(“Sell-through” refers to the percentage of copies shipped which are actually sold, as opposed to being returned to the publisher.)
As of today, according to Baen Books—a year and a half after being available for free online to anyone who wants it, no restrictions and no questions asked—Mother of Demons has sold about 18,500 copies and now has a sell-through of 65%.
I would like someone to explain to me how almost doubling the sales and improving the sell-through by 11% has caused me, as an author, any harm?
Via RobotWisdom [1], Free the Books! [2]
Good, solid evidance that making a book (or perhaps, by extention, a song perhaps? hint hint) available freely, in electronic format, does not hurt sales and may actually increase sales. It still is easier to read a hard copy-dead tree version of a book in the bathroom (aka “reading room”) and not everyone likes reading for extended periods of time on the computer (me? I'm used to it).
[1] http://www.robotwisdom.com/