But his whole world changes when he and his friends find themselves caught in the aftermath of a major terrorist attack on San Francisco. In the wrong place at the wrong time, Marcus and his crew are apprehended by the Department of Homeland Security and whisked away to a secret prison where they’re mercilessly interrogated for days.
When the DHS finally releases them, Marcus discovers that his city has become a police state where every citizen is treated like a potential terrorist. He knows that no one will believe his story, which leaves him only one option: to take down the DHS himself.
Why do you give away your books?
Giving away ebooks gives me artistic, moral and commercial satisfaction. The commercial question is the one that comes up most often: how can you give away free ebooks and still make money?
For me -- for pretty much every writer -- the big problem isn't piracy, it's obscurity (thanks to Tim O'Reilly for this great aphorism). Of all the people who failed to buy this book today, the majority did so because they never heard of it, not because someone gave them a free copy. Mega-hit best-sellers in science fiction sell half a million copies -- in a world where 175,000 attend the San Diego Comic Con alone, you've got to figure that most of the people who "like science fiction" (and related geeky stuff like comics, games, Linux, and so on) just don't really buy books. I'm more interested in getting more of that wider audience into the tent than making sure that everyone who's in the tent bought a ticket to be there.
Ebooks are verbs, not nouns. You copy them, it's in their nature. And many of those copies have a destination, a person they're intended for, a hand-wrought transfer from one person to another, embodying a personal recommendation between two people who trust each other enough to share bits. That's the kind of thing that authors (should) dream of, the proverbial sealing of the deal. By making my books available for free pass-along, I make it easy for people who love them to help other people love them.
What's more, I don't see ebooks as substitute for paper books for most people. It's not that the screens aren't good enough, either: if you're anything like me, you already spend every hour you can get in front of the screen, reading text. But the more computer-literate you are, the less likely you are to be reading long-form works on those screens -- that's because computer-literate people do more things with their computers. We run IM and email and we use the browser in a million diverse ways. We have games running in the background, and endless opportunities to tinker with our music libraries. The more you do with your computer, the more likely it is that you'll be interrupted after five to seven minutes to do something else. That makes the computer extremely poorly suited to reading long-form works off of, unless you have the iron self-discipline of a monk.
The good news (for writers) is that this means that ebooks on computers are more likely to be an enticement to buy the printed book (which is, after all, cheap, easily had, and easy to use) than a substitute for it. You can probably read just enough of the book off the screen to realize you want to be reading it on paper.
So ebooks sell print books. Every writer I've heard of who's tried giving away ebooks to promote paper books has come back to do it again. That's the commercial case for doing free ebooks.
Now, onto the artistic case. It's the twenty-first century. Copying stuff is never, ever going to get any harder than it is today (or if it does, it'll be because civilization has collapsed, at which point we'll have other problems). Hard drives aren't going to get bulkier, more expensive, or less capacious. Networks won't get slower or harder to access. If you're not making art with the intention of having it copied, you're not really making art for the twenty-first century. There's something charming about making work you don't want to be copied, in the same way that it's nice to go to a Pioneer Village and see the olde-timey blacksmith shoeing a horse at his traditional forge. But it's hardly, you know, contemporary. I'm a science fiction writer. It's my job to write about the future (on a good day) or at least the present. Art that's not supposed to be copied is from the past.
Finally, let's look at the moral case. Copying stuff is natural. It's how we learn (copying our parents and the people around us). My first story, written when I was six, was an excited re-telling of Star Wars, which I'd just seen in the theater. Now that the Internet -- the world's most efficient copying machine -- is pretty much everywhere, our copying instinct is just going to play out more and more. There's no way I can stop my readers, and if I tried, I'd be a hypocrite: when I was 17, I was making mix-tapes, photocopying stories, and generally copying in every way I could imagine. If the Internet had been around then, I'd have been using it to copy as much as I possibly could.
There's no way to stop it, and the people who try end up doing more harm than piracy ever did. The record industry's ridiculous holy war against file-sharers (more than 20,000 music fans sued and counting!) exemplifies the absurdity of trying to get the food-coloring out of the swimming pool. If the choice is between allowing copying or being a frothing bully lashing out at anything he can reach, I choose the former.
June 13th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
Fantastic book raising important issues, and I love your reasons for giving it away.
Question, though: As ebook readers such as the Kindle continue to improve, do you think this will impact your ability to earn money for your work, or do you think (like some music) users will gladly provide money to keep you going and reward your efforts?
