Digital Quakebook goes free; buy print copy in bookstores!
28 May
Here’s the big news. We’re going free. That is, 2:46 – Aftershocks: Stories from the Japan Earthquake will be downloadable from Amazon (US, UK, DE) and (as it has been all along) at Sony for free.
Yep. To raise more funds, Quakebook is going free. WHAT? FREE? How can you raise more money by going free? Let me explain…
- Since its release two months ago, the Amazon digital book has sold over 3,000 copies.
- The digital book was downloaded for free just over 3,000 times. In 12 hours.
Wow. We doubled our audience in 12 hours, which had taken two months when priced at $9.99.
Here’s the plan:
- Thousands more will download the book for free.
- Some of them will donate cash to the Japan Red Cross.
- Many of them won’t (but would they have done anyway?)
- Suddenly the audience will be exponentially bigger.
- Even if a tiny proportion of those free downloaders decide they’d like a print copy of the book, we will be raising far more than by keeping a digital book priced at $9.99 which acts as a paywall against potential interested readers.
The print book is coming in two weeks.
In Japan, the bilingual Japanese/English paperback edition is coming out on June 14th, published by Goken, priced ¥1400.
In the United States and the United Kingdom, a hardback English book will be coming out priced at $20 (I’m not sure of the price in pounds). You will be able to order any of these from Amazon (for the bilingual copy, go to Amazon.co.jp and click on the English language button and you can order from anywhere in the world).
But if you can, PLEASE go to your local bricks and mortar bookshop and order the book there.
Why?
If you order at your bookshop, they will stock it. If they have it on their shelves, others will see it and more people will buy it. More people buy it, more money goes to the survivors. And you want to help your local bookshop too, don’t you?
So, 1. Download the book! 2. In two weeks, order the print book from your local bookshop!
Got it? Carry on!