Another Free Downloadable Book

Remember this?

Well now fantasy/comic book writer Neil Gaiman has this to share from his blog:

It's worth drawing people's attention to the fact that the free online reading copy of American Gods is now in its last six days online (it ends 31 March 08). I learned this from an email from Harper Collins, which also told me the latest batch of statistics.

For American Gods:

68,000 unique visitors to the book pages of American Gods

3,000,000 book pages viewed in aggregate

And that the weekly book sales of American Gods have apparently gone up by 300%, rather than tumbling into the abyss. (Which is -- the rise, not the tumble -- what I thought would happen. Or at least, what I devoutly hoped would happen.)

The book is up at This URL, if you're interested, or want to pass it along to a friend.

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Absorb the numbers. Sales skyrocket once they start giving it away on the internet. Though to be fair, we have no idea what the 300% growth is measured against. (Were sales nonexistent or healthy..? No way to know.)

Gaiman is an exception to many rules, w/a hardcore following who will buy whatever he writes. (Though frankly, American Gods isn't an especially shining example of excellence, but is a long meandering slog.)

Still, expect more authors to imitate this trend.