The hardcovers of FREE: The Future of a Radical Price
just came in and they look great. Pub date is July 7th in the US and July 2nd in the UK. We’ll be announcing the many ways in which you can get bits versions of the book (audio, ebook, web) for free around pub date, but in the meantime, it’s time to start giving away some good old atoms!
With The Long Tail, we gave away 200 books to the first bloggers who asked for them and promised to review them (the “long tail of book reviewers”). That worked great, but times have changed. So this time, we’re going to go all full-spectrum on the giveaway.
We want to give books to people who will spread the word--as with free digital forms, we think that free is the best form of marketing. Convince us that you’ve got a megaphone, microphone or at least know people who know people and we’ll send you a signed book, weeks ahead of publication.
There are two ways how:
1) Impress us with your cool friends (you get FOUR books!)
2) Impress us with your social media skillz (you get one book)
1) The four books deal (25 winners)
Do have friends in high places? Or low, but very cool, places? Maybe kinda inbetween places but big in Japan? Just know awesome people?
Yes? Excellent. We’d like you to send them the book yourself. Here’s how:
Send us an email to [email protected] with the following:
Subject: Four books please!
I’m _____ and I actually know __[impressive person 1]__, __[less impressive person 2]___ and __[impressive to me even if you’ve never heard of them person 3]___. In fact, I know them so well that I know where they live! (Or at least I can ask them for their mailing address). Send me four signed books, and I’ll keep one and send the other three along with a personal note from me.
My mailing address is [….]
We’ll enclose three Fedex envelopes paid through our account. All you need to do is fill in the address details and toss them in a local Fedex collection box.
But here’s the catch. We’ve got the tracking numbers. We’re going to show these packages moving through the country in real time on Google Maps. (Don’t worry, we won’t indentify the people or show where the packages are going at anything below city level, so no privacy will be invaded. We also swear not to otherwise use the info or contact your impressive friends ourselves)
2) The one book deal (50 winners)
Send an email to [email protected] with something along the following lines (actual people—probably me—will read this, so feel free to use your human, rather than robot, voice) :
Subject: Free book please!
I’d love a free FREE and promise to review/tweet/blog/chatter about it to all my influential friends. How do you know I have any? Here’s how:
--My Twitter name is ____ and I have ___ followers
--My blog URL is ____ and my Technorati Rank/PageRank is ___
--My Amazon reviewer rank is _____
--Screw that GPA crap! I deserve the book because ______
My mailing address is […..]
We’ll send a book to the first 50 who impress/amuse us.
Sweet! Can't wait to do this when I get home! thx @scottkirsner
Posted by: Isis masoud | June 16, 2009 at 10:04 AM
RT @matthewemay Brilliant book marketing by Chris Anderson for his new book FREE. Get 4 books free if you're connected. http://is.gd/13ylm
(That link lands you here, in case you wish to forward)
Posted by: CoCreatr | June 16, 2009 at 05:30 PM
Already sent my pitch... I hope you buy it Chris... :)
By the way, congratulations on all of your projects, I'm a big fan.
From The Long Tail (lost my copy on a bus trip, could you send me a signed one? :D) to DIY Drones.
Cheers.
Posted by: Gian Carlo | June 17, 2009 at 12:04 AM
I don't understand the instructions, because im nos speak english. My name is rodrigo, from Chile, im a big fans of you. In fact, you Chris did a conference in chile in Universidad Adolfo Ibañez. I was there.
I hope that commentss can be understandig for you, because my english is so bad.
PS. I want a book!!!
Posted by: Rodrigo Villalobos | June 18, 2009 at 07:46 PM
Great, is it only available for US citizens ?
Posted by: Benoit | June 19, 2009 at 04:32 AM
if you want to seriously marketing a book about free economy you have to give it for FREE othervise we keep thinking that the book is a fake and the entire operation is just a scam
cheers
karim melaouah. milan, italy
Posted by: karim melaouah | June 19, 2009 at 06:45 AM
RT @matthewemay Brilliant book marketing by Chris Anderson for his new book FREE. Get 4 books free if you're connected. http://sencene.com
(That link lands you here, in case you wish to forward)
Posted by: Psi | June 22, 2009 at 05:27 AM
nothing in this world is free...even your book...you want it reviewed yes? Ah...so not so free but would love to read it and give my input nonetheless. Seriously though I work for a small company where we have been experimenting with giving new items away with sales of current items to help "seed" the market. I'm curious to see more about your new book and what strategies we could employ.
Posted by: Jeni | June 23, 2009 at 01:59 PM
Nice post. This post is different from what I read on most blog. And it have so many valuable things to learn. Thank you for your sharing!
Posted by: aion kinah | June 24, 2009 at 11:03 PM
I don't understand the instructions, because im nos speak english. My name is rodrigo, from Chile, im a big fans of you. In fact, you Chris did a conference in chile in Universidad Adolfo Ibañez.
Posted by: maplestory meso for sale | June 29, 2009 at 11:45 PM
Received a hardcover copy today, definitely a surprise in the mail! I'm gonna read it this week and I'll do my best to market the book and try and clear up misunderstandings... (I'm looking at you, Mark Cuban :/)
Posted by: James Stevens | July 06, 2009 at 06:33 PM
What I need to do to know if I deserved a free FREE...?
Posted by: Prof J Gil | July 08, 2009 at 10:32 AM
I received a copy today! I can't wait to read it and share it with folks in the office!
Posted by: Craig Dalrymple | July 08, 2009 at 11:52 AM
nothing in this world is free...even your book...you want it reviewed yes? Ah...so not so free but would love to read it and give my input nonetheless.
Posted by: cerita seks | October 23, 2009 at 09:49 PM
Thanks for this update. But i am having the audio book and ebook of FREE . I must say truly mind blowing book. I just want to know that the hard copy of this book is freely available in india or not. Thanks.
Posted by: christmas gift ideas | November 03, 2009 at 04:06 AM