Online life
Apr. 14th, 2007 03:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ksmithMuch discussion these past few days. Howard Hendrix, the current SFWA Veep, unleashed a bit of a firestorm with his post in the ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
sfwa LJ, especially the comment that those who post free books/stories on the web are scabs:
A scab is someone who works for less than union wages or on non-union terms; more broadly, a scab is someone who feathers his own nest and advances his own career by undercutting the efforts of his fellow workers to gain better pay and working conditions for all.
Other writers took exception to this assertion. Given that I am planning to post the odd free short work on my website in the hope of drumming up interest in ENDGAME and the other Jani books, I felt the sting myself. Whether it's justified or not, an accusation of undercutting fellow writers hurts.
John Scalzi responded, among others. "Pixel-stained Technopeasant Wretch" has entered the lexicon, and there should be items available at CafePress even as I type.
In this, as in just about every other damned subject, I can see both sides, and my feelings abide in the grey between.
The web is here to stay--duh. It offers marketing and promotion opportunities of possibly amazing scope and breadth--double duh. Publishing is changing. Ways of getting one's name and work out there.
That being said, the jury is still out, imho, as to whether free distribution leads to increase in sales. The writers for whom this apparently is working quite well--Scalzi, Cory Doctorow, Charlie Stross, were, I believe, strong online personalities with major followings whose work aligned with the sorts of tech they discussed. Cory and Charlie write near future cutting edge stuff. Scalzi seems to write more space opera, but he's a savvy marketer with a strong online presence, and that matters when you decide to promote online. Like most self-promo, it's not for the faint of heart. But consistent strong self-expression works like a gravity well, pulling in the miscellaneous floating bodies looking for places to orbit. There's a lot of vague out here on the web. Strong signals attract.
I would like to see numbers. I recall an essay of Cory's in which he discussed the 300K free downloads of, iirc, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, and the subsequent increase in print runs and sales. I don't recall specific numbers though--numbers of copies sold that could be related to the online exposure. I do recall some hand-waving explanation that direct comparison with other writers at similar stages in their careers couldn't be made. Sorry, but those are the sorts of comparisons I need in order to decide whether or not releasing big chunks of free work is a viable marketing strategy. Even a guesstimate would have been nice. 25% bump in sales? 50% 100%
5% 10% Not sure if it made a difference, but it seemed to?
Even additional print runs are relative--2500 copies? 5000? 10,000? If Cory's 300K free downloads led to 30K sales, that would be really nice for a skiffy hardcover, an incredible bump. Even 15K additional sales . But assertions that it must be obvious that it's helping, that some folks are laughing all the way to the bank, aren't data. They're assertions by people who are not shy about expressing their opinions, and whose sureness about the whole set-up may be working to attract eyeballs to their sites and possibly, readers to their work.
IOW, when I see that quiet fantasy authors without much of an online presence experience substantial bumps in sales when they release free work on the web, I'll believe that it's truly a viable across-the-board marketing strategy. When I see it working for writers who don't already have the Cult of Personality working for them. Who don't already operate as online gravity wells.
I believe that Peter Watts, whose Blindsight sales was driven along by a CC release, said that he wasn't sure the it would continue to prove a viable strategy if everyone did it.
Don't get in my face and tell me that I'm simply failing to see the obvious. Don't tell me that it has worked for music--different medium, with a different level of concentration required in order to enjoy and simple ways to download and listen. I would like to believe that something that I have some control over, namely the free release of my work, could help my career and my sales. But until I see numbers, percentages, hard data, until I see some consistency and workability across a broad range of writer styles/personalities/genres, I'm going to walk along the edge of the shore and let others wade in up to their chins.
sfwa LJ, especially the comment that those who post free books/stories on the web are scabs:A scab is someone who works for less than union wages or on non-union terms; more broadly, a scab is someone who feathers his own nest and advances his own career by undercutting the efforts of his fellow workers to gain better pay and working conditions for all.
Other writers took exception to this assertion. Given that I am planning to post the odd free short work on my website in the hope of drumming up interest in ENDGAME and the other Jani books, I felt the sting myself. Whether it's justified or not, an accusation of undercutting fellow writers hurts.
John Scalzi responded, among others. "Pixel-stained Technopeasant Wretch" has entered the lexicon, and there should be items available at CafePress even as I type.
In this, as in just about every other damned subject, I can see both sides, and my feelings abide in the grey between.
The web is here to stay--duh. It offers marketing and promotion opportunities of possibly amazing scope and breadth--double duh. Publishing is changing. Ways of getting one's name and work out there.
