Faber & Faber has announced a plan to release early ebook versions of forthcoming titles under a “pay what you like” scheme. According to a story on The Bookseller by Catherine Neilan, the first book offered will be a book of non-fiction, Ben Wilson‘s What Price Liberty? A Faber marketing executive, Silvia Novak, the main aim was “to stimulate debate for the issues at the centre of this book, as well as generating interest for the book itself.”

But it sounds as if their “main aim” is actually something expressed in a Novak quote that appears later in the piece: “We’re wondering whether a reader’s perspective will change from the initial rush of getting something for free — or close to — to an actual enjoyment of a piece of work, and whether that would translate into wanting to pay more for that experience.” As for the impact on the physical book: “Novak said she was not concerned about the potential for cannabalising sales, claiming interest generated from the initiative would be ‘wholly positive in its impact on sales of physical copies, adding sales rather than replacing them.'”

A report in The Guardian by Richard Lea points out that it’s the same method the rock band Radiohead used to release its last record … and what Lea kindly leaves out is that, er, it didn’t work all that well. Author Wilson, meanwhile, “is confident his work won’t be cheapened by the suggestion that it is available for nothing,” says Lea. Wilson tells him:”The ideas are always judged in the same way, whether someone’s paid £14.99 or a penny. Any way you can get those ideas out there, the better.”