Alternative Publishing

i09 has an interesting read on author Robin Sloan's attempts to use the internet as an alternative publishing avenue.

Sloan recently raised $13,500 in donations to release his novella free-for-all in PDF format, not bad. He's also released books for editing on Twitter, sold his books on the Kindle with the caveat that he would release it free after 100 sales and even written stories in exchange for goods.

Some interesting uses for technology in regards to publishing. I've mentioned before that there would be alternative ways to market for authors. I'm still a little surprised a well-known author hasn't released his latest work in co-operation with one of the self-publishing sites (maybe they have), I'd have thought it would be good publicity for both and the author would get a more direct route to market, maximising their profits.

Maybe it's no so surprising given that music artists seem to have tried and, largely, failed similar things.