June 18th, 2008 at 9:54 am
[...] And here’s why. [...]
June 22nd, 2008 at 2:42 am
[...] thought I’d give a shout-out to Cory Doctorow and his very successful new novel, “Little Brother”, for which I had the privilege of writing an afterward. The book has spent four weeks on the New [...]
June 24th, 2008 at 5:07 pm
[...] Cory Doctorow’s talk at GoogleNYC, talking about his book, Little Brother: “[…] who discover, after a terrorist attack on the Bay Area, that destroys the Bay [...]
June 27th, 2008 at 6:29 pm
[...] When the DHS finally releases them, Marcus discovers that his city has become a police state where every citizen is treated like a potential terrorist. He knows that no one will believe his story, which leaves him only one option: to take down the DHS himself.” - Cory Doctorow [...]
June 30th, 2008 at 9:05 pm
hey man thanks for helping widen creative commons. and the book i like it and i just started reading it. im 15 and i see all this coming. as soon as i make some money il donate . keep up the good work
July 7th, 2008 at 1:06 pm
Cory, I could not agree with you more. I love the way you phrase things and express your ideas. I'm a musician and my favorite thing - next to performing - is collaboration. Thank you so much for your artistic contributions ~Nick
July 9th, 2008 at 8:18 pm
[...] los libros de Cory Doctorow. Hace unos meses lanzó su más reciente trabajo que lleva por título Little Brother y después de escuchar un poco sobre los temas que trataba, había que [...]
July 13th, 2008 at 2:03 am
[...] the same topic, Cory Doctorow is a big fan of making his books freely available as ebooks and has a good explanation, part of which is because it drives hard copy sales. I particularly like his comment that obscurity [...]
July 19th, 2008 at 1:18 pm
Reading the free download and loving it. Everyone I know between 13 and 25 is getting the hardcover for their next birthday.
July 26th, 2008 at 10:27 pm
[...] Ein Roman, das alleine im ersten Kapitel die Funktionsweise des Sony-Rootkits und TOR erklärt, das Firefox nicht nur als „umsonst“ sondern auch aus „dem Nutzer gehorchend“ erkennt und nebenbei die Schwächen der Gangerkennung analysiert… [...]
August 17th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
[...] Little Brother from my library the other day and spent the next two days reading the book. The book’s web site gives this intro to the [...]
August 19th, 2008 at 10:04 am
[...] excerpt from Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother: If you ever decide to do something as stupid as build an automatic terrorism detector, [...]
August 27th, 2008 at 7:26 am
[...] Little Brother. Cory Doctorow has written a book that is both thrilling and (gasp) educational. The story revolves [...]
August 27th, 2008 at 7:32 am
[...] Little Brother. Cory Doctorow has written a book that is both thrilling and (gasp) educational. The story revolves [...]
August 28th, 2008 at 6:11 am
[...] under a Creative Commons license (Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom), and he very kindly published Little Brother under the same [...]
September 9th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
[...] Authors have to eat, too. And if you’re going to buy this one, you might as well buy Little Brother, too, though Cory will let you download that one for free, also. Good [...]
September 12th, 2008 at 12:07 pm
[...] September 12, 2008 Filed under: Uncategorized | I’ve downloaded and have decided to read Little Brother by Cory Doctorow. I’ve heard about this book a couple of times, mostly online, and mostly [...]
September 27th, 2008 at 10:26 am
[...] gives away all of his works with a Creative Commons license. Why? Well, he’ll tell you here. But in a nutshell he says: For me — for pretty much every writer — the big problem isn’t [...]
October 5th, 2008 at 8:19 am
Pretty interesting marketing ploy for a youngster. It's a thin line to walk, when deciding whether to give it away or sell it. Like him, I think offering a free coloring book for kids is a better route to follow. Check it out if they wish!
Free Kid's Coloring Book
October 14th, 2008 at 4:50 pm
[...] just finished reading Little Brother by Cory Doctorow. Now I know what I’m going to give one of my nephews for Christmas this year, [...]
October 20th, 2008 at 9:48 am
I'm interested in buying the audio book but how can I trust the Shop Ads widget you use? How do I know it will use SSL? Typically with retail sites I can at least tell they use a secure connection by the https in the url. Am I missing something or am I supposed to give my payment details on pure faith alone?
Thanks.
October 28th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
[...] simply didn’t know it existed–not because someone gave them a free copy of it. Like Cory Doctorow says, we think it’s more important to get more people into our tent than to make sure [...]
