Free ebook with purchase

My publisher, ECW Press, is trying something new with their spring catalogue books including Tumblin' Dice; buy a book, get the ebook free.

Here's what the press release says:

“When readers pay top price for one of our books, we feel they should be able to read it in the way that fits best with their life: a printed book in a comfy chair, an eBook on their phone on the bus, whatever,” said David Caron, ECW Press co-publisher. “We also wanted to find a way to include bookstores that don’t sell eBooks, so that both the store’s customers and the bookseller feel that they are getting good value from an ECW Press book.”

The way it works is that when you buy a book in a bookstore or online you send an email to ECW, and include where you bought the book, the receipt number, and your preferred ebook format. ECW will send you the file, and a request to include you on their newsletter list, as well as some more ways to connect with ECW Press.

I like this plan, I think it's a good idea to be able to get the book in every format you want with one purchase.

I also like the idea of finding a way to involve bookstores that don't sell ebooks - indies, really. I saw an interesting post a little while ago from author Dean Wesley Smith about "gift card" ebooks that could be sold in bookstores. He described it like this:

"You walk into any major store and see a huge stand of gift cards. Now imagine that rack full of cards are all cards that represent electronic books. All the buyer of the card has to do is log in a code on the back of the gift card to download the book to any device."

And there's no reason it has to be a "major store," it could just as easily be a local independent bookstore. You could still browse, talk to a human being, get recommendations and make your purchase locally.



Getting back to ECW's spring list, there are a few books I'm looking forward to (in addition to Tumblin' Dice, of course), mostly the Mike Knowles Mystery Omnibus containing the first three Wilson novels.

Just in time to get caught up before the fourth Wilson novel, Never Play Another Man's Game is published in May.