Information Wants to Be Free
So Hank has more or less completely convinced me that copyright, as an idea, is dead. I don't have the moral courage to give away Paper Towns, but my friend Alan Gratz is making his funny and smart Shakesperean mystery novel, Something Rotten, available for free online for your reading pleasure.
Alan is doing this to celebrate the release of the second novel in the series, the equally good Something Wicked. Both books are great.
posted by John Green @ Monday, October 06, 2008
8 Comments
8 Comments:
ack! shush! as someone who wants to get novels published that is no good! hehe. but i look forward to reading something of quality for free, i must admit. :D
John, I'd like to see your reflections on the existential problems with culture that have emerged over the past, say, 15 years. The independent book/video/prettymuchanythingyoucanbuyoffebay store is dead, and you're in the right age group to comment on seeing that happen...since you GenXers...ummm...killed it.
Maybe it's a romanticized view of a past that I'm too young to have participated in, but when everyone just shops at Costco/WalMart and then uses online bookstores (Amazon/Barnes&Noble), we start to lose a sense of identity. Let's also not forget, you know...retail jobs.
And then, to make this all the more tangental, let's also consider the ramifications of having information so readily accessible as to lower attention span significantly. Oh the double-edged sword that is the internet...allowing me to post this comment in the first place.
Peace,
Nerdfighter Jordon
I think it's hilarious that right after you talked about lacking the "moral courage" to give away Paper Towns, you linked to the Paper Towns Amazon site. Absolutely awesome.
I'm so glad I found you, actually I think you found me on twitter, either way I'm glad for it.
In regards to your post I agree that the general (or traditional)idea of copyright is dead but I don't believe that curtails the market for good (or great) literature. I am working on my first book which in part discusses this change due to technology; I'm hardly the only person talking about this. I think that there is a great opportunity to share knowledge on a larger scale if we find a way to remove the copyright and intellectual property fears.
Being someone who would like to earn a living someday off of my thoughts means that I'll have to find a way to monetize those thoughts. In the past that may have been in part done by selling books. I believe we are still a long ways off (decades at least) before we stop seeing books printed and consumed. During that period we'll find ways to make money with our thoughts that may or may not include the sale of those thoughts in book form. I don't know that you need to feel obliged to put your books up for free on your site (especially not this early in the game).
What is more important is that you provide enough of your ideas for free that people are drawn in and want to take that next step to purchase your more complete works. These are, of course, just my ideas on where we're headed. I'm looking forward to picking up your newest book.
Hope you're well.
Neil Gaiman just did a tour where he read a chapter of The Graveyard Book each night, then posted the videos on the web. I saw him in Philly. He was asked if he was worried about copyright violations or piracy, but he said the real risk to modern authors is obscurity.
If you could get Hank to make his next Brotherhood 2.1 video about copyright and convince us all I would greatly appreciate it! This issue about copyright confuses me.
Be brave John! It's good marketing. I followed your link to Alan's book, read the first chapter online and now plan to order both books.
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