Speaker - October 2009

A Free Sample

When it came time to execute a
“free” strategy for the launch of Free,
Anderson says, “We were completely
guessing.” The book was available for
free in a variety of formats (Kindle,
Scribd, Google Books, i Tunes podcast,
an e-Book, and even abridged paper-
back versions) for varying durations
and customer groups. An unabridged
version of the audiobook is free
from Audible.com forever, while an
abridged version was reserved as a
freebie for hardcover purchasers in
the United States.
“Every market was different,” he says,
admitting that the marketing team
went into the project without a pre-
conceived notion of what the right
methodology was, whether the Scribd
was available too long or the Kindle
wasn’t long enough, or whether the
abridged audiobook should have
been the free one. “We were experi-
menting, measuring and hoping to
have a more sophisticated under-
standing next time. There’s no formula
or perfect mix.”

A Speaker Speaks
about Free:
“Abundant information wants to
be free. Scare information wants to
be expensive … Information that
can be replicated and distributed at
low marginal cost wants to be free;
information with high marginal
costs wants to be expensive. So, you
can read a copy of this book online
(abundant, commodity information)
for free, but if you want me to fly to
your city and prepare a custom talk on
Free as it applies to your business, I’ll
be happy to, but you’re going to have
to pay me for my (scarce) time. I’ve got
a lot of kids and college isn’t getting
any cheaper.”--Chris Anderson
(excerpt from Free)

Anderson describes having written The Long Tail, his best-seller about the power of niche marketing, “in public.” He gave everything away on his blog and in articles, even while selling hard- and soft-cover versions of the book. “I’ve always been a big advocate of open sourcing ideas,” he says. “Everything I publish under my own ame is under Creative Commons, so I don’t even protect my copyrights.” The process worked so well for The Long Tail that it helped inform how he approached Free, giving the book away in a variety of media [see sidebar]. “That’s really pushing it out there, because now you’re not just talking about me as the author, you’re talking about the publisher’s economic;interest;as;well.”;So;far,;so;good:;It’s;been;firmly;entrenched in the upper echelon of best-sellers list since its launch in July.

“I’ve always been a big advocate of open sourcing ideas,” Anderson says.

Popularity aside, Anderson is not without his critics. In a book review in The New Yorker, fellow author Malcolm Gladwell ( The

Tipping Point, Outliers) took him to task for his comments about the future of journalism and the role of paid journalists. In various web forums, dissenters scoffed at the irony of the book’s $26.99 cover price, the environmental costs of free, and the idea that you can give away everything and still make money, which is a far cry from Anderson’s true concept.

“You know, nothing in Web comments surprises me anymore,” he says. “People don’t read past the headline, then imagine what a book titled Free might say and disagree with that. One of the reasons for giving away the book is so that people could read it and discuss what I actually said, rather than what they imagine I might have said.”