PS Publishing announces that they have “embraced the ‘Freeconomics’ revolution with a major first:… the entire text of Jeff VanderMeer‘s forthcoming PS novelette-chapbook The Situation has been made available, in Adobe pdf format, to download from Wired.com‘s GeekDad blog. It’s completely free of charge, and available three weeks before printed copies of the book will see the light of day.”
PS Publishing’s publisher and editor-in-chief, Peter Crowther, explains how the promotion came about: “Jeff was approached by Canadian journalist Brad Moon, who was interested in interviewing him about his current projects. He suggested to us that there might be an opportunity to offer a portion of The Situation as a download to accompany the interview.
“After a quick discussion on the subject with the rest of the PS team, I decided that we would make the entire story available for free, and the folks at Wired.com were delighted to go along with the idea.”
Crowther notes that PS is not the first to try free distribution of fiction online, but this is a first for PS, “and quite possibly for a UK independent genre fiction publisher, and we’re eager to see what the end results will be.”
Crowther describes The Situation as “a tale of corporate surrealism that ought to ring true for anyone who’s ever found themselves trapped in cubicle hell and struggling to deal with the bewildering pace of technological change.”
A long interview with VanderMeer and his wife, Ann (the editor of Weird Tales), is available on this page, which also has a link to the free download right at the top.