Tuesday, November 13, 2007

A Few Free Ebooks And How The Site Began




I happen to like ebooks, especially free ebooks. I use them to find out what an authors writing is like, then I get the printed book. There is nothing quite like the feel of paper. However, reading a book on the screen will do just fine for me as well. I think most people have it wrong when they say that ebooks are too easy to pirate. I think they are an excellent way to promote an author. I am even going to list a few ebooks which you can get for free. I think Both Charles Stross and Cory Doctorow are very entertaining writers.

Charles Stross Accelerando
http://www.accelerando.org/book/

Charles Stross Missile Gap

http://subterraneanpress.com/index.php/magazine/spring2007/fiction-missile-gap-by-charles-stross/

Cory Doctorow Down and Out In The Magic Kingdom
http://craphound.com/down/download.php

Cory Doctorow's Statement on Ebooks
http://craphound.com/ebooksneitherenorbooks.txt

In addition to these free ebooks, there is of course, The Baen Free Library which opens with an excellent essay on ebooks, free books, and piracy on the internet. I happen to agree with it. Plus they have a really good list of free science fiction titles.

Baen Free Library
http://www.baen.com/library/

Here is a bit on how this blog started. I started on a thread under the moniker, "I'll Steal Your Toast" on the Spiderweb Software message boards in the General Section. I asked Jeff Vogel if I could extract the listings of what I had read from the message board and use them to make a blog. He said that if it was my own writing, and not directly related to their game, Avernum, I could do it. I really appreciate his kindness. I also appreciate his games, especially Geneforge.

This is the thread:
http://www.ironycentral.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=003673

I also have been working on getting people to read what I have been writing on this thread. Last night, I submitted this blog to a free submission engine, Addme.com, because it had a very limited amount of directories which it would add for free. I was following the advice which I read on searchenginewatch.com forums , which says, initially only add your site to a few directories, then selectively expand your presence. If you add a site to too many directories initially it will be marked as spam by Google and Yahoo and will not get listed there.

Last night, I also checked where people were coming to to this blog. There were two major sites which people were visiting from, RPGcodex, and Basilisk Games which is both interesting and appreciated. Also a few people visited from RPG watch.

There is an interesting mix of nationalities coming to the site. The majority of the visitors are from the United States, Germany, Sweden, Canada, and Austria. People from Australia, Romania, Slovenia, Poland, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Great Britain, and the Netherlands have visited as well.
I am going to start adding images in the public domain to my posts occassionally. This one is from Audrey Beardsley.

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