4 ms·

Free e-copy of Robin Hobb's Assassin's Apprentice

11 points by renai42 17y ago

dave_au 17y ago
Free e-copy of Red Mars at the same link. I've got the series in dead tree form already, but may as well grab it while it's there.
jamie_ca 17y ago
It's too bad they're PDFs, I'd love to get ePubs without needing to run them through Calibre and then hand-tweaking them. Or, scratch that. Calibre is sucking on these ones.
- jedediah 17y ago
  Have a look at the links they provide... One can get the book in a variety of formats through different stores. For instance, I got a few of these books for free via the Sony Store today.
KirinDave 17y ago
I actually got "Assassin's Apprentice" for free via Kindle (which is still available: http://www.amazon.com/Assassins-Apprentice-ebook/dp/B000FBFMG6 http://www.amazon.com/Assassins-Apprentice-ebook/dp/B000FBFM...). The book was great, and touched off a whirlwind reading of the whole trilogy. Great series, but the ending was really depressing even though it was pretty clear what would happen to the main character from book one onward.
- runevault 17y ago
  Did you read the Fool's trilogy? It's a continuation of the story and also very good.
patio11 17y ago
The Baan Free Library once gave away books from the Honor Harrington series, a decision which made them at least $100 from me. I can't understand why they don't do it more often. Well, OK, I know the reasons (contractual/rights issues, mostly) but the businessman in me says screw the reasons and get it done. There is zero marginal cost to distributing the back lists. The core customer for these products grows to like a character/author/series and then is hooked, producing a LTV upwards of a hundred dollars. Lifetime profit is lower because cough publishing sucks, but the sales generated by most of the back catalog are miniscule anyway. They should just get the lawyers involved and start renegotiating contracts on an industrial scale. Hello, Author #147. You own 19 books with us, each covered by a separate contract. We are offering you a one-time no-negotiation deal: license us perpetual electronic reprint rights on book #1. We will use it to market your other books. We may inform you of particular promotions and details as a courtesy, but might not have the time, make sure to check our blog. If you agree to this deal, we will establish a baseline for how many sales you had on books #2 through #19 last year. Your royalty on all sales above the baseline triples. Help us help you. If not, firm handshake and move on to the next author. The publishers will get returns with scale more than anything else.

11 points by renai42 17y ago

Free e-copy of Red Mars at the same link. I've got the series in dead tree form already, but may as well grab it while it's there.

jamie_ca 17y ago

It's too bad they're PDFs, I'd love to get ePubs without needing to run them through Calibre and then hand-tweaking them. Or, scratch that. Calibre is sucking on these ones.

jedediah 17y ago
Have a look at the links they provide... One can get the book in a variety of formats through different stores. For instance, I got a few of these books for free via the Sony Store today.

KirinDave 17y ago

I actually got "Assassin's Apprentice" for free via Kindle (which is still available: http://www.amazon.com/Assassins-Apprentice-ebook/dp/B000FBFMG6 http://www.amazon.com/Assassins-Apprentice-ebook/dp/B000FBFM...). The book was great, and touched off a whirlwind reading of the whole trilogy. Great series, but the ending was really depressing even though it was pretty clear what would happen to the main character from book one onward.

runevault 17y ago
Did you read the Fool's trilogy? It's a continuation of the story and also very good.

patio11 17y ago

The Baan Free Library once gave away books from the Honor Harrington series, a decision which made them at least $100 from me. I can't understand why they don't do it more often. Well, OK, I know the reasons (contractual/rights issues, mostly) but the businessman in me says screw the reasons and get it done. There is zero marginal cost to distributing the back lists. The core customer for these products grows to like a character/author/series and then is hooked, producing a LTV upwards of a hundred dollars. Lifetime profit is lower because cough publishing sucks, but the sales generated by most of the back catalog are miniscule anyway. They should just get the lawyers involved and start renegotiating contracts on an industrial scale. Hello, Author #147. You own 19 books with us, each covered by a separate contract. We are offering you a one-time no-negotiation deal: license us perpetual electronic reprint rights on book #1. We will use it to market your other books. We may inform you of particular promotions and details as a courtesy, but might not have the time, make sure to check our blog. If you agree to this deal, we will establish a baseline for how many sales you had on books #2 through #19 last year. Your royalty on all sales above the baseline triples. Help us help you. If not, firm handshake and move on to the next author. The publishers will get returns with scale more than anything else.