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It was thus said that the Great Wayne M. Smith once stated: More about giving away free copies: http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,57152,00.html "I don't believe that I am giving up book royalties," Doctorow said about persuading his publisher, Tor Books, to let him make Down and Out available digitally for free under the new Creative Commons licensing system. "(Downloads) crossed the 10,000-download threshold at 8 a.m. this morning," Doctorow said Thursday, "which exceeds the initial print run for the book." Doctorow said he thinks the marketing buzz from those downloads will be worth more than any lost book sales. "I think that the Internet's marvelous ability to spread information to places where it finds a receptive home is the best thing that could happen to a new writer like me." _Down and Out_ may be watched closely as a test of whether the Creative Commons license actually helps or hurts writers, but Tor senior editor Patrick Nielsen Hayden said the value of free online publishing has already been demonstrated. "Cory's experiment seems as worth trying as any number of things I've seen done," Hayden said. "What we're learning about online free distribution of fiction e-texts is that it doesn't hurt the sale of print editions and may even help it. I know plenty of people who've sampled fiction in e-text form, found they liked the taste, and bought a printed book as a result." Science fiction and fantasy publisher Jim Baen, whose Baen Books has offered a free library of selected works since 1998, says free downloads have boosted book sales. http://scalzi.com/w030103.htm So, there's been a slight change of plans. As you may remember (surely 2002 isn't too hazy yet), I serialized my most recent science fiction novel, Old Man's War, here in December, and this month I was going to put it up as shareware, a la Agent to the Stars. Well, I won't be doing that. The reason for this is that, well, I kind of sold it. Instead of being available as shareware, Old Man's War will be available either later this year or early next year in a hardcover edition from Tor Books, publishers of (among others) Orson Scott Card, Robert Jordan, Steven Brust and Teddy Roosevelt. Yes, really, Teddy Roosevelt. It's a reissue, I think, not one of those L. Ron Hubbard-eqsue "dictating from beyond the grave" situations. -spc (It certainly makes one think ... )