We’ve told you about several instances of authors giving their work away online over the years, but the stories usually involve one author engaged in a solo venture. But now 24 writers—including Vonda McIntyre, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Laura Anne Gilman—are pooling their resources at Book View Café, offering up short stories, novels, an unproduced screenplay… all sorts of “out-of-print, experimental, or otherwise unavailable work.”
“Given the deteriorating climate of print publishing,” Le Guin comments in a press release, “the Café seemed like a great experiment to be in on.” Gilman concurs: “Book View Café will allow readers to get their reading fix—and discover new authors—easily and quickly. It’s a win-win situation for everyone, and one I’m excited to be part of.” The proprietors suggest that they may, in the future, offer some additional content for sale—until then, it’s all available for free, though they wouldn’t look askance at donations to cover the site’s basic operational costs.