FolioSF has just published the French edition of my first novel, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, translated by Gilles Goullet under the title “Dans la dèche au Royaume Enchanté.” It’s available in fine stores throughout the French-speaking world, and, of course, on Amazon.fr.

Link

Sunday night, I fly to Chicago to kick off my three-week US book-tour for Little Brother, my new young adult novel. I’ll be stopping in and around Chicago, Milwaukee, Seattle, San Francisco and (probably) New York. The schedule’s still being firmed up, but Tor (my publisher) is keeping an up-to-the-minute schedule for each appearance. This is my first publisher-financed tour, and I’m incredibly excited! I hope to meet lots of you on the road!

Link

My latest column in Locus Magazine, “Think Like a Dandelion,” came out of a talk I had with Neil Gaiman about the bio-economics of giving stuff away for free. Mammals worry about what happens to each and every one of their offspring, but dandelions only care that every crack in every sidewalk has dandelions growing out of it. The former is a good strategy for situations in which reproduction is expensive, but the latter works best when reproduction is practically free — as on the Internet.

1. Your work needs to be easily copied, to anywhere whence it might find its way into the right hands. That means that the nimble text-file, HTML file, and PDF (the preferred triumvirate of formats) should be distributed without formality — no logins, no e-mail address collections, and with a license that allows your fans to reproduce the work on their own in order to share it with more potential fans. Remember, copying is a cost-center — insisting that all copies must be downloaded from your site and only your site is insisting that you — and only you — will bear the cost of making those copies. Sure, having a single, central repository for your works makes it easier to count copies and figure out where they’re going, but remember: dandelions don’t keep track of their seeds. Once you get past the vanity of knowing exactly how many copies have been made, and find the zen of knowing that the copying will take care of itself, you’ll attain dandelionesque contentment.

2. Once your work gets into the right hands, there needs to be an easy way to consummate the relationship. A friend who runs a small press recently wrote to me to ask if I thought he should release his next book as a Creative Commons free download in advance of the publication, in order to drum up some publicity before the book went on sale.

I explained that I thought this would be a really bad idea. Internet users have short attention spans. The moment of consummation — the moment when a reader discovers your book online, starts to read it, and thinks, huh, I should buy a copy of this book — is very brief. That’s because “I should buy a copy of this book” is inevitably followed by, “Woah, a youtube of a man putting a lemon in his nose!” and the moment, as they say, is gone.

Link

Every time I put a book online for free, readers ask me how they can “tip” me for the download. The problem is, I’m not actually interested in tips, since these cut my publisher out of the loop, putting us on opposite sides of the free download equation. My publisher is extremely valuable to me, providing editorial and marketing and distribution services that I couldn’t possibly provide on my own without spending a lot more of the cover-price of the book than currently goes to my publisher.

For Little Brother, I’ve come up with a solution that balances out my publishers’ interests, my interests, the generosity of my readers, and the needs of educators and libraries.

Here’s how it works: if you’re a librarian, teacher (or similar — someone who works in a halfway house, social center, or comparable institution), you can send in a request for a free copy of Little Brother. I’ll post these, along with your institution’s address, on a public web-page (I’m also vetting these to make sure that they really come from educators and affiliated trades, and not just cheap people who want someone else to buy them a copy of the book).

If you’re someone who loved the ebook and wants to “tip” me, you can pay me back by checking out the list of teachers and suchlike in search of donated copies, and buy a copy directly for someone on the list, using Amazon, BN.com, Powell’s, or your favorite mail-order house. Send in the email receipt (delete anything private first), and the teacher’s entry will be marked as fulfilled.

I’m actually paying someone to manage this whole process, out of my own pocket. Olga Nunes, a friend and awesome web-developer, has agreed to take on the task of updating the page, vetting the entries, and answering your questions. You can reach her at freelittlebrother@gmail.com with your solicitations and/or donations.

So there it is: educators, librarians, social workers and other people who work with kids, send in your solicitations now! Generous ebook readers are waiting to send you free copies of my latest book!

Link