Authors, publishers say book ’em — online

USAToday has An Interesting Story on the rather new practice of posting excerpts of new books online to help stoke sales. They say it\’s become normal practice to put a sample online, and it helps sell more books.

\”I would say both publishers and authors feel that putting a percentage of the book online for people to read and get a taste of it is a great promotion for the book and really helps sales,\” said Jessica Carter, an executive in charge of online promotions at the publisher Alfred A. Knopf in New York.\”