PROFILE

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FREE

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CHRIS ANDERSON THINKS YOU SHOULD
CONSIDER GIVING YOUR BOOK AWAY.
HERE’S WHY.

BY JORDAN E. ROSENFELD

Chris Anderson wants to give his next book to you for free. No, the Wired magazine editor-in-chief and author of The Long Tail hasn’t lost his mind, nor is he trying to go broke. It probably doesn’t even have anything to do with the fact that he’s a trained physicist and a descendant of one of the founders of the American anarchist movement. With his keen eye for trends in the Internet-driven world and the tech savvy that earned Wired its first National Magazine Award under his tenure, Anderson believes giving away his book will actually help him sell more books.

Some might think being named one of Time magazine’s top 100 people shaping the world in 2007 has unhinged

the man, but Anderson is accustomed to being seen as a maverick who forges his own path. While he publishes a magazine (print and online versions) and writes books, he isn’t steeped in a media world, but rather one of science and technology, and he has good friends at leading tech companies. Though the stylishly bald but youthful-looking Anderson claims to have spent the requisite chunk of his twenties working hard at being a slacker, there’s little evidence of aimlessness in him today.

After earning a physics degree from George Washington University, he performed research at Los Alamos National Laboratory and worked for Nature, Science and The Economist before coming to Wired in 2001.

ILLUSTRATION © DAVE WHEELER