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.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-04-14 11:42 pm (UTC)It does seem to me from people I know that an online presence helps, but we're all really wired, so we're not a random sample. Part of the reason I checked out Cherie Priest's Four and Twenty Blackbirds is that I remembered her fondly from
I don't know. The idea that Cory Doctorow posting Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom online somehow takes food out of Howard Hendrix's mouth sounds like crazy talk to me. The data seems to support the pro-online side to me, but it's hardly conclusive.
no subject
Date: 2007-04-15 12:21 am (UTC)To use a perfect example (since it is Kristine's live journal), I first noticed her name while I was starting my agent search. She's on Jennifer Jackson's client list. I decided to read her story "Incident on a Small Colony" in part because I saw her name on the client list of Jim Butcher's agent, and wanted to check out the work of some of Ms. Jackson's other clients to see if she was buying the kind of stuff I'm selling right now. Seeing them on Jennifer Jackson's client list also got me to shell out for a book by C. E. Murphy, one by Elizabeth Bear and Rob Thurman.
Which is a pretty weird way to find new authors, admittedly.
The thing is, I don't think there is any magic promotional bullet. I just think every little bit helps. I was on the fence about C. E. Murphy's Urban Shaman until I read the sample chapters. I hit the end of said samples, went "Uh! Most have more!" and ordered the book about ten minutes later.
The thing that got my back up about Howard's post is the implication that by taking advantage of a promotional tool, those of us with work freely available online are somehow hurting other authors.
The thing is, I've already been paid for that work. Paid well for it. And Baen is giving it away as a way to entice people into buying the full version of The Best of Jim Baen's Universe. If 'Best of' does well, not only will I make more money off that story than I already have, several other authors will also see an additional profit from the sales. In short, my work is available for free to help me, and other authors, increase the profits our profits. Not as a way to weaken the bargaining positions of others when they are trying to negotiate a contract.