Opinions are divided among Western authors and publishers as to whether free fiction available online boosts or damages the sales of physical product – witness Pixel-stained Technopeasantry. Wired reports that the book business in China is in fact undergoing a renaissance thanks to the increasingly popular pastime of reading novels online, and that the stories go on to be used in other media like television and computer games. The question is, will the same model work in the West?