Free books? Hell, yeah!
First, HarperCollins, in addition to posting the first three chapters of Julia Quinn’s next book The Lost Duke of Wyndham, is offering a free read of The Duke and I online as well. There’s a whole “Browse Inside” page for your clicking pleasure, should you wish to start reading.
But, wait, there’s more! We’ll sell you the whole seat, but you’ll only need the edge… no, wait. Not Monster Trucks. Books. Even better than monster truck rallies! Tor, who fully embraces the entire monster truck rally economics of twelve trucks for twelve bucks (That’s a buck a truck!) offers Free Books in PDF form, HTML, or Mobi to take you to the edge of your seat and stuff. Ok, I fully recognize the monster truck allusions have fallen under the weight of their own wheels. But, Tor still spanks that onscreen reader like damn and whoa and gives books with big mega truck wheels, yo.
If you sign up for the Tor newsletter alerts, you get the paranormal romance Touch of Evil by C.T. Adams and Cathy Clamp. In the coming weeks tor.com will also be giving away In The Midnight Hour by Patti O’Shea. You’ve got a three day weekend if you’re in the US, so hey, books on the go? Boo Yah. Well played, y’all.
Tor.com has been doing this for quite a while. If you signed up in the first few weeks, you were eligible for a drawing for an Asus EEE (a very small, very cute computer). I’ve already got probably ten books from them, of various subgenres of spec-fic and of various qualities.
The Baen Free Library is also pretty awesome, if you like Baen books.
I signed up fairly early on. The only book I read so far was Scalzi’s Old Man’s War, which I really liked in a ‘this is disturbing’ kind of way.
I noticed that the Adams title is actually a Tor Romance (interesting since this promo was advertised as SF/F.
I wonder if I’m eligible for the drawing. I need a new laptop. 🙂
If you got Old Man’s War, I’m sure you are/were. What I don’t know is whether they’ve drawn for it yet, or announced the winner.
smashwords.com also offers free reads and generous (50% or more of the book).
Author/publisher receives 85% of cover price on each book sold.
Is this the paradigm shift?
As I was signing up for Tor, I discover my age category is 30+. What is this, the Sixties? “Never trust anyone over 30!”
Hey, that’s the Julia Quinn book that made me do a double-take and a snort-giggle at Borders yesterday! The cover model for the heroine, Grace, is As the World Turns actress Ewa Da Cruz.
I was thisclose to buying it just because of that.
I admit, I don’t read romance novels – in fact, it was always the way my mother could figure out if I was really sick in a need to see the doctor way; I would grab her box of romance novels instead of Dad’s science fiction. (I’m here for the smart bitches and social commentary.) So now I find myself wondering if I should make an appt to see my doctor, because I just curled up with the cats and read the Quinn book up for free – and not only did I blaze thru it in record time (even for me), but I thoroughly enjoyed it! More than anything, it read like a very smart updating of Jane Austen (and I did so appreciate the throwaway nod to Pride and Prejudice, which this book seemed so similar to), and now I’m off to read the three free chapters.
Must admit, as Neil Gaiman noted when his publishers were giving away American Gods, free books online (even if kind of hard to read) are good advertising – if I like the next Quinn as much as the first, it’s entirely likely I’ll go out and buy a couple to really devour in a chair and puddle of sunlight.
Kelly: The Duke and I is hands down one of my very favorite romances, and the best of the Quinn set imo. I love that book, like damn and whoa, and reread it often.
If you had to be introduced to the current authors publishing in the romance genre, that’s a great one to start with.
Crap, now I wanna go read it again.
Haha SB Sarah – well, what else could you possibly have that needs your attention? *looks guiltily at her still dirty house, dishes needing doing, litterboxes needing cleaning…*
Hum.
😉
We’re really pleased that Tor is starting to dip their toes in the ebook market. A lot of our fans have asked for ebooks and Kindles, so we’re hoping people will like this offering!
Kelly, you’ll be happy to know that in addition to the romantic elements, there are plenty of good, hard SF/Fantasy elements in Touch of Evil. In fact, there are even horror elements, enough that it nearly made the short list of finalists for the Bram Stoker horror award (just two votes short!) LOL! 🙂
Huh, well, that catches my attention, lol. I’ll admit I’m generally a little skeptical of e-offerings because I usually find them slim pickings compared to print novels, but maybe things are looking up.