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How insignificant are they? So insignificant that simply by telling me you will write a review, I would give you a copy for free. I would agree with that. But

by tjr 14y ago

How insignificant are they? So insignificant that simply by telling me you will write a review, I would give you a copy for free. I would agree with that. But if someone tells me, "I want a copy, but even though you are asking $5 per copy, I don't think it's worth anything at all. Give one to me for free." ... I would not be so quick to hand over a copy in that case, and, based on anecdotal conversations with others, I suspect that is closer to the mentality of a lot of folks who are committing the trivial crime of copyright infringement.

Zigurd 14y ago
Where shall I send it? I'll even inscribe a hard copy for you. That's a $44.99 retail value. More seriously, there is a lot of evidence that promotional copies sell books. You could buy, or ask for a promotional copy of Guy Kawasaki's book about making books. It's about self-publishing, but his experiences with promoting and marketing books apply to any book where the publisher's marketing budget is very limited. There are some other effects I can count on: That readers of HN are fairly likely to not bother to take something they won't use, because they value their own time. You are only a hypothetical pirate, and your question is hypothetical, too. In the real world, piracy behaves much like promotion. But, you may be thinking, what about entertainment products? It's been shown over and over that "pirates" are also top-ranked among paying customers. Is there a real-world case that piracy reduces revenue? If you get past the hypothetical cases, it's much harder to say so.
- tjr 14y ago
  I don't disagree at all. I've given away copies of my own work, both in digital and physical formats. I guess my question is, where do you draw the line? You said, there is a lot of evidence that promotional copies sell books. Sure. But if you give them all away, what do you sell? (Assuming that you want to sell any at all.)
  - Zigurd 14y ago
    "Sure. But if you give them all away, what do you sell?" The anecdotal evidence Guy Kawasaki bases his advice for self-publishers on is that giving away books is always good. My publishers have signing events at conferences and give away case-loads of my current book at these events. Amazon sales always spike afterward. In practical terms, that tipping point seems to be very far out there.

by tjr 14y ago

Zigurd 14y ago

Where shall I send it? I'll even inscribe a hard copy for you. That's a $44.99 retail value. More seriously, there is a lot of evidence that promotional copies sell books. You could buy, or ask for a promotional copy of Guy Kawasaki's book about making books. It's about self-publishing, but his experiences with promoting and marketing books apply to any book where the publisher's marketing budget is very limited. There are some other effects I can count on: That readers of HN are fairly likely to not bother to take something they won't use, because they value their own time. You are only a hypothetical pirate, and your question is hypothetical, too. In the real world, piracy behaves much like promotion. But, you may be thinking, what about entertainment products? It's been shown over and over that "pirates" are also top-ranked among paying customers. Is there a real-world case that piracy reduces revenue? If you get past the hypothetical cases, it's much harder to say so.

tjr 14y ago
I don't disagree at all. I've given away copies of my own work, both in digital and physical formats. I guess my question is, where do you draw the line? You said, there is a lot of evidence that promotional copies sell books. Sure. But if you give them all away, what do you sell? (Assuming that you want to sell any at all.)
- Zigurd 14y ago
  "Sure. But if you give them all away, what do you sell?" The anecdotal evidence Guy Kawasaki bases his advice for self-publishers on is that giving away books is always good. My publishers have signing events at conferences and give away case-loads of my current book at these events. Amazon sales always spike afterward. In practical terms, that tipping point seems to be very far out there.