Socially Speaking

Cory Doctorow is a believer in giving it away. And of self determination. When it comes to his work as an author, he revels in its evolution — or how it is affected by people who touch it, create something from it, then share it. In other words, he sets it free:

José Rafael Zullo has translated my first novel, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, into Brazilian Portuguese, using the Creative Commons license to make a free and freely reusable version of the text in his language. This is so cool.

Here are some other recent (very cool) examples:

* Downloadable free mini comic designed by former South Park illustrator Martin Cendreda. You can print it and assemble it yourself and voila, a little origami project.

* Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, sent chapter by chapter via email. (I’m reading it this way, and began the first three on my Treo).

* Transcripts of recent radio interviews

* Audio catch of a book launch at a San Francisco bookstore

* Cory’s own podcasts (which I have listened to, and really enjoyed) of Eastern Standard Tribe, his second novel “of political intrigue among high-tech, sleep-deprived management consultants.” Now tell me you’re not intrigued.

* Others‘ podcasts of his work, in this case Printcrime. Printcrime was originally published in Nature Magazine, and is now part of his latest short story collection, Overclocked.

This, in addition to the fact that you may download any of his books for free, anytime.

I’m the perfect example of what Cory hopes to accomplish by doing this. Seth Godin calls it sneezing, or spreading ideas to others. And, yes, I’ve been sneezing Cory’s work like mad recently. As a result at least six (somewhat unlikely) people within the last few days have bought his books. While six isn’t a big number, relatively speaking, imagine if everyone Cory touched via a speech, a blog post, a book signing, video or podcast had the same affect on six people they knew.

Side note: In just over two weeks, Overclocked has sold in its first print run. (More copies will be available on February 21st).

Reminder: Don’t forget to register for Waxxi’s interactive podcast with Cory on Monday, February 12th (we’ll need to send you a toll free dial in number and user code in order for you to talk to us via phone).