December 1st, 2008 at 8:43 am
Just a quick word, which you may or may not read, to mention that people your own age ALSO really enjoyed Little Brother. It was skillful and thought-provoking. I read it on an older Palm as I moved around between cities and thank you very much for making it easily and freely available. When it is in French, I will buy a copy or two happily for some youngsters in the family. But if it were not this time, it would likely be next time - your good will capital is enormous right now and invested in all your readers. Keep up your physical strength, congratulations on your life milestones, and thank you again.
December 26th, 2008 at 12:04 am
hello it is test. WinRAR provides the full RAR and ZIP file support, can decompress CAB, GZIP, ACE and other archive formats.
December 30th, 2008 at 8:37 am
[...] unter meinen Fingernägeln für Monate auf Harddisks speichern. craphound - Little Brother (Free Download etc.) [↩]wikipedia - USA PATRIOT Act [↩]wikipedia - Online-Durchsuchung [↩]spiegel [...]
January 2nd, 2009 at 1:17 pm
[...] M1k3y from Little Brother [...]
January 6th, 2009 at 9:18 am
plz cn i get Tori Carrington books??
January 8th, 2009 at 9:41 am
I just wanted to let you know how much I loved your book. Right now I cannot keep enough copies on my shelves for my high school students to read. Having the book available online is an amazing resource for my kids to access the book.
Thanks!
January 14th, 2009 at 1:46 pm
[...] smarty Brother [txt] Cory Doctorow - What’s “Little Brother” book about? Giving away ebooks gives me artistic, moral and commercial satisfaction. The commercial question is [...]
January 17th, 2009 at 1:58 pm
[...] Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother [...]
February 19th, 2009 at 8:24 pm
[...] like to know more about Cory’s book, “Little Brother.” According to the book’s website “about” page: Marcus, a.k.a “w1n5t0n,” is only seventeen years old, but he figures he already knows how the [...]
February 24th, 2009 at 11:26 am
[...] gives away his books for free (and still sells copies, too). His website makes a good case abotu why he gives away works for free, and how you can donate money to him. What do you think about his approach? Does this make you [...]
March 22nd, 2009 at 2:45 pm
[...] Eventually they’ll learn that people can circumvent any DRM they choose anyway and people want the convenience of being able to open the file and read it anywhere. The industry may also see they are locking themselves into a single source: Amazon. This is dangerous and removes their negotiation power, in a similar way to how the supermarkets were able to dictate the price of books, Amazon will be able to dictate the market as the biggest marketplace, dwarfing supermarkets. Then DMR-free will get backing. I can see both sides of the argument. Yes, authors want to get paid for their work and reading a copy you didn’t pay for is the same as stealing money from the author’s pocket. On the other hand, Cory Doctorow, who has offered his books for free download for a long time, argues the biggest threat to authors is not piracy, it’s obscurity. [...]
April 5th, 2009 at 12:24 am
[...] прочетох “Little brother” на Cory Doctorow - книга, която е изключително актуална в светлината на [...]
April 13th, 2009 at 3:29 am
[...] Cory Doctorow, [...]
April 14th, 2009 at 4:03 am
[...] You can of course get hold of Little brother from your local library or your favourite book store, but you can also download it as a free ebook in any of a wide range of formats. You can also read more about why Doctorow is making it available this way. [...]
May 11th, 2009 at 12:31 pm
[...] fiction writer Corey Doctrow gives away his books. For free. He argues that the biggest threat to authors is not piracy–but [...]
May 13th, 2009 at 5:46 pm
this was an amazing book.. i recommend it to everyone and I'm wondering if there will be similar books like a sequel? of sorts?
May 14th, 2009 at 2:51 am
I'm working on a new YA book right now for a 2010 publication, called FOR THE WIN, about economics and video games and labor.
May 14th, 2009 at 8:24 am
Hi, I'm Calandrella and I live in Sweden. Right now I', reading your book (it's really good!). Also, some members of the Swedish Pirate Party have descided to translate the book, at http://littlebrother.dreadfulmanatee.org/Huvudsida (English information at http://littlebrother.dreadfulmanatee.org/Introduction_in_English).
June 17th, 2009 at 1:57 am
[...] ‘Giving away ebooks gives me artistic, moral and commercial satisfaction. The commercial question is the one that comes up most often: how can you give away free ebooks and still make money? Read the full post here [...]