by Nick Briz

Christopher McKitterick turned in his well paying IT job for a much more rewarding life as a teacher and science fiction writer. The author recently posted a blog-entry on his free-online-distribution philosophy. He’s decided to distribute his first novel, Transcendence, freely online (which his “physical-copy” publisher fully supports). McKitterick says he doesn’t want to be a “chump” about it, he’d like to make some money, realizing off course no one gets rich of sci-fi novels, and strongly believes this is the best approach.

“It seems counter-intuitive to think that giving away one’s creative output could serve that goal, but obscurity = poverty. Perhaps even worse, obscurity = no one can hear the really important thing you have to say. (…) I’m not willing to give up the exquisite freedom inherent in the Web as we know it today in order to make more money from my creative work. Trampling on net neutrality, imposing draconian safeguards over content, DRMing everything – these are baby-steps toward a Web that is not free. I give away my stuff because I want people to read what I have to say and then to tell others – and me! – what they think of it.”