What If They Give It Away?

Last week, I mentioned that Charlie Stross was putting his latest novel online for free downloading. The Book Standard picks up on the larger story, talking to authors longtime Beatrice readers--knowing my interest in this subject--will probably recognize, like Cory Doctorow, who "considers the release of the entire text of his books into the wilds of the Internet to be first and foremost a marketing tool." And, his publisher suggests, a successful one at that: his first novel, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, has sold about four times as many copies as most science fiction debuts...after being downloaded about 500,000 times.