Book People Archive

Free On-Line Books Boost Sales, Say Presses

[Between the time I wrote this and the time I cleared my bookpeople inbox,
 I see that Michael Hart has also written a note on this story in his latest
 Gutenberg newsletter.  But I'll pass this along anyway, since it's
 definitely a good story to publicize...  -JMO]

I've noted with interest a few recent stories in the press, where some of
the presses who've been putting books on-line for free report that the free
books actually help sales of the print books.  In the "news" section of the
On-Line Books Page at

  http://www.cs.cmu.edu/People/spok/booknews.html

I summarize the stories, and provide links to the stories as they appeared
in the Washington Post and Edupage.

Here's my summary, for those of you who may be interested:

Giving away on-line books is good for the bottom line.
That's what some on-line publishers are now saying, in the Washington Post
(September 30), and in the Chronicle of Higher Education (September 12,
summarized in Edupage).
National Academy Press, for instance, has so far put over 1700 of its
books on-line, and reports sales boosts of up to 2 or 3 times previous
levels for some titles.  MIT Press reports similar results.  Publishers cite
the exposure available on the Web as "great advertising" for the books,
attracting readers who ordinarily would not have bought or even heard of
the books.  Readers may browse the book on-line, but if they want to
read the whole thing, they prefer print, say the publishers.  So many of
them hit the online "order" button, or dial the phone number provided on
the Web pages to order a print copy.  The result?  The best of both worlds:
more books available on-line, *and* more sales.  Or, as Calvin Reid
of Publishers Weekly put it in the Post,
"Posting books online invariably leads the reader back to print."

John
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