The supercool Small Beer Press are publishing a collection of short stories by John Kessel, and alongside the print release they’re offering non-DRM, free downloads (pdf/html/rtf/txt) released under Creative Commons license.

There’s a Kessel story in The Best of Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet (“The Red Phone”) and it’s very short, very odd and very funny. But even if I couldn’t recommend the author I’d still be shouting about this. Releasing books in free digital editions is still basically a risky experiment: Small Beer are assuming (or hoping) that more people will pay for the book with the free release than without it. If everyone just reads the pdf, then they lose; but if the online release gets people on board who wouldn’t otherwise know that they like Kessel, and then those people buy the book, then they win. (Even better if the release gets people to the Small Beer page who haven’t read Kelly Link or don’t realise that their lives are incomplete without a subscription LCRW.)

I want the experiment to succeed for a terribly selfish reason: I want more publishers releasing free pdf copies of their books, so I can read more without paying more. So I want you, gentle reader, to go on over to Small Beer and check out John Kessel, discover you like him, and buy his book. And tell your friends, post on your blogs, &c. &c. (Extra credit for anyone who manages to remix the collection into something creative and new!)