Free E-Books and Print Sales

Keywords

Open Educationsl Resources, E-Books, Open Access, Open Culture, E-Commerce

Abstract

Digital technologies now enable books and other digital resources to be openly available to those with access to the Internet. This study examined the financial viability of a religious publisher that put free digital versions of eight of its print books on the Internet. The cost to put these eight books online was $940. Over a 10-week period, these books were downloaded 102,256 times and sales of these books increased 26%. Online sales increased at a much higher rate. Comparisons with historical book sales and sales of comparable titles indicate that this increase may have been connected to the free books being available. There was a modest correlation between book downloads and print sales.

Original Publication Citation

Journal of Electronic Publishing Volume 14, Issue 1, (211). DOI: http://dx.doi.org/1.3998/3336451.14.19

Document Type

Peer-Reviewed Article

Publication Date

2011-08-01

Permanent URL

http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/2740

Publisher

Mpublishing, University of Michigan Library

Language

English

College

David O. McKay School of Education

Department

Instructional Psychology and Technology

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