M.J. Rose

Why is my book free?

For the next ten days anyone who wants one can download a free copy of my last novel, The Reincarnationist. But why is my book free? It’s a question everyone has been asking me.

Well, it’s not because I’m independently wealthy or because I think The Reincarnationist is worthless.

My book is free because my husband always asks me to bring home cookies from Sant Ambrose whenever I go into New York City. It’s because I wear one of the L’Oeuvre Noire perfumes by Kilian. And it’s because we both use L’Occitane Verbena Shower Gel. And what all those things have in common is at one point in my life as a consumer – or his – we sampled them.

When I was the creative director of Rosenfeld, Sirowitz and Lawson, a NYC ad agency we introduced a new Charles of The Ritz fragrance to the tune of 40 million in TV commercial and print ads. You’d think that was enough to launch it, right? It wasn’t. We still made sure that every woman who stopped at every perfume counter in the country got a lovely little pink bottle of the stuff to take home and wear for a week or so. And when we introduced a new breakfast sandwich at McDonald’s we gave out coupons to lunchtime customers so they could come back the next morning and eat for free.

It’s because trying something for free is the best way of discovering it. And free doesn’t mean sampling a quarter of a cookie – it means the whole cookie. It doesn’t mean someone spraying my wrist with perfume – it means them putting a small bottle of the fragrance in my shopping bag. It means spending a weekend in a hotel and taking two showers using the same soap. It doesn’t mean reading the first five pages of my book online – it means reading my whole book for free as a way of discovering me as an author.

As consumers we are faced with hundreds of choices – and when it comes to books thousands of choices – with every with every purchase.

So how do you choose?

I was a reader before I was a writer – one of those kids who walked home from school with a book up to my face, about to fall in the proverbial sewer hole because I couldn’t see where I was going. And now I’m one of those people whose books are triple shelved and who can’t go anywhere without carrying two titles -one that I’m reading, and one back up.

And so as a reader I’m suffering along with every other reader by a wealth of books (over 1000 novels are published every month) but not a wealth of wallet and so every time I walk into a bookstore or go to a bookstore online I’m confronted with more titles that I want to read than I have money to buy.

Books on their own aren’t insanely expensive compared to other things – three large cappuccinos cost more than a paperback… two and a half gallons of gas cost more than a paperback. But these days we are all watching our dollars and I find that faced with so many books to buy, I wind up with choice fatigue and all too often end up buying the safe bet – the book by the author I’ve read before who I’m sure will offer a satisfying read and passing over new books by authors I haven’t heard of even if they look interesting and exciting, because I can’t buy everything and I can’t afford to make many mistakes.

But if you buy books this way you’re bound to miss out on a lot of exciting discoveries.

Back in 1999 and 2000 a few of us… a very few of us… Douglas Clegg, Seth Godin and I… offered free electronic copies of our books in an effort to market them differently, to reach an audience we otherwise wouldn’t have reached and to test out a new marketing concept for books. Despite the industry screaming we were crazy, it worked. We each wound up selling many more copies of the books that we gave away that anyone expected and for each of us the experiment was a success. Back then many thought it an audacious move and even though we proved free books led to increased books sales it’s been hard for me to convince any of my publishers to try it again. Until now. I guess it’s an idea whose time has come, or I’ve gotten more persuasive, or the VP I asked at my publishing house recently got a nice sample of new moisturizer at the department store… but whatever the reason, I’m thrilled.

For the next ten days The Reincarnationist is free to anyone who wants to download it. Why? So readers like me can take a chance on… well… me.

Cheers,
M.J.

The following intros belong to two incredibly erudite articles by Bhikkhu Bodhi, prolific writer, philosopher, and respected American Buddhist monk.

Ven. Bodhi has devoted much time to thoughts on rebirth and reincarnation and I recommend reading his essays, many of which can be found here – your brain and heart will thank you!

Props to our reader “buddhapada” for enlightening us to this superlative reincarnationist writer and thinker (pun intended).

Dhamma Without Rebirth?
by
Bhikkhu Bodhi

In line with the present-day stress on the need for religious teachings to be personally relevant and directly verifiable, in certain Dhamma circles the time-honored Buddhist doctrine of rebirth has come up for severe re-examination. Although only a few contemporary Buddhist thinkers still go so far as to suggest that this doctrine be scrapped as “unscientific,” another opinion has been gaining ground to the effect that whether or not rebirth itself be a fact, the doctrine of rebirth has no essential bearings on the practice of Dhamma and thence no claim to an assured place in the Buddhist teachings. The Dhamma, it is said, is concerned solely with the here and now, with helping us to resolve our personal hangups through increased self-awareness and inner honesty. All the rest of Buddhism we can now let go as the religious trappings of an ancient culture utterly inappropriate for the Dhamma of our technological age[…]

Does Rebirth Make Sense?
by
Bhikkhu Bodhi

Newcomers to Buddhism are usually impressed by the clarity, directness, and earthy practicality of the Dhamma as embodied in such basic teachings as the Four Noble Truths, the Noble Eightfold Path, and the threefold training. These teachings, as clear as day-light, are accessible to any serious seeker looking for a way beyond suffering. When, however, these seekers encounter the doctrine of rebirth, they often balk, convinced it just doesn’t make sense. At this point, they suspect that the teaching has swerved off course, tumbling from the grand highway of reason into wistfulness and speculation. Even modernist interpreters of Buddhism seem to have trouble taking the rebirth teaching seriously. Some dismiss it as just a piece of cultural baggage, “ancient Indian metaphysics,” that the Buddha retained in deference to the world view of his age. Others interpret it as a metaphor for the change of mental states, with the realms of rebirth seen as symbols for psychological archetypes. A few critics even question the authenticity of the texts on rebirth, arguing that they must be interpolations[…]

Things are suspiciously Orwellian on our modern world…one wonders if the man was a writer or a prophet.

The Orwell Prize, Britain’s pre-eminent prize for political writing, is publishing George Orwell’s diaries as a blog. From 9th August 2008, Orwell’s domestic and political diaries (from 9th August 1938 until October 1942) will be posted in real-time, exactly 70 years after the entries were written.

Orwell’s ‘domestic’ diaries begin on 9th August 1938/2008; his ‘political’ diaries (which are further categorised as ‘Morocco’, ‘Pre-war’ and ‘Wartime’) begin on 7th September 1938/2008.

To read the Orwell Diaries click here.