Brian wrote up a pretty interesting post recently about how giving away your works for free can drive sales, and while I agree with that thesis for the most part, I do still have a doubt or two. Mostly, those doubts come from the fact that the people who you hear success stories from are generally already quite well known. Certainly, that was the case for Monty Python when they started giving away skits. It works quite well for Cory Doctorow as well, but he's fairly well known. I wonder how well it works, though, for those who don't have the luxury of preexisting fame.
The Monty Python case has another significant difference from publishers giving ebooks away, and that's that Monty Python was only posting individual skits, not whole episodes. Publishers could do something very similar by releasing only the first chapter or two of novels for free, a la Shortcovers (a site I've mentioned previously), but that may not drive sales the same way.
A final area of concern with giving away ebooks is that if Reader technology becomes so user-accepted that it becomes the dominant method for reading, won't releasing ebooks for free in order to drive print sales be fairly pointless? Granted, this will probably not happen in the near future, but it may happen sometime in the next 20 years or so. If it does, I think publishers will have some serious rethinking to do, and will essentially have to reinvent the industry. If I'm lucky, I'll get to be a part of that.
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As I said on Brian's blog, I tend to agree with you: while I'd like to think offering free things will pay off huge for everyone, I think the established artists (be they actors, writers, whatever) are more likely to see profits. That said, it doesn't hurt to give away parts of things ... just a taste, keep them wanting more. I figure the first issue that Marvel is giving goes along with that. For a LONG discussion on does free pay off, check out the following link: http://nathanbransford.blogspot.com/2008/10/you-tell-me-does-free-pay.html
I'm skeptical of free. Remember free love? I gave away parts of things, you know, just a taste, and all I got in return was chlamydia.
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