Flutterby™! : Comics, piracy, and how to sell

Ages ago, at an Alternative Press Expo, I picked up a copy of Greg Rucka and Steve Lieber's Whiteout, and quite enjoyed the tale.

I'd heard vague rumblings about Jeff Parker and Steve Lieber's Underground, but it was Erica Moen mentioning that Steve Lieber found scans of the book pirated on 4chan and responded by participating in the thread and putting higher quality PDFs of the book on his site for free that got my attention.

Steve compares the sales boost that 4chan piracy gave him versus a review on BoingBoing.

Also note that Steve really gets it about "viral" marketing:

FWIW, I don’t think this is likely to be the start of a gentrified 4chan. I was like some guy who stumbled into town with a head injury. The locals patched me up and sent me on my way. Anyone who is dumb enough to look at my visit and think “I can move in and build a Starbucks!” is going to have a very different experience.