SORRY! We are no longer shipping free books.

The printed copies of Version Control by Example arrived last week. We moved seven tons of books into our fourth-floor office space and all the tenants on the third floor are still alive.

Now that we have lots of copies, I want to give a bunch of them away.

How do I get one of those free books?

Fill out our book request form at:

http://book.sourcegear.com/vcbe/request_book

Do I have to pay for shipping?

Nope.

What if I'm outside the United States?

~~No problem.~~ Sorry, we are no longer shipping books outside the United States.

I'd prefer to pay for the book. Will the request form accept a credit card number?

Nope.

Don't you at least have a tip jar?

Nope.

I really want to pay for my copy. Can't you help me do this?

OK, fine. The book will also be available on Amazon. Things aren't fully set up yet, but the book is in the Amazon system, and they should be showing it as "in stock" pretty soon.

Why are you giving away books?

Because I want to make this content accessible to more people. Some people like paper. Not everyone reads blogs.

But isn't this kind of expensive?

Not really. I've done lots of things crazier than this. Heck, people often pay more per click on AdWords than it costs to print and ship a book.

So this book is just advertising hype?

Gosh, I hope not. It was written to be balanced and objective. I had feedback from dozens of reviewers, all of whom were evaluating the content as a saleable version control book.

If it's not advertising, then why did you compare your book giveaway to AdWords?

Because I do get some benefit from people reading my book, including increased awareness of me and what I do.

"Increased awareness"? That still sounds like marketing.

Yeah kinda.

I just like to write content that (1) people want to read, and (2) talks about what I am doing.

If I can't talk about what I'm doing while keeping it interesting for readers, then I'm probably not doing anything interesting.

I've been using this formula on my blog for years. Now I'm just doing it on paper too.

Whatever. If you're giving this book away, it must be crap, right?

Gosh, I hope not. But don't take my word for it. The entire book is online in several different formats. The printed edition has the same content -- it's just prettier. And heavier.

How long will this offer be available?

I don't know. We reserve the right to discontinue it or change the terms at any time.