Document Type
Article
Publication Date
Summer 2011
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 that this increase may have been connected to the free books being available. There was a modest correlation between book downloads and print sales.
Recommended Citation
Hilton III, J., & Wiley, D. (2011). Free e-books and print sales. Volume 14, Issue 1: Standards, Summer 2011. https://doi.org/10.3998/3336451.0014.109
Comments
The copy of record is available from the publisher at https://doi.org/10.3998/3336451.0014.109
Copyright (c) 2011 The Authors. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.