So are you saying there are publishers out there who have no problem with their published authors providing complete, verbatim copies of their works for free on the web?
Yes. Baen puts many of their books on the web for free.
As for other publishers, the author can negotiate a contract to do so if he so wishes. Cory Doctorow puts his books online (published by Tor).
I’m not convinced this is good for an author, but it is the author’s decision and if someone wants to do it, they certainly should be allowed to.
God I hated Critters. I tried it out after writing a story a couple years ago and was disgusted with the results. I worked my way through all the rounds it took to get to my piece. I read every single story I was supposed to read and gave long, detailed, well-thought-out criticism, praise, and advice. When my turn finally came I got nothing but short, OBVIOUSLY generic form responses. I don’t think a single person read my story. Assholes.
That’s surprising. Though I have some issues with Critters, I’ve never gotten a generic response from anyone and the critiques, with a handful of exceptions, were generally useful ones.
I can think of at least one scenario where this would be profitable for the author, in the case of a professional author who intends to make money off of his works.
Author writes book and publishes it in print-only format. Book sells reasonably well. Next year, author writes a sequel to this book, which he also publishes in print-only format. Now, the first book’s heyday is past, and anyone who’s interested in the second book but didn’t happen to read the first book might have trouble finding the first book in a bookstore. It might even be out of print.
The solution? Allow the first book to appear, in its entirety, in a free online format. The author has already made most of the money he’s going to make off of the first book’s sales anyway (unless the series gets so popular that an audiobook recording or movie becomes a possibility, but he still retains the rights to something like that even if the text version is freely available). The ability for someone just stumbling into the middle of his book series to start at the beginning might mean there are more people willing to shell out money for his latest installment, simply because it’s easier for them to get “caught up” with the story thus far.
Possible. I notice that Baen does something similar – posting the early books of a series in the hope that people will buy the later ones.
Not specifically sci-fi but obligatory nanowrimo mention - website for people who want to challenge themselves to writing a book in one month. Lots of great advice, inspiration, and critique. And a few have gotten publishing offers.