yea, Cory Doctorow is mentioned on our site more than once... most prominently at
www.anothersky.org/main/neo...eriments/

his method is slightly different because (as you mention) he works with a traditional publisher. This prevents him from accepting any sort of contribution for his online work since it might affect sales (which I only know from reading his site during my own research).

we're taking it another step past that - the books we put out will be available at cost... so even the dead-tree versions are contribution based.

but yea, Cory seems like a great guy. Anyone that is/was a part of the EFF is alright in my book.

How is that working for you Geri??

similar? sort of?

he tried to charge $1 per chapter. he later raised it to $2. he wrote it as it went along, and demanded that at least 75% of his readers pay him a dollar or he wouldn't put out the next chapter.

needless to say, it was a disaster. he never finished the book, and lots of people paid for a few chapters and never got to see an ending.

there's an article that references this fiasco at:
www.anothersky.org/main/our...atronage/

Click isn't done that way - the entire thing is up online, for free. Contributions are cool (otherwise... how does the author make money?) but aren't required. It's a serious attempt to be as supercool to artist/audience as possible... in this world where you can download anything for free (illegally or not) it's nice to have an option to actually support the artist without buying a $15 book or cd. So... this is an attempt to make it happen, where people can either read it for free online or buy a book for as low as $6 (postage paid). Theoretically, the audience benefits because they can legally read it for free or get a print version for an amount that they feel comfortable giving based on their own interests and income. The author benefits because people that might not be interested in buying a $15 book might read it online for free and then contribute a few bucks.

If it works, our hope is more people will follow in our footsteps and make this sort of thing prevalent. I know there are a few cds and books out there that i've had the pleasure of experiencing for free (passed along from friends, etc) and I've totally wanted to throw a few bucks their way... but not $10-20, especially knowing they're likely not getting the best royalty in the world (5% royalty doesn't pay the bills unless you're selling tons and tons... Another Sky Press reverses that equation and authors/artists get the lion's share).

People seem to be really digging the book so far, but it's far to early to know what kind of overall results we're going to see.