That being said, the jury is still out, imho, as to whether free distribution leads to increase in sales. The writers for whom this apparently is working quite well--Scalzi, Cory Doctorow, Charlie Stross, were, I believe, strong online personalities with major followings whose work aligned with the sorts of tech they discussed. Cory and Charlie write near future cutting edge stuff. Scalzi seems to write more space opera, but he's a savvy marketer with a strong online presence, and that matters when you decide to promote online. Like most self-promo, it's not for the faint of heart. But consistent strong self-expression works like a gravity well, pulling in the miscellaneous floating bodies looking for places to orbit. There's a lot of vague out here on the web. Strong signals attract.
I would like to see numbers. I recall an essay of Cory's in which he discussed the 300K free downloads of, iirc, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, and the subsequent increase in print runs and sales. I don't recall specific numbers though--numbers of copies sold that could be related to the online exposure. I do recall some hand-waving explanation that direct comparison with other writers at similar stages in their careers couldn't be made. Sorry, but those are the sorts of comparisons I need in order to decide whether or not releasing big chunks of free work is a viable marketing strategy. Even a guesstimate would have been nice. 25% bump in sales? 50% 100%
5% 10% Not sure if it made a difference, but it seemed to?
Even additional print runs are relative--2500 copies? 5000? 10,000? If Cory's 300K free downloads led to 30K sales, that would be really nice for a skiffy hardcover, an incredible bump. Even 15K additional sales . But assertions that it must be obvious that it's helping, that some folks are laughing all the way to the bank, aren't data. They're assertions by people who are not shy about expressing their opinions, and whose sureness about the whole set-up may be working to attract eyeballs to their sites and possibly, readers to their work.
IOW, when I see that quiet fantasy authors without much of an online presence experience substantial bumps in sales when they release free work on the web, I'll believe that it's truly a viable across-the-board marketing strategy. When I see it working for writers who don't already have the Cult of Personality working for them. Who don't already operate as online gravity wells.
I believe that Peter Watts, whose Blindsight sales was driven along by a CC release, said that he wasn't sure the it would continue to prove a viable strategy if everyone did it.
Don't get in my face and tell me that I'm simply failing to see the obvious. Don't tell me that it has worked for music--different medium, with a different level of concentration required in order to enjoy and simple ways to download and listen. I would like to believe that something that I have some control over, namely the free release of my work, could help my career and my sales. But until I see numbers, percentages, hard data, until I see some consistency and workability across a broad range of writer styles/personalities/genres, I'm going to walk along the edge of the shore and let others wade in up to their chins.
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no subject
Date: 2007-04-14 11:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-14 11:30 pm (UTC)I suspect that if they do give you numbers, the idea will hold up though. A few years back, they offered a $1.99 hardback edition of the first Honor Harrington book. They still offer a $3.99 paperback of that, and of the first novel in John Ringo's Councel Wars series. I think the free ebooks are pretty much the same idea. A loss leader to get people hooked on a writer, or more often, a series. After all, they give you the first Honor Harrington for free, then hit you for $8 - $26 bucks a pop for the other 14+ in the series... They're making the money.
no subject
Date: 2007-04-14 11:36 pm (UTC)This could have been because the writers were new. It could have been packaging in part, since Eos was playing with non-representational cover artwork, another experiment that apparently failed and was discontinued.
no subject
Date: 2007-04-14 11:55 pm (UTC)As for the $1.99 hardback, to borrow a metaphor, it was the literary equivelant of standing on the corner handing out free vials of crack. On Basalisk Station isn't David Weber's best work, but it's good enough to get you to come back for the second book in the series, which is good enough to get you to come back for the third. The third book, if you like space opera, is an absolute work of art.
Judging from personal experience as a reader, rather than as I writer, I think the free sample approach works. I wouldn't have ever shelled out money for Eric's 1632 if I hadn't read it in the free library. I wouldn't have bought Travis S. Taylor's books if I hadn't gotten them for free on one of Baen's promotional CD's.
no subject
Date: 2007-04-16 02:34 am (UTC)I did download Blindsight and Accelerando, when they were offered for free. I haven't read either of them yet, although I read other Charles Stross books in hardcopy. I really appreciated Naomi Novik's free short story in her Temeraire series on her LJ, and it did bring the series back into my consciousness during the long wait until August.
First few chapters online is essential though - there are so many books out there and it can be quite hard to find a physical copy. If I'm hooked on the first few chapters online, well... that's easy to ring into the shop and ask for one to be put aside.