Tor Books Is Giving Away E-Books

stoolpigeon writes "Tor Books is launching a new site and running a campaign in which they are giving away e-books (free as in beer) until the site goes live. To get in on the deal, fill out the form at their site, and each week you will receive a newsletter containing links to download a new book. The first two books are Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson followed by Old Man's War by John Scalzi. Scalzi's site says: 'My understanding is that they don't have DRM on them. Or at least, mine isn't supposed to have, and I don't think they're planning mine to be special in that regard.'"

Comments

Releasing the good stuff or not?

[CRCulver]

Will Tor be releasing as e-books those works where science fiction and fantasy reaches the best of world literature (for example, Tor holds the U.S. rights to Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun), or will they only be releasing their ephemeral "airport novels" that are only released in paperback and left to go quickly out of print? It's a pity that so far the only science fiction published to embrace e-books has been Baen, whose publications generally fall into the mindless entertainment sphere of science fiction.

Re:Releasing the good stuff or not?

[geeknado]

I think that including Scalzi's best known novel is a good sign in this regard; it was well enough received to have spawned a number of sequels/prequels, most of which have had decently sized hardback runs. I wouldn't be totally shocked to see some well-known-but-older-titles available...Ender's Game, anyone?

Re:Releasing the good stuff or not?

[dgatwood]

The funny thing is that Tor has occasionally done this before. Baen also does this on an ongoing basis.

Turns out that people don't read books much and it's hard to get someone interested in a new writer, or in some cases, a new series by an existing writer. Once you get your foot in the door with free copies, though, you actually end up selling more than you would have if you didn't give stuff away. Weird, huh? :-)

Re:Releasing the good stuff or not?

[rotor]

When I first read Ender's Game 10 years ago I'd have agreed that it was the most compelling. Re-reading as a 33 year old I've found that Speaker For The Dead is by far the better book. Sure, it's a lot slower paced, but I found it to be more interesting overall.

Tor?

[webmaster404]

Am I the only one that wondered why Tor (the anonymity network) was giving away free ebooks?

Still wating for a good e-book reader!

[Anonymous Coward]

Get back to me when they have that is 1) shockproof and break proof 2) moisture proof 3) sub $100 (not $199, not $150, sub $100)

When I get back to my dorm, I throw my bag down. When I go to class, I toss my bag. If they aren't as durable as dead-trees, they aren't worth a penny.

Durability is an important as readability.

Re:Still wating for a good e-book reader!

[schnikies79]

How about a more realistic situation?

Drop a book on the floor in a backpack and step on it. Do the same with a book. Which is likely to come out on top?

I agree nearly 100% with the original poster. I want durability and easy reading. A pda SUCKS for reading for more than a few mins. Lets take school for example, I was a chemistry major. I would have to have a big screen, with color, and I want to be able to draw on it. I wrote my books up like hell, and being that chemistry uses a lot of models and diagrams, being able to draw on the book is just as important as being able to read it.

This is why no one in my major used laptops during class. One guy with a tablet notebook did have his out for a few weeks, but ditched it for dead-trees.

Re:Still wating for a good e-book reader!

[pnutjam]

My "bag of books" is about the size of a deck of cards and sits easily in my front pocket. I'm not so tired of carrying it I have to toss it down. That's what ebooks do for me. I read fast and always used to dread that moment when you know your going to be waiting around for along time, but your almost done with a book, or far enough in you know you'll finish it soon. Do you take a new book (which you might not like), carry two books, or just take the one and hope for the best. With a dozen books on my PDA, I never have that problem.

An added bonus is that if my boss walked by and saw me with some pulp sci-fi book open on my desk he would probably say something (or think something). But if I'm waiting on my PC or standing by the server, while it chugs away, I can pop my PDA out and read afew pages without anyone noticing (maybe I'm taking notes), it's great for boring meetings too :).

I agree ebooks should drop in price a bit.

E-books are the future! At least, they will be...

[Dutch Gun]

I'm encouraged to see e-books taking a stronger position in the market, but I'm saddened that so much attention is being paid to products that are tied to DRM. When I buy a book, I tend to look at it as a long term investment in my personal library. That is, I'm buying a copy to own forever. This early in the industry, I have no confidence that any DRM scheme implemented now will last any significant length of time. Will I still be able to read the book 20 or (hopefully) 40 years from now?

It's a bit sad how so much effort is being made to obfuscate what is essentially the simplest of all computer formats: a text file. As others have repeatedly pointed out, there are some killer markets for these things in education. Saying goodbye to all those textbooks would be an unbelievable win for schools AND students.

I think three things need to happen before these things take off (and they eventually will):

1) The price needs to come down. A lot. $400 is just waaaay to much to make these things ubiquitous. Think about attractive one of these might be at $50. It would be hard to resist.
2) Lose the DRM / stop with the proprietary formats. Books, even more so than software, yearn to be free.
3) Major publishers and popular authors need to get on board. Unless the authors who people really want to read are available, the whole exercise is sort of pointless.

I can certainly afford a current-generation e-book reader, but until I can actually read the stuff I want to read, it's somewhat pointless. Here's hoping...

Re:Sounds too good to be true...

[Richard_at_work]

I hope so!

Re:Sounds too good to be true...

[Smordnys s'regrepsA]

This is just publicity until their new site is functional. They're not giving away an ebook a week, that is just till their real site comes online. Also, you have to read their newsletter they send to you to get the free ebook, so you'll be exposed to plenty of their products that you actually have to buy.

Too good to be true? What are you smoking - this is how I wish every publishing company worked (books, movies, music, art). Instead of just sending me crappy adds I haven't asked about, for products I don't want, they're paying me with free swag to view their adds that I actually asked to view. They are a business, so of course we'll have to pay for something eventually, but I'd be glad to give my money to a smart/savvy company with a good product.

I've been a huge fan of Baen since their free library, but on average I like Tor books better so this makes me much more happy.

Re:E-books are the future! At least, they will be.

[chubs730]

This early in the industry, I have no confidence that any DRM scheme implemented now will last any significant length of time. Will I still be able to read the book 20 or (hopefully) 40 years from now? DRM on text documents will be irrelevant by that point, if the industry does go that way. They've already got programs to automatically solve captchas so it seems reasonable that they'd be able to parse an ebook. Not to mention it's DRM, which will always be broken eventually.

Re:E-books are the future! At least, they will be.

[pnutjam]

The same goes for the longevity of the newspaper - given that everyone can get their news off the web, why do newspapers still exist? Why doesn't everyone just read the same news via a laptop at the table?

Because of old people, how many under 30's do you know that get a daily newspaper?