Author Offers Free Copy Of His Book To Anyone Who Writes An Amazon Review

from the free-books dept

Wed, Apr 22nd 2009 1:33pm — Mike Masnick

It's pretty common for book publishers to send out free copies of their books to book reviewers and publications. It's part of the publicity effort that any new book tends to go through. However, in this day and age, pretty much everyone is a book reviewer thanks to blogs or Amazon... and one author is responding accordingly. ChurchHatesTucker alerts us to the news that author Charlie Finlay is offering a free copy of his book to anyone who promises to review it on Amazon. Basically, he knows that the best way to build buzz around the book is to actually get people to read it, and giving away the book to people who will provide that buzz is probably a cost effective way to get some attention. Now, some might question whether the reviewers will be "fair" because they received the book for free -- but that's true of most professional book reviewers already.

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Filed Under: books, charlie finlay, free, reviews
Companies: amazon

18 Comments

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Guy One, 22 Apr 2009 @ 2:21pm

Reviewers will be fair... I would have no problem giving a bad review about a free book i received. I dont think the rest of the internet will have a problem being honest in his reviews either.
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A Dan, 22 Apr 2009 @ 2:25pm

Not the only option
I visited the website, and you can download a PDF of the book even though there aren't any physical copies left. Personally, I plan to read the PDF book and write a review somewhere. The book I'll be reading is for free, too, but that doesn't mean I won't be honest. I can understand concern, but I doubt there will be any honesty problems.
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Anonymous Coward, 22 Apr 2009 @ 2:27pm

I review books I got from the library all time, books are something i think SHOULD be free.
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Logo, 22 Apr 2009 @ 2:33pm

This part cracked me up...

"P.S. If you missed out on the advance copy, you can still download an e-copy of the book for free at my website. I'm not sure how much longer it will be available -- the full book at Scribd has already been reduced to a sample chapter -- so you may want to act soon. And thanks again to everyone who's talking up the series. You guys rock."

I know it's not uncommon but it's still sad to see a creator lack distribution control over their own work. Yes I'm aware that he probably signed away said control but still...
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Anonymous Coward, 22 Apr 2009 @ 2:33pm

I do this for my iphone games. I suspect everyone does this.
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Skeptical Cynic (profile), 22 Apr 2009 @ 2:58pm

Re:
Books should not be free. That is just a stupid statement. I don't even know where to start to tell you why you are wrong. I will just say you are clueless.
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Anonymous Coward, 22 Apr 2009 @ 3:03pm

Re: Re:
So since you have no real argument you will just use ad hominem attacks? Brilliant.
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Anonymous Coward, 22 Apr 2009 @ 3:08pm

Re: Re:
Let me correct myself, the information inside of books should be free for anyone to consume. The physical product of the book should be paid for by those who want a copy to keep.

It is the same premise that a library is built upon, people should have free access to information.
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Luís Carvalho, 22 Apr 2009 @ 3:49pm

And about the availability, how many torrents are already made of said book?

And YES, books MUST be free. Not the physical, tree killing, ambient poluter ones, but the content.

Don't mistake me, I have bought and I still buy, at least a hundred books a year. But, oh boy, I read waaaaaaaay more then that. And should I run out of money to buy them anymore, I have enough e-books to last a couple hundred years.

Books WILL be free.
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Celt, 22 Apr 2009 @ 6:05pm

Books should be free?
Wait a second... am I reading that people believe that we should pay for the paper product, but the content inside should be free? What load of BS are you trying to sell? The content inside is intellectual property, no different from ideas protected by patents and copyright. I may disagree with our copyright system, but I'll never say that the content of a book should be free. That is time and thought poured into written form by someone, a person that most likely spent a large chunk of their time formulating those thoughts and putting them to paper, then revising, re-reading, and editing for a rough draft that might be considered by a publisher.
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ChurchHatesTucker (profile), 22 Apr 2009 @ 6:27pm

Re: Books should be free?
Wait a second... am I reading that people believe that we should pay for the paper product, but the content inside should be free? What load of BS are you trying to sell?
Welcome, Celt.
You should google "Creative Commons" and, probably, "Cory Doctorow" to get a lay of the land. It's not as crazy as it may seem at first.
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Celt, 22 Apr 2009 @ 6:51pm

Re: Re: Books should be free?
Don't get me wrong... I certainly think there is a place for Creative Commons and I agree with groups like Creative Commons and FSF. These groups do great work and provide help for those wishing to release under free licensing.

I do not agree with Luis Carvalho above that it MUST be free. MUST indicates a demand or requirement. The author chooses how to distribute their thoughts and if that author selects to charge for their time and work, then good for them with sticking to a plan. Everyone wanting to read that material has the option of paying for it, or choosing to not contribute to the author's wallet. It is still the author's decision of how that information should be shared with others.
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ChurchHatesTucker (profile), 22 Apr 2009 @ 7:06pm

Re: Re: Re: Books should be free?
The author chooses how to distribute their thoughts and if that author selects to charge for their time and work, then good for them with sticking to a plan.
That's true, but the only reason the authors can do that is, essentially, a legal fiction (i.e., you have the magical ability to stop others from repeating your words/music/etc.) To put it another way: it's a limit on free speech.
Some of us (and I'm not (ever) speaking for Mike et al. here) think that was the result of a temporary aberration due to manufacturing constraints. We're now (realistically) back to a world that is much closer to Odyseus' planet. Which still managed to produce some works of note.
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Anonymous Coward, 22 Apr 2009 @ 7:43pm

Re:
How does he lack control? Seems to me he made it quite clear how he wants this distributed. Like the book? Buy a copy for your bookshelf. I've done this countless times, already. It's call a library. Most cities have at least one.
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SunKing, 23 Apr 2009 @ 4:00am

@Celt
"The content inside is intellectual property"

Yep, and once I've read it, it's also MY (so-called) "intellectual property".

Oh, I have so much property in my intellect I might need to move to a bigger intellect.
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Free Ebooks, 3 May 2009 @ 9:02am

I know
I just read the PDF of that book and it was freaking great!!
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Anonymous Coward, 31 Mar 2010 @ 3:35pm

I think this is all a trick there are a lot of junk like this on the web so it is really dumb to believe in this junk. also someone may be pulling a prank on you or someone else.
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Tobin Crenshaw, 3 Oct 2010 @ 6:39pm

Interesting ideas and discussion. I am a new author and found this very relevant.
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