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Spider Star
The human colony on the planet Argo has long explored and exploited the technology left behind by an extinct alien race. But then an archaeology team accidentally activates a terrible weapon...
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Praise for Star Dragon
"Seldom does a storytelling talent come along as potent and fully mature as Mike Brotherton. His complex characters take you on a voyage that is both fiercely credible and astonishingly imaginative. This is Science Fiction."
-- David Brin"Star Dragon is terrific fare, offering readers a fusion of hard science and grand adventure."
-- Locus Magazine"Star Dragon is steeped in cosmology, the physics of interstellar travel, exobiology, artificial intelligence, bioscience. Brotherton, author of many scientific articles in refereed journals, has written a dramatic, provocative, utterly convincing hard science sf novel that includes an ironic twist that fans will love."
-- Booklist starred review"Readers hungry for the thought-provoking extrapolation and rigorous technical detail of old-fashioned hard SF are sure to enjoy astronomer Brotherton's first novel."
-- Publishers Weekly"Mike Brotherton, himself a trained astrophysicist, combines the technical acuity and ingenuity of Robert Forward with the ironic, postmodern stance and style of M. John Harrison. In this, his debut novel, those twin talents unite to produce a work that is involving on any number of levels. It's just about all you could ask for in a hardcore SF adventure."
-- Paul di Fillippo, SCI-FI.COM
Pirate My Books!
January 25th, 2008
Paulo Coelho is apparently making out like a bandit — pirate, sorry — by actively encouraging pirating of his novels. Glad it worked out for him. The article gives me a chance to bring up something I’ve had mixed feelings about and to explain why I won’t be able to follow suit again as I’ve done in the past.
My own efforts at giving away electronic copies of Star Dragon for free haven’t resulted in big sales. Maybe it’s because my audience is intrinsically a niche audience, or my timing was bad, or I don’t know. The thing is, I’m still getting over 500 downloads a month three years after the initial offering (which got about 10k downloads the first week). I’m guessing I’ve had over 30,000 downloads total. That’s more than the book sold in all its printed versions combined (it’s still available but sales are down to a trickle). I’m happy for the readers in whatever form they obtained the book.
Given that the sales weren’t there last time, I won’t be offering a free version of Spider Star (link goes to pre-order). Tor has encouraged me to make the first several chapters available for free on-line, however, which I will be doing in the very near future prior to the March 4 release date. I’ll make a blog post to the download page when I do that. I am hopeful that the sales will be way up, helped along by all the free downloads of Star Dragon, and I’ll be able to argue in the future for permission to give away free downloads of future books.
I don’t want this to sound like sour grapes. I’m very happy with the readers I have. Just an explanation for when the excerpts go up to forestall questions about why the whole thing isn’t there.
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January 25th, 2008 at 11:10 pm
Bummer. If it makes you feel better, I bought a new copy of STAR DRAGON even after I saw it as a free download. (And buying new is rare for me…the economics of my biblioholism means the majority of my book buying is used.) Sadly, I have yet to actually read it.
January 26th, 2008 at 5:20 pm
Thanks, John. I appreciate it and hope you enjoy it when you get to it (and I’m years behind on my own reading shelf). I think the new book will sell better.
January 26th, 2008 at 6:04 pm
I both downloaded and bought star dragon. I thought it was a good book and I will buy star spider. I think giving away books makes more sense when you have more that one book. I know I can’t possibly read all the books out there but if I find an author I like I will continue to buy thier books. So getting your work out there certainly helps later sales.
Ps. I read many of my books in ebook form these days.
January 28th, 2008 at 7:59 am
I actually got a copy of your book used (about the same time you put it up electronically)…while that’s not a sale for you, it did convince me to buy your next book. It’s in my amazon cart now.
January 29th, 2008 at 6:17 pm
That’s a hopeful data point for me, Howard. Thanks!
May 15th, 2008 at 10:02 am
[...] Got another plane flight today, and I’m looking forward to reading Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist. Coelho’s an internationally successful writer who has also been using the internet for promotion, but by encouraging pirating of his work. [...]