Cory Doctorow is a science fiction writer who is very involved in new media. His new book, "With a Little Help," is a short story collection and he has made it available in a variety of formats and offers. One is an ebook, another is Print on Demand traditional book, another is a hardcover with a hand-sewn binding and unique endpapers glued in. He’s also offering to write a new story for $10,000 and include it in the next edition (one person has already taken him up on this).
He’s also trying out new ways to make the book interactive; if you find a typo in the Print on Demand version he will correct it and in the next edition (which starts with the next book) give you a footnote crediting you with the correction. Sounds distracting to me but I have to admit it’s creative.
He made his first novel, “Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom,” available for free as an e-book and several million copies have been downloaded. At the time this was unusual enough to generate a lot of publicity but he says that it no longer has that status. However, he points out that making people familiar with your work via the free model will prompt a certain number of people to buy a hard copy book and can spread the word about your writing.
You can watch an 11-minute interview with him, conducted by Brian Felson, here:
