First off, ya…I’m a big fan of John Ringo‘s books, and he’s written a lot of them. I’ve been reading the Sluggy Freelance comic, which gets a lot of references in his books, even longer and I’m a long time Schlock Mercenary fan too.
I took a peek at the leaked advanced chapters for his next book, Live Free or Die, over at Buckley’s site (ya, that Buckley) and Ringo explains in the forward that this book is “sort of playing about” in the Schlock Mercenary universe, but back when the galactic civilization first made contact with Earth.
Now to highlight what an evil being John Ringo is (something he freely and perhaps just a bit too gleefully admits), this book won’t be released until February 2010. Oh…Baen will have an e-ARC version available earlier, which could be mine for about the cost of the hardcover that won’t be out for another four months.
Ok, so both John Ringo and Baen Books are EVIL! I say that with the highest level of respect for their grasp of the capitalistic system.
While I’m here, I’ll put in a good word for Baen’s ebook sales. No DRM (i.e. the copy ‘protection’ crap that assumes that paying customers are thieves), available in multiple formats, and when new books are released in hardcover, you can pick up the e-book version, direct from Baen, for usually $6. If that is still too much for you, check out what they have on the net for free! If you haven’t read of any of John Ringo’s books, you can read seven of his book for free.
Update: It’s late January, so you can pick up a DRM free e-book version of Live Free or Die at Baen‘s webscription.net site for $6. Or you could wait a little longer and get Live Free or Die as a hardcover from Amazon for $17.16. My bet is that Baen will make more money off that $6 e-book than the hardcover with a suggested retail price of $26.
Update: Live Free or Die was my Monday Book Pick for 2/1/2010.
Those are not leaks.
These things are called snippets and are deliberatly released by the author, usually through a trusted minion/proof reader/redshirt, on Baen’s official forum.
http://bar.baen.com/default.aspx
Registration needed, also lowered expectation in regards to forum capability, it is a hybrid of listserv/web forum.
Thanks for the added detail. I’ve been a Bar member for years, although my attendance is spotty.
Leaked, deliberately released, what ever. The marketing principle is sound, i.e. ‘the first hit is free, after that you have to pay.’ 🙂
People read the first few chapters and get hooked, then buy the e-arc instead of waiting for the release. Odds are, they will by a dead tree format as well, when it comes out. Baen has a good business model in place.
I found out about John Ringo via the flamewars about “The Last Centurion”. So I started out with a severe bias against him.
The initial chapters are very good though. A little Heinlein, a little Douglas Adams.
The tie-ins with Schlock Mercenary are cute, too.
Personally, I really liked “The Last Centurion.” One of its features what that it had something to piss off just about everyone.
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