The Business Case

Libre and gratis

Libre >> "Liberty"

Freedom to do what you want.

Gratis >> "Complimentary"

No cost for good or service, even if has value.

Books

Why write book. Why give it for free. Charging schemes. E.g. PDF, print, screencasts.

Why write a book

Self-publishing -- low quality? Sometimes, just like with the professionally published.

The open source software community has experimented with licensing options and business models.

Writing an open book is one way to contribute to the open source community.

Why give it away?

Example books

Example books. Some are written with dexy.

For free:

  • why's (poignant) Guide to Ruby by why the lucky stiff

Free in one form, paid in another.

Pay only (most books) Free preview (some books, depends on publisher) Free beta, pay for post-beta