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By Paul Biba

It looks as if some authors realize the marketing potential of ebooks, even if many publishers are still languishing in the dark ages.

Rose is making her new book available for free on Amazon until October 30. She says, at The Huffington Post: … Back in 1999 and 2000 a few of us… a very few of us… Douglas Clegg, Seth Godin and I… offered free electronic copies of our books in an effort to reach an audience we otherwise wouldn’t have reached and to test out a new marketing concept for books. Despite the industry screaming we were crazy, it worked. We each wound up selling many more copies of the books that we gave away than anyone expected and for each of us the experiment was a success. Back then many thought it an audacious move and even though we proved free books led to increased books sales it’s been hard for me to convince any of my publishers to try it again. Until now. I guess it’s an idea whose time has come, or I’ve gotten more persuasive, or the VP I asked at my publishing house recently got a nice sample of a new moisturizer at the department store and understood the idea … but whatever the reason, I’m thrilled.

 
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