The book has very mixed reviews.
I think the problem with self-pubbing and self-pubbing for free is the perceived value. If Cory puts a novel or any of his writing out there for free it has value because he is an established writer, people know he writes good stuff. J. K. Rowling demonstrated this with ‘The Cuckoo’s Calling’, which only had 1500 sales until Robert Galbraith was revealed to be her pseudonym. Little value as Robert Galbraith, unknown author, much bigger value (and sales) as J. K. Rowling. Another example; JA Konrath; It wasn’t until he got a book deal and established a rep that he was able to make a fortune self-pubbing his previously unpublished (and unaccepted) manuscripts.
Put something out there for free with little or no reputation and the perceived value is close to zero. In fact, many people expect a ‘free’ self-pubbed book to be poor, either in terms of quality control or story construction. This, I guess, is where, niche comes in. Fan-fiction and Slash-fiction fill a certain niche (see what I did there?), so you can see how they might be popular. Some authors have found success with that route (cough E.L. James cough).
I too have dabbled with self-pubbing for free, believing naively that readers will spot my hidden genius and worship me as their god. You have to pimp like Huggy Bear on amphetamine to be any good at that game. Plus, you know, actually write something well and that people like. Apparently, I can’t do either so it’s back to the day job and commenting on Boing Boing.
