{"id":17445,"date":"2009-09-06T22:14:45","date_gmt":"2009-09-07T02:14:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/?p=17445"},"modified":"2015-01-06T14:43:33","modified_gmt":"2015-01-06T19:43:33","slug":"free-books-from-concord-free-press","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/2009\/09\/06\/free-books-from-concord-free-press\/","title":{"rendered":"Free books from Concord Free Press"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday’s Washington Post<\/i> printed a book review of Wesley Brown’s novel Push Comes to Shove<\/i><\/a>. While the novel sounded intriguing, the most fascinating thing I learned from the review wasn’t the book’s content. Rather, it was the book’s price.<\/p>\n

It’s free.<\/p>\n

Here’s how James A. Miller explained it in the review’s final paragraph:<\/p>\n

It is the second book from the Concord Free Press, which publishes novels and gives them away free, with the following injunction: “By taking a copy, you agree to give away money to a local charity, someone who needs it, or a stranger on the street. Where the money goes and how much you give—that’s your call.” It’s an innovative publishing effort that one-ups Abbie Hoffman’s yippie manifesto Steal This Book.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Free books? What kind of publishing model is that? As the Concord Free Press explains at its site<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Let’s get this straight right from the start—we’re not proposing free books as a cure for what ails modern publishing. That would be stupid. We like books. We buy books. We don’t think all books should be free—just ours.<\/p>\n

That said, we’re dedicated to a different kind of publishing, one that “reconceptualizes the very goals of publishing.” We’re interested in making waves, challenging assumptions, and re-invigorating the book, which isn’t dead yet, by the way.<\/p>\n

Think about it this way. No matter who published them or how good they are, most books go on a familiar trajectory—new, used, shelved permanently, dusty. Ours keep going from hand to hand, generating donations along the way. Readers are generally good people. We give them a chance to get a great book for free—and encourage contributions to organizations and individuals in their own community or further afield.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You can get a free copy of Push Comes to Shove<\/i> sent to you by providing your e-mail address and promising to take part in charitable giving as per the company’s suggestions.<\/p>\n

Not quite sure what to make of it all, but supposedly more than $75,000 has already been dispersed. And the company’s next novel, The Next Queen of Heaven<\/i> by Gregory Maguire, author of Wicked<\/i>, will be available in October.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday’s Washington Post printed a book review of Wesley Brown’s novel Push Comes to Shove. While the novel sounded intriguing, the most fascinating thing I learned from the review wasn’t the book’s content. Rather, it was the book’s price. It’s free. Here’s how James A. Miller explained it in the review’s final paragraph: It is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[529],"class_list":["post-17445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-washington-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17445"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17445\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17446,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17445\/revisions\/17446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}