By Carlos Menezes on 2008/07/23
When HarperCollins announced in February that it would be placing Neil Gaiman's novel American Gods online for free as part of a one-month market experiment, even perennial Digital Rights Management (DRM) opponent Cory Doctorow expressed doubts at the publisher's bold move.
While agreeing that the idea of giving away a book online and using the Internet as a research tool rather than condemning it as a mechanism of piracy was a fantastic idea, Doctorow expressed serious reservations at the execution of the tactic.
He had two major concerns: Firstly, the Browse Inside tool that was used for reading the book loaded one page at a time, seemingly forcing a reader to take an eternity to move through the story. Coupled with the fact that there was no ability to print the text, the whole process of reading the book became not only difficult, but also incredibly frustrating. Something that was ultimately designed to introduce more people to the pleasure of reading was doing the exact opposite.
Secondly, HarperCollins seemed to have missed the mark completely in that American Gods had already been easily available online for years, with a downloadable version coming up on the first Google SERP. As if that was not bad enough, these other versions were a lot user-friendlier than the one released by the publisher. Doctorow reports, "I managed to download the entire text of the book in less time than it took me to get the Harper Collins edition to load the first page of Chapter One (literally!)."
It seemed that this fantastic idea was doomed to fail through no fault of the content or of the overall marketing tactic.
Why American Gods?
Neil Gaiman is an English author, who is perhaps best known for his fantasy novels American Gods and Stardust (which has since been translated into a successful film) and his comic series, The Sandman.
Together with his left-of-centre premises and style, these insular genres make it difficult for his work to be accessed by consumers who would probably enjoy his writing were they exposed to it. Gaiman (as with most authors in his genre) faced a fundamental marketing dilemma - he had a great product, but price, promotion and place were inherently poised against him.
By placing his book online for free, HarperCollins were effectively getting these factors to work in favour of Gaiman's content. The novelty of the move and the publicity that it would generate would hopefully not only expose Gaiman's content to new readers, but would also drive sales in traditional bookstores.
As part of the publicity for the move, Gaiman ran a poll on his blog for a week on which visitors could vote from a choice of 8 novels or short-story anthologies. Gaiman urged readers to think "not about which of the books below is your favourite, but if you were giving one away to a friend who had never read anything of mine, what would it be? Where would you want them to start?"
The winner would then be announced, together with a link to where the winning book would be available.
Fittingly perhaps, American Gods won the poll. The novel tells the story of Odin, Anubis and the other gods of ancient mythologies trying to survive in a weakened state (their believers have dwindled alarmingly in number), focusing predominantly on the old regimes' preparations for a battle against the manifestations of the gods of modern life (television, cars, the Internet and media).
It was the process of writing and promoting the book that inspired and provided the initial content for his blog, and it was the 7th anniversary of the blog itself that was to be commemorated with a free online book.
The choice of the voters is to be commended - while not being Gaiman's most praised or decorated work, it is the most straightforward and most accessible. Of all the possible books, no other promised so much more to the reader for such little investment in effort.
And Why For Free?
Gaiman and HarperCollins came in for some surprisingly rough criticism accusing the ploy of being detrimental to other authors and bookstores, but were quick to point out that Douglas Adam's publisher gave away 3,000 copies of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy in an ad in Rolling Stone.
As Gaiman said, "Word of mouth is still the best tool for selling books. This is how people found new authors for more than a century. Someone says, 'I've read this. It's good. I think you'd like it. Here, you can borrow it.' Someone takes the book away, reads it, and goes, Ah, I have a new author."
Testament to this was Gaiman's own experience with his Sandman comic series. In 1989 DC Comics overprinted the series' eighth issue and increased each retailer's order by 25%, free of charge. Retailers were free to do whatever they wished with this surplus. Some gave them away for free.
One of these stores, Comix Experience, labelled 400 copies of the free comics with the store's name and distributed them at various public locations. Comix got 100 users back, who then purchased all 75 issues of The Sandman (and undoubtedly introduced their friends to the series). Of these 100 readers, many bought revised editions and, at a later stage, collectors editions. But they didn't stop at Sandman - soon they were also buying Gaiman's other works and, ultimately, other authors. The giveaway acted as portal through which people discovered comic books in general, and a previously untapped segment of the market was engaged.
Overall, the stores who gave away free comics reported that it was a lot easier to sell The Sandman to consumers.
Gaiman puts it quite succinctly: "If readers find (for free -- in a library, or on-line, or by borrowing from a friend, or on a window-sill) an author they really like, and that author has a nice spanking new hardback coming out, they are quite likely to come in to your shop and buy the nice spanking new hardback."
Did it Work?
HarperCollins analysed bookshop sales for the month during which American Gods was given away for free and for the period directly thereafter (only independent bookstores were studied, as chain-stores had many variables that could muddy the results). If sales for American Gods were to show an increase, the tactic would be justified. If not, then it would be scrapped.
Overall, the online promotion generated 85,000 visitors who on average viewed 46 pages of the book, with the typical reader spending 15 minutes with the book. A poll undertaken showed that:
- 56% of readers did not enjoy the experience.
- 9% read through the whole book.
- 69% said that they would like to download the book.
During the promotion weekly sales increased by 40% - not only for American Gods, but for all of Gaiman's books. If not for the poor reading browser, this figure would undoubtedly have been much higher.
The following is an example of reader feedback: "No question - just wanted to let you know, after getting your 'American Gods' online for free and reading about 200 pages, I had to go out and buy the book. Great read!"
Gaiman has already stated his intent to undertake a similar project in the future.
