The potential to reach new customers increases each time a visitor shares a book through email or word of mouth. Since free products historically have a high click-thru rate based on customer satisfaction, the potential payments may exceed any available to authors online at present. Sample chapters are generally offered free with the hope that readers will pay to download or unlock the rest of the e-book. The reading can be done online, offline, or in a portable reading device, depending on the programs format. This doesn't seem to have been effective and can even frustrate and alienate the reader.
Few people pay to download the rest.
Recently the push has been towards digital storage of books that can be printed on request. While e-book sales are improving as technology grows and more people become acclimated to a computer environment for reading, the results, unfortunately, have not been what authors and publishers originally anticipated. The brave, new world of online novel sales never quite materialized. Viewers and listeners do not pay to see or hear TV and radio programs. They receive them free in exchange for viewing ads that support the shows by leading customers to the advertisers' products.