A Little Background
Chris Anderson is the Editor in Chief of Wired Magazine and has been the U.S. Business Editor for The Economist. His experience in economics, science and technology provides unique insights into the emerging business trends of our increasingly connected world.
His first book, The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More, became a bestseller. It details the shift from volume sales (selling large quantities of a few items at low margins to large groups of consumers) to niche sales (selling small quantities of numerous items at high margins to small groups of consumers). Anderson argues that this shift is due, in part, to the internet’s ability to provide a virtually unlimited selection of products to meet consumers individual interests for relatively low cost.
In Free, Anderson looks at how the internet has disrupted traditional pricing models. In introducing the book to the marketplace, Anderson’s has applied some of the principles he outlines in his book. When the book was first made available, Free could be downloaded at no cost for a limited time via Anderson’s website http://www.thelongtail.com/. While this version of the book is no longer available, an audio book version is still available for free. It is interesting to note that this strategy seems to have paid off for Anderson. In July of 09, Free appeared on the New York Times bestseller list.
