Today a story hit the front page of Slashdot about Matthew Newhall who posted a draft of his novel on the web in late 2005. Eventually it was downloaded over 6000 time and edited by his readers. The book, “Thicker than Blood” is still downloadable under Creative Commons but for sale at Lulu.com (a company by founded by Red Hat’s Bob Young).
The sci-fi thriller is described as:
The flip of a switch gives Joe, an ordinary mechanic, superhuman abilities. He discovers his new powers after his aunt saves his life with restricted nanites. When the corporation sanctioned by the military to control all nanotechnology discovers his secret, everyone he knows is thrust into a world of deception and treason. Can Joe give the people of the world life-saving superhuman powers, or will the attempt claim his life?
I think it’s an interesting approach to developing any piece of work whether it’s a book or open source software. The question posed to Slashdot readers was, “Is this the first community-edited book published under the Creative Commons”. The theme I noticed bubbling up in the comments was, “Who gets paid, and how?”. I suspect given my experience with open source software that this is just the new promotional technique. I’ll show you what I got and then if you like it, throw me a couple of bones. It’s not unlike Radiohead’s pay what you want release of In Rainbows. I would bet just by virtue of the Slashdot effect the hardcover book which was ranked at 46,680 for sales at Lulu might end up selling a few extra copies today. Maybe it will gain the attention of some acquisitions editor at a small publishing house or a book deal. Either way I suspect putting his work out in the commons will get it much broader exposure than simply self-publishing a less-permissive copyrighted work.
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