–even if they’re free.
I feel a little bit as if Random House just gave me a free book — with its pages glued together. Thanks for the gesture, but that’s not quite what I was after.
In Predictably Irrational, Dan Ariely describes how people can often choose options or situations that will not ultimately benefit them in the run long if those options are offered for free. People grab what is free without thinking though all the consequences of the true costs.
I’ve been reading ebooks regularly since 2002 on various handheld devices using a few different formats–over 100 books and more than 300 short stories: some were purchased and others were free, some had DRM and others didn’t, but not one has been a PDF. That should say something given the ubiquity of the format.
Bottom line, the PDF doesn’t play well with handheld devices. The fixed page format can occasionally be converted into a semblance of reflow, but there are usually errors. While some readers willingly grab the free PDF ebooks and accept the wonky formating issues, other readers should be more discerning and reject free ebooks when offered only in PDF.
The current boom in ebooks comes from Kindles, iPhones, Sony Readers, et al. People have had the ability to read ebooks in the PDF format on just about any computer for years, but to a large degree haven’t done so. The future of ebooks is handheld. Offering a PDF ebook is like giving away an audiobook on cassette tape or software on a floppy disk. Sure, it is nice to give away something for free, but the cost is the continued use and acceptance of the PDF.
Publishers and authors may believe they are doing readers a service by offering a free PDF, but they may just be keeping an outdated format in the digital ICU ward. Obsolescence is an essential part of technological growth. It’s time to hang the DO NOT RESUSCITATE sign. That means readers need to say no thanks to free offers of a PDF ebook.
Yeah, we understand your concern guys. Voicing it repeatedly is a waste of electrons. haha
There is a reason why they are only in PDF at the moment. More to come soon, no worries.
They are FREE! If you don’t like them then don’t download them.
Having read online html version (and download) is good for Googlebots, linking, and quoting, too – as well as for people at their desks.
I went to the Sony ebook store and got Red Mars for free, noting that the others were also there at the same price. Thanks for that, and for putting them in a format that works on my Sony Reader. Once I’m done Red Mars, I’m sure I’ll be buying the others, so this initiative is pretty much working with me. Thanks again. It’s much appreciated.
Woah, this is brilliant! Thanks!
Red Mars and Assassin’s Apprentice jumped on Amazon SciFi & Fantasy Ranking.
Congrats.
These can also be downloaded for free from Amazon’s Kindle store and Sony’s Ebook store at http://ebookstore.sony.com, and 3 of these are currently also on the Stanza application for iPhone.
That is the weirdest pdf I have ever downloaded for my Sony.
So thanks for the comments about Red Mars being free at the Sony eBook store.
After adding freebies (in a nice mobile format please =), then please add the rest of the books in these series for those of us to purchase who don’t have Kindles or Sony Readers so we too can purchase them. I also buy from Baen and would be more than happy to make some purchases here as well!
Thanks!
Let me waste some electrons in support of pdf. Exactly the things that make it unsuitable for devices with small displays (fixed page size, no reflow[1] and so on) make it a good format for people who care about typographic beauty. We might be a minority, but we exist! Please don’t discontinue pdf releases because of complaints from people who don’t want them!
[1]: Except for bleeding-edge tech that nobody understands yet.
Thanks, guys! This is definitely a cool idea.
[...] [...]
[...] New Marketing eBooks available from the Library eBook Store | Internet Marketing MillionaireVisit the Suvudu Free Library! [...]