About a month ago Mindy Klasky had a poll on her blog trying to figure out what prompted book buyers to buy certain books.  As a new author, I can't count on the number one reason, "familiarity with author's previous work" to carry much weight.  I've had a few stories in Asimov's and F&SF, and I think a few readers of those magazines will pick up the novel because they liked the stories. 

The second and third on the list, recommendation of a friend and reading about the book on someone's blog, well, I'm working on that.  I have sitting on my shelf 5 bound manuscripts of RADIO FREEFALL.  These are not typeset and they have a few minor errors we corrected before the galleys.  If you have a blog or just a really big mouth and would like to get an advance copy, I'll send it to you.  I can also send it electronically, if you'd rather get it that way.  I'm not worried about piracy at this stage in my career.  Cory Doctrow is right that the main threat to a young writing career isn't piracy but obscurity.

Fourth on Mindy's poll is "reading about the book on the author's own web site or blog."  Well, you're doing that right now.  Check.

And then fifth on the poll is "reading first chapter of a book online or in store."  Now that's something I can control.  I've put chapters 1-3 up on my web site.  63% of people bought a book because they read the first chapter online, so if my math is correct, 189% of people will buy it if there are three chapters.  That means, let's see, 11.4 billion copies.  Hmm, we'd better get to work on those trees.

I did toy with the idea of putting the whole text of the book up on Creative Commons.  That might get me a mention on Boing Boing but then again, I might be able to get on there if I make a mud hut in my front yard or hack my vacuum cleaner into a record player.  I have no philosophical or commercial reason for not going with Creative Commons.  The only reason I don't do it this time is that I don't know enough about it and I don't have the time to figure it all out.

So, enjoy the first three chapters, tell your friends, blog about the book and when August 7 rolls around, think about visiting your local book store and picking up a copy.  I have other books coming along in the pipeline and you'll want to be familiar with my earlier work to decide whether to buy those.