I'd be glad to pay now that I've enjoyed reading it… but I'd almost certainly not have read it if I had had to pay first.
I like the approach taken (among others) by Matthew Butterick for Practical Typography [1]: I've enjoyed reading his book the same way and gladly paid for it /after/, as he asks, even though I would not have bought it at first.
I think the author made enough money off co-founding Redgate Software that he probably doesn't need a few dollars off you.
I read it when it first came out. Its very good. Pricing is a surprisingly interesting and deep subject that is heavily intertwined with microeconomics and psychology.
