Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Least favorite thing of the day: too many free books


I'm awash in books.  I totally love books.  I read them, review them (and get advance review copies), collect them and write them.  So I support books in all forms.

And I'm not anti-free books.  I get them all the time.  And, I gave mine away.  Over 600,000 free (trackable) copies of Captive downloaded....and I get Google alerts all the time telling me of new ways/sites to get the book for free.  Luckily, some people who downloaded the book did become "fans" and say they'll support future efforts.

But I am awash in free books.  I turn down free digital books constantly.  And the new sites that continue to start ....offering free books...is astounding.  And, since this post is a rant against free books I won't list them here...so as not to make the situation worse...but I get daily email offers.

And I review books...but can't review them all!

Content has value.  With my new effort, Get Your Child to the Top, I'm reaching out to independent bookstores.  Doing so makes sense...both bookstores and school promote community.  Let's not get so lost in idea of getting something for free that we lose sight of how media isn't about cost...it's about community.  Free is a short term pleasure but not long term community (unless your community is about how not to pay...).

Just a few thoughts.

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