Free Books—Really a Bestseller?

Have you guys been following the trend of free books being offered on Amazon for their Kindle. If you don't know what I'm talking about, just check out the Literature & Fiction Bestseller List and skim through the top 50 books.

The New York Times recently featured an article that gave coverage to both opinions—stating that publishers and authors are divided on this issue. One side makes a case that it allows the public to discover new authors risk free, the other side argues that it devalues your product.

The article also states that authors are "torn" on this issues.

Are we?

For this post I'm asking you to share your thoughts, specifically talking about your books. Would you want to see your work offered free for e-readers, and under what conditions?

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Paperless Books

While we wait to see what changes are coming to the publishing industry, it seems that digitals books are gaining more and more attention in the news.

In an earlier Novel Journey post called The Rumblings of Revolution I outlined some thoughts on the Sony Reader. Since then, Amazon has introduced Kindle along with some pretty tempting prices on their downloadable books.

With everyone trying to predict the future of publishing, I’ll throw in my two cents.

Recently my husband and I signed up with Rhapsody. For the price of a CD a month, we have unlimited downloads. The music stays for 30 days. At first I wasn’t certain I even wanted it. I’m pretty happy with iTunes. However, I absolutely love Rhaposdy now. I’m listening to so much more music and finding so many more artists.

Could we do that with books?

This is what I want as a reader.

If I could pay the price of a hardback per month, $22.95—and have unlimited books downloads--not just from one house, but any book--I'd subscribe in a heartbeat. Well, okay, Readers would have to be cheaper.)But not only would I subscribe to that service, but I'd buy hard copies of the books I really loved.

Considering that the cost of paper, ink, graphics for the cover, and shipping would no longer be in the equation, is it feasible? I don't know how all the rights, payments, and tracking of best-sellers would work, but it seems like Rhapsody has figured it out.

For this week’s poll, I’m asking:

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