Anti-Gordon Gekko

Free, for lack of a better word, is good. Free is right. Free works. Free clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. -Anti-Gordon Gekko

So Mike, you say. It's nice and all that people are downloading your stuff. But how do downloads of free stuff compare to real, actual for-sale books?

Let me put it this way: In the fantasy category on iTunes (which includes contemporary, epic, historical, paranormal and short stories), there are 729 free titles and 14,910 paid titles. Total for fantasy, free and paid, is 15,639 titles. It's 20:1in favour of paid.

'The Thief who Spat in Luck's Good Eye' is #7 in the free fantasy category in the US right now. When you add free and paid together? It's #20.

Here are a few paid titles that are not being downloaded as much as 'TWS' :

• The Hobbit - Tolkien
• The Gunslinger - King
• Living Dead in Dallas - Harris
• The Wise Man's Fear - Rothfuss
• Ghost Story - Butcher
• Alloy of Law - Sanderson

And this, my friends, is why I'm misquoting Gordon Gekko. And lest anyone say 'if you were charging instead of giving away, you'd be making awesome money' -- uh, no. If I were charging, I would not be #20. Or #200. Or #2,000, in all likelihood.

Now I'm off to clean a hamster cage.