Release it Free and Reap the Rewards

Eric von Hippel is an MIT professor and author of two books on innovation (Sources of Innovation and Democratizing Innovation). Unlike most authors, he releases his books for free downloads. In an interview he provides evidence to support that of Cory Doctorow - releasing material for free increases sales.

There have been 12,700 downloads of Sources of Innovation since I put it on the web last year, running about 20 per day. Sales before posting in 2005 (the book was published in 1988) were about 325 per year. In the year after posting, they were about 575.

Democratizing Innovation has been downloaded 55,000 times so far, with downloads from my MIT website running about 50 per day. I don’t think this has hurt hard copy sales – and it actually may have helped. MIT Press told me that hardcopy sales are higher than their pre-pub estimate of what they would have been without the option of free downloads.

Here are the links to the downloadable copies of his books - Sources and Democratizing.

I hope to interview some people who have had similar experiences in the future and get their anecdotes and views on the changing industry of publishing.