The publishing industry (understandably) made a lot of noise last November when the news broke that self-improvement author Tim Ferriss would be promoting his newest book project, The 4-Hour Chef, on BitTorrent, a site that will probably always be associated with illegal online file-sharing. The promotion—a free, downloadable BitTorrent bundle that includes interviews, candid author photos, the first chapter of the book and more—was at least partly conceived as a response to Barnes & Noble, which has publicly refused to carry any books published by Amazon, its top competitor. According to an article by USA Today reporter Dierdre Donahue, a number of independent bookstores have followed B&N's boycotting lead,...

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