Cory’s criticism of Harper Collins’s “free download” release of American Gods is spot on. I’m a huge fan of Neil Gaiman, and I read on the screen all day, but the annoying loads, scrolling, and graphic image text format had me bouncing out after a couple pages.

This is a real shame because as Cory and others (Baen especially have been very forward thinking with this) have shown, ebook distribution is a positive thing (Down and Out In the Magic Kingdom had hundreds of thousands of downloads, and ended up selling out multiple hardcover print runs (10K each)). I’ve bought books from John Scalzi (Old Man’s War) and Charlie Stross (Halting State) based on reading the initial chapters. The way that the Kindle does free chapters like this is absolutely the right way to go in terms of encouraging people to buy the book.

In terms of Ebook promotion/distribution, Cory seems to have it down down to a science – create a minisite w/ news blog, collected reviews, author info, and easy “buy me” links. For the downloads, offer it in a plethora of formats, including most notably, plain text, HTML, and PDF, as well as where possible, mobile versions. (BooksInMyPhone does a good job of this; my favorite multi-formatting app is ManyBooks.net).

In the realm of books, it seems like that publishing houses still have a large window of opportunity because of the superiority of the physical distribution medium (paper books) to the alternatives, but as the market declines, and alternatives improve, it seems that book publishers will start facing the same curves as in other markets. Here’s hoping they learn the right lessons about how they can provide value to the parties they serve.