Ebooks and torrents

Recently an Australian film called The Tunnel was released on torrents, not by a third party but by the makers of the film. This was, in a way, a groundbreaking development. The producers made their money (and still do) through selling individual frames of the film, which they will then use to finance their next project. In a way, I think, this is similar to models previously attempted where the artist asks the public to pay what they deem is worthy of the material. The only difference is that The Tunnel's PR has been handled much more effectively.

Torrent devotees, I think, are responsible for much of the film's success. Big torrent sites got behind the film, and generated quite a bit of interest.

I'm wondering if writers could also use such an exercise to their advantage (free torrent download, and a donation as one sees fit). This would be for writers who have exhausted the traditional publishing options, and are now looking at self-publishing. What are your views on this?

Medievalist said:

One of the standard techniques used to combat illegal downloads is to overwrite the torrent with a sample and a link to buy the book, or a free legitimate, legal, malware free professional ebook with a donate link.

Good data pushes out bad.

Click to expand...

I'm afraid I don't understand this post. Could you explain what you meant please?

I wanted to start on debate on positive uses of distribution by torrents for writers thinking of self-publishing.

Anjasa said:

Cory Doctorow did this.

http://craphound.com/littlebrother/download/

He's an author on BoingBoing, and apparently had a good deal of success with it! Still was on best seller lists and what not. Number 9 on the New York Best Sellers list.

Though of course, he had a huge audience, what with writing for BoingBoing.

Click to expand...

A good example. The only thing, as you say, is that the author has a huge following which muddles the matters.