Award-winning Author Releases Collection as Free Creative Commons-Licensed Download

Award-winning short story writer Kelly Link's new collection, MAGIC FOR BEGINNERS, is being celebrated in a peculiar way by publisher Small Beer Press. Small Beer, based out of Northampton, MA, is quite happily giving away copies of Link's debut collection STRANGER THINGS HAPPEN as a free download using a Creative Commons License.

(PRWEB) July 3, 2005 -- Award-winning short story writer Kelly Link's new collection MAGIC FOR BEGINNERS (July 1, 2005, Fiction/Short Stories, $24, ISBN: 1-931520-15-1, illus. by Shelley Jackson), is being celebrated in a peculiar way by publisher Small Beer Press.

Small Beer, based out of Northampton, MA, is quite happily giving away copies of Link's debut collection STRANGER THINGS HAPPEN as a free download using a Creative Commons License.

Link, 35, recently found out she her story, "Stone Animals" from Conjunctions 43, has been selected for the next volume of the Best American Short Stories. Her new collection has received a starred review from Publishers Weekly -- and praise from writers such as Michael Chabon and Alice Sebold. Her stories are published in everything from literary journals (Fence), genre anthologies (The Faery Reel), zines (One Story, Say) to McSweeneys Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales and have been awarded the Tiptree, World Fantasy, and Nebula Awards.

Publisher Gavin Grant, 34, says they he and Link were inspired by author and copyright activist Cory Doctorow who had put each of his books online under a Creative Commons license.

"We're a tiny independent press," said Grant. "Of course we want to explore different methods of getting our books out to readers -- and in spreading the word about Creative Commons."

He continued, "We don't expect this to kill sales.. If anything, it may help. After all, the book is already available in hundreds of libraries, on print.google.com, Amazon.com's Search Inside program, and even on BookCrossing. None of these programs have stopped the book from finding readers."

Readers have the choice of STRANGER THINGS HAPPEN as a Plain text, HTML, RTF, & PDF files.

http://www.lcrw.net/kellylink/sth/index.htm

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Kelly Links debut collection Stranger Things Happen is in its fourth printing and has been translated into Japanese. Her stories have appeared in many magazines and anthologies including Fence, The Vintage Book of Amnesia, Conjunctions, McSweeneys, and "Stone Animals" has been selected for inclusion in The Best American Short Stories.

A graduate of Columbia University and the MFA program at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, she once won a free trip around the world by answering the question "Why do you want to go around the world?" ("Because you cant go through it.") Link lives in Northampton, MA.

ABOUT SMALL BEER PRESS:

Since its founding in 2000, Small Beer Press has published Kalpa Imperial, Ursula K. Le Guins translation of Angélica Gorodischers award-winning novel; Carol Emshwillers The Mount (Philip K. Dick Award winner, reprinted by Penguin Firebird); and Book Sense Notable Picks Perfect Circle by Sean Stewart and Mothers & Other Monsters by Maureen F. McHugh, among others. Since 1996 we have published a small lit-zine, LCRW and recently kicked off a classic reprint series, Peapod Classics.

Links:

Free Download        http://www.lcrw.net/kellylink/sth/index.htm

Bio + Photos        http://www.lcrw.net/kellylink/bio.htm

Small Beer Press    http://www.smallbeerpress.com

Cory Doctorow         http://www.craphound.com

Creative Commons    http://www.creativecommons.org

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