Books: Try Before You Buy
By John DeNardo |
Thursday, May 3rd, 2007 at
12:10 am
With so many authors offering their books for free online (not to mention the Baen Free Library), it’s easy to forget that age-old concept of the excerpt. Publishers continue their efforts to get books noticed by offering teaser chapters of books. Here are just some of the current and future science fiction titles that you can try online for free.
- Divergence by Tony Ballantyne
- Ragamuffin by Tobias Buckell
- Bright of the Sky (Book One of the Entire and the Rose) by Kay Kenyon
- Antagonist by Gordon R. Dickson & David W. Wixon
- Death’s Head by David Gunn
- Brasyl by Ian McDonald
- The Outback Stars by Sandra McDonald
- Gradisil by Adam Roberts
- Farseed by Pamela Sargent
- Rollback by Robert J. Sawyer
- The Last Colony by John Scalzi
- Breakaway (A Cassandra Kresnov Novel) by Joel Shepherd
- The Hanging Mountains (Books of the Cataclysm: Three) by Sean Williams
- Titans of Chaos by John C. Wright
Related posts:
- Kirkus Best Books of 2005
- The Top 26 SF Books You’ve Never Read
- Do You Buy Science Fiction Books Overseas?
- Are E-Books Ready for Primetime?
- Pyr Is On Fire
Filed under: Books
Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!
The problem with excerpts is the same as Movie Trailers. They pick the excerpt as a way of selling the book. That means you’re likely to see only the best part of the book. Granted, excerpts can’t be edited like previews or back cover descriptions, but I still don’t trust them. I’d much rather see the whole book online and buy it if I like it, or have as much time as I want in a book store to read through and again, buy if I like.
GJ
http://www.60in3.com
Gal: most authors use the first chapter, so that isn’t too much of a cherry pick.
In my case I post the first 1/3 of the book, with the idea that, if you don’t like the book by the end of the first 1/3, you probably don’t like it enough to buy it anyway
Good idea, Tobias. Especially since it follows my 33% Rule!
You were my inspiration…
Oh goodness, please Mr. Buckell do not encourage him. We already had to widen some doors and I am not sure the building will have enough structural integrity if his head gets any larger. :-@
Shhh…Quiet, Tim. I’m trying to inspire…