* The shape of things to come?

It seems that offering free PDFs as a way to garner attention for one’s website/blog/publication is rapidly gaining favor. POD (Print on demand) offers the author/publisher to produce only the amount of copies needed, rather than kill an bunch of trees for nothing.

A few weeks ago, SABR published its Emerald Guide to Baseball as a free PDF download (340 pages-worth of material), while offering a for-purchase “hard” version as well. Now it’s the Amazin’ Avenue Annual 2010, put out by the Mets-centric blog.

The Annual offers a nice combination of essays (James Kannengesier’s “drinking game” based on the broadcasts of Keith Hernandez, Ron Darling, and Gary Cohen is a must-read) and stats from contributors, including

* Tim Marchman (SI.com)
* Michael G. Baron (MetsPhotos.com)
* Tommy Bennett (Baseball Prospectus)
* Ted Berg (SNY.tv)
* Justin Bopp (Beyond the Boxscore)
* Brian Borawski (Hardball Times)
* Derek Carty (Hardball Times)
* Matthew Cerrone (MetsBlog.com)
* Jason Fry and Greg Prince (Faith and Fear in Flushing)
* Toby Hyde (Mets Minor League Blog)
* Howard Megdal (The Perpetual Post)
* Mike Newman (Scouting the Sally)
* Marc Normandin (Baseball Prospectus)
* Harry Pavlidis (Hardball Times)
* Dave Studeman (Hardball Times)

The Annual offers recaps and previews, an extensive look at the Mets’ farm system, player profiles, and the proverbial “much, much more.”The fact that there were so many cooks does not spoil the broth. In fact, it makes it all the more entertaining.

Eric Simon, who has been running the Amazin’ Avenue site since its inception in 2005, explained the philosophy of his publication in a Q&A with The Bookshelf:

* * *

BOOKSHELF: This looks like quite a project to assemble. How did the call go out for contributors?
SIMON: Apart from the five regular writers on Amazin’ Avenue, we had some internal discussions about which writers, covering the Mets or otherwise, would be good fits for the book. Some of those were Mets bloggers, some were general internet baseball writers, though each had a particular strength that we thought would be an area of coverage we were in need of.

BOOKSHELF: I assume none of the contributors received payment for their essays?
SIMON: That’s right. Everyone generously donated their time and effort to a project they basically knew nothing about. It’s still a mystery to me why so many people agreed to be involved.

BOOKSHELF: Why did you decide to offer the Annual as a free download? Don’t you want to make any money for all the hard work?
SIMON: One of the original goals of the project was to create a professional product that would show off the potential of sports bloggers in general and of Amazin’ Avenue in particular, and it was extremely important that as many people as possible be exposed to the book. We kicked around a variety of monetization strategies but ultimately decided that a free PDF was the best way to maximize both creative control and audience size.

BOOKSHELF: Was the final product pretty much as you envisioned it?
SIMON: It turned out far better than any of us could reasonably have hoped for. It’s a legitimate baseball book. I’m pretty sure we’ll do it again. It was a lot of work, but a significant amount of time was spent making certain decisions this year for which we will already have answers the next time around. The experience of doing it once should make subsequent editions considerably easier. Not easy, but definitely easier.

* * *

If you’re interested in purchasing a hard copy of the book, visit AmazinAvenueAnnual.com. Simon says (Ouch. He must get a lot of that) printed copies will be available shortly via Amazon. “A standard bound version will be $8-10, and a full-color version will run closer to $30. In each case, the price you pay is exactly what Amazon charges, so again we’re not making any money on the transaction. A Kindle version will also be available, also at cost (likely a couple of bucks, or whatever Amazon charges for the transaction).”

Tagged as: New York Mets