Today is the launch for For the Win, my latest YA novel. For the Win is an adventure story about kids around the world who work as “gold farmers” (people who do repetitive tasks in games like World of Warcraft to amass virtual fortunes that are sold on to lazier players) who use the video games and other networked systems to organize a global trade union, called the Industrial Workers of the World Wide Web (or “Webblies”). It’s a kind of novel-length expansion of the ideas in my short story Anda’s Game, and it’s full of technical details about economics (classical and behavioral), global politics, the labor movement, and the theory and practice of games.
As with all of my novels, For the Win is a free download, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. Basically, that means you can give it to your friends or strangers, and make cool new stuff with it (so long as you’re not making money from it). I hope you do!
I’ve just kicked off my US tour with the Tor edition of the book, but before I left London, I made sure to sign a mountain of HarperVoyager copies at Forbidden Planet in London, and they’ll be delighted to sell you a copy in person or by post.
For that matter, most of the bookstores I’m signing at will gladly take pre-orders for signed/inscribed copies, so if you want to get a copy signed to a friend (or yourself), reach out to them and they’ll help you out.
If you’ve loved the ebook and want to compensate me for it, but don’t want a printed book, then have a look at the donation program: I’m listing libraries and schools and other institutions that need free copies, and you can buy a copy for one of them at your favorite bookseller: you get to pay me back, they get a book, I get a sale, and everyone’s happy. (If you’re an educator or librarian and need a copy, email freeftwbook@gmail.com with your details.)
Once again, Random House Audio has turned out a superb unabridged audio edition, and once again, I’m selling it (along with other electronic retailers) as a DRM-free, EULA-free download from my site (click here for a sample).
That’s it! I’ll be posting updates about the tour as it progresses: I really hope you enjoy the book and that I get a chance to run into you and sign it for you, somewhere along the way!