Chapter 1. Challenging Notions of “Free”

Book publishers have long used free content as part of their marketing and selling efforts, with the vast majority of free content distributed in printed form. Almost every publisher has distributed galleys, advance reading copies, blads and sample chapters to help promote book sales, using the size of the press run to control the extent to which content is given away.

As the use and effectiveness of Web-based search has grown, publishers have increasingly given various sites permission to offer digital content, typically sample chapters, segments or even entire books with limits on how much content can be freely accessed. Online retailers like Amazon and Barnes & Noble offer product-specific features (“Search Inside”) to let customers sample content before buying.