Baen Books has seen fit to issue its latest CD-ROM (also available online here) with Lois McMaster Bujold’s Cryoburn that includes all but one of the Miles Vorkosigan novels in multiple DRM-free formats. As the CD-ROM’s introduction page notes,
. . . More than fourteen novels for free—and with no stupid codes to work around. Think of that.
What’s the catch? This disk and its contents may be copied and shared, but NOT sold. All commercial rights are reserved. That’s it.
Why are we being so generous? Simple: we think the more people who read Ms. Bujold’s works the more people will buy them. Say, one set of hardcovers for yourself, a set of paperbacks to lend out, possibly even the next ebook when it comes out. And if you like the Vorkosiverse, we’re pretty sure you’ll like other Baen books, too.
I’m still surprised no one else has adopted Baen’s model. They’ve been adding CD-ROMs with full text of other books into hardcovers they publish since 2002, and of course have long been running their ebook WebScription service where they sell ebook version of their printed books a) at relatively cheap prices and b) completely DRM free.
Very nice compared to other ebook services that often charge more for the ebook version than the printed book, and then compound that by assuming that since you’re actually paying them money you must be a pirate and insist on providing DRMed files.
(via Teleread)