Prostitution and hunter/gatherer notwithstanding, I would venture a guess that writer and musician are two of civilization’s oldest careers. I would also guess that this is the first time, over centuries of these careers, that a writer walked into the living room to ask her musician husband about the wisdom of bundling her ebook with the sale of her physical book for a discounted price. And for that musician to respond, “Just as long as it’s not free. Free is what ruined music sales.”
We live in strange times, is what I’m saying. It’s interesting to be doing something that people have been doing for so long but in a totally different way with so many different options. It involves making a lot of decisions about a tried and true business that are neither tried nor necessarily true. And as Mike pointed out has happened with music, if we as indie authors or the larger publishing industry makes some poor choices, things can get really screwed up.
Natalie Burg 