Via Global Voices
Does the distribution of free e-books, or parts of it, work well also for other Brazilian writers? Would there be any competition between e-book and paper book for writers other than the magical Coelho? In looking at the universe of e-books in the Brazilian blogosphere, one immediately notices that numerous authors are making their work available online as a means to spread the word about it. There are websites and blogs created solely for this purpose.
The Overmundo [pt] initiative is a collaborative effort created specifically to disseminate Brazilian cultural production which does not get coverage in the mainstream media. Aside from keeping a cultural database to house the works, including e-books, the Overmundo website has the Overblog [pt] resource, which is a blog to discuss the works available on their website.
Aside from these collective initiatives, there are also writers who are bloggers themselves and publish their texts, or parts of them, independently online for their readers. Some renowned Brazilian poets are doing just that, such us the poet Frederico Barbosa [pt]. He is making available his entire collection in e-books, even in translations, but he also provides links to whoever wants to purchase paper copies. With a consolidated career, he seems to see no contradiction between e-publication and paper publication, his main interest being that the poetry reaches the reader, in whatever way they prefer.
Brazilian writers, publishing houses and government are betting on the dissemination of literary works on the Internet, seeing that there is more complementarity than competition amongst digital and paper medias – at least in times where the reader still prefers to read on paper.
Read many more examples here.