The author could take advantage of his customers' desire to hand over money by offering something in return, satisfying his need to engage in trade rather than charity. Everyone would be happy. Customers get more stuff, he makes more money, and no one feels like they're getting shafted.
I have little reason to suspect that being in the cloth-map business is going to be any more worthwhile in the long term than being in the IP business.
Example: I've been a fan of the Warcraft universe and lore, and I own a pile of Warcraft merchandise: action figures, posters, t-shirts, and collector's editions of every Blizzard has made a collector's edition for (I don't even play the new WotLK, but I like having the collector's editions for the art and soundtracks).
If he's got some customers are as rabid about his games as I am about the Warcraft universe, he could at least increase his revenue by a few points, even if it's just simple stuff like cloth maps, t-shirts, and soundtracks included with a Collector's edition of a game.
I don't think that's unreasonable. Obviously it's not going to overtake the rest of his business, but it could be an additional source of revenue, and even advertising (T-shirts are walking billboards), people talking about the "awesome" inclusions in collector's editions. Stuff like that.
Edit: He actually does do some special purchase stuff: http://jeff-vogel.blogspot.com/2009/03/so-heres-how-many-gam...
Total Copies Sold of Geneforge 4 as of March 13, 2009: 3979.
Total Gross Sales Geneforge 4 as of March 13, 2009: $111412.
Total Geneforge 4 Hint Books Sold as of March 13, 2009: 807.
Total Gross Sales Geneforge 4 Hint Books as of March 13, 2009: $5649.
The books served for around 5% revenue from Geneforge 4. It's not huge, but it's a little something more.
I also saw this recent announcement from Valve that sounds interesting to help work around this: http://store.steampowered.com/news/2372/
But it does sound like more DRM, albeit a different take on it.
It's the opposite of EA's DRM. EA's DRM makes life harder for the legitimate purchaser. Steam's DRM actually makes life easier for the legitimate purchaser.
It's still tough for the majority of the population to use BitTorrent, they'd rather prefer a Hulu.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/gdc-why-onlive-cant-possib...
He could do any number of things. If you buy Geneforge 5's silver edition you get a signed limited edition Geneforge t-shirt. Gold edition, get a signed limited edition novelization of Geneforge 1-4's story and a signed t-shirt.
Personally, if I'd played the demo and loved it, I'd probably jump into Geneforge 5 with a special edition if I got a book telling me the story I'd have gone through in previous games.
A few loyal fans will be willing to pay more for things that can't easily be reproduced, and I'd hedge my bets that if he's earning a living off of an indie game he's got enough loyal fans that this would probably be quite profitable (especially if people want to give him money).
