(2008-02-01) Coelho Print Book Sales Inc From Free

Paulo Coelho has found that putting his own books online as free EBook files has increased his print sales.

Update: now HarperCollins is putting up some of his stuff for free. Brian Murray, president of HarperCollins, said that the free electronic editions would be available only for one month, and readers would not be able to download them to laptops or to an electronic reader like Kindle from Amazon.com. The print function will also be disabled, but readers will be able to link to retailers like Amazon.com to buy copies of the books.

Apr29 update: Scott Sigler has used free PodCast versions of his book to promote himself.

• may19: more on Sigler and his success. Infected sold 3,500 copies in the first week, more than three of the books on the hardcover fiction Ny Times Bestseller list. It has sold 1,000 copies a week since.