The ‘what do we recommend to readers to get them started’ debate is well and truly out there.
I will, therefore, switch topics momentarily.
Several sites have been discussing the effectiveness of ‘giving away’ free fiction as a means to generate interest and sales. Touching that question – ‘is short fiction dying?’ and ‘is the print magazine/digest dead’?
John Scalzi has a short up on TOR.com (go there, sign up) that has gotten (what is it now, twice?) a huge number of hits, hits in excess of the circulation of all of the SF digests. He was recently asked if he thinks that the story’s presence and popularity is leading to additional sales.
His answer has been ‘no way to know scientifically, but it seems to be’.
Today I happened to purchase his novel The Last Colony (I was going for Zoe’s Tale but had to ‘settle’) at a Barnes and Noble in Concord, NH.
I mentioned to the sales clerk that they’d need to restock since I was buying the last copy on the shelves. His response surprised me a bit: “We’ve been selling a lot of his books lately. We’ve had to restock several times. I loved the opening of his Old Man’s War…”
Surprise that the clerk knew Scalzi and had read him, and surprised that he was aware that ‘Scalzi has been selling good’.
So, it’s not scientific, but at least at one chain store in New Hampshire there has been an upsurge in sales ‘recently’ and they’ve had to restock.
I come to the free fiction debate from an older tradition that basically says ‘you can never sell something that you give away for free’.
I’m beginning to think it is a different marketplace. It appears that at least established authors can, in effect, sell what they’re giving away for free. The question now is – will free works from headline authors positively affect the sales of ‘associated product’ – stories by authors from the same publisher, for example?
Harlan Ellison has something to say about doing things for free.
The question now is – will free works from headline authors positively affect the sales of ‘associated product’ – stories by authors from the same publisher, for example?
You may not care about one fan’s answer, but I will provide it:
Oh heck yes! And even more so if you provide it to me in the same format. I’ve been buying quite a few books from Baen in ebook format. The only reason I stumbled across Baen at all is the Baen Free Library. I’ve bought 30-40 books they publish in the last couple years. You mention John Scalzi. Since Old Man’s War was put out as a free ebook this spring, I’ve worked my way through everything he’s written (even if I had to buy hard copies). Same with the free ebook of Robert Charles Wilson’s Spin. I’ve also talked them up to my family.
Frankly, I can’t wait for TOR to get back to doing business with Webscriptions. I’ve got two young children, so it’s hard to find time to sit down with a book. But an ebook on my PDA? I can cover a couple pages while rocking someone to sleep, or while being used as a giant teddy bear. I’ve bought ebooks of by several authors on webscriptions. I’ve taken chances on some without having heard of an author before because Baen’s pricing is just right to take a chance.
notheroldfart-
Harlan’s talking about working for free. Scalzi has been paid for everything people can read for free online.
Paul,
You’re correct, but I know that other old fart really well (went to school with him) and while he mentioned the ‘writing for free’ commentary offered by Harlan in that clip, I’m pretty sure that the other thing he was bringing to our attention is how Harlan was talking about the old guard vs the new guard.
Scalzi would be a perfect example of an author demanding payment for his work – and getting it.
Andy,
I love opinions – anyone’s. I love commentary too – so thanks – and thanks for the input on the question.
My personal take is that I suspect they’re finding that this free promotional stuff is getting some people in the door, but that they need to do more by way of a positive transition from one author to another; to illustrate, I offer something as crass as “if you enjoyed this piece by John Scalzi – here’s where you can get his novels, and if you’re looking for more, John says he really likes X by author so-and-so”
John already does this himself on his blog; the publishers need to pick it up and run with it.
Steve- yep.
I found my way to John’s blog after reading OMW. It’s gone into my feed reader, so I’m getting his suggestions. But I can agree that a good recommendations engine would be well worth doing. Amazon used to do it fairly well, but they’re awash in bad suggestions the last several years it seems. They don’t even recommend new books by author’s I’ve rated highly if the rating isn’t recent.
It gets hard to find new stuff that I want to spend money on and give valuable shelf space to in my dwindling corner of the house that isn’t overrun with toys.
Andy,
it may keep me a bit behind at times, but I find one way to ‘solve’ that problem is to wait for the awards hubub to die down and then see what’s still being pushed on the shelves.
I’m also fortunate in having a circle of friends who’s tastes differ from mine yet who are close enough to my own likes that when they recommend something, I know that most of the time I’ll be spending my money well.
On the other hand, if you ask me to choose between a ‘cool new novel’ and an ACE Double first paperback printing in really good shape, archaeology will win almost every time.
It seems like every year at Convergence in Minneapolis, there is at least one (frequently 2, this year.. 4?) guest(s) of honor that write for Baen.
Their own feeling is that the Baen Free Library, and the fact that there is no DRM on WebScription.net eBooks, has had a definite and measurable impact on the sales of their books, particularly the back catalogue.
Eric,
thanks for the info.
I am clear on the ‘loss leader’ concept and the fact that several publishers are now making it work. (I’ve done retail off and on, and marketing off and on and have used the concept in a variety of circumstances).
Where I’m still not (totally) convinced (and here I mean I probably just haven’t seen enough solid evidence yet) is that this concept will translate to authors other than the headliners who’s fiction is offered (which of course makes sense because you want your biggest draws working for you).
With your backlist comment, you seem to be saying that there is yet more evidence that the above mentioned ‘trickle down’ effect IS working.
Do you get a lot of MPLS in ’73 at that con? If so, probably a few folks I ought to have you say hi to for me
Hi there, I just read your post and thought I’d throw in my two cents.
This is an odd debate to me, because I honestly can’t understand the negative side for anyone except traditional publishers.
I came over here from a link on John Scalzi’s blog.
Which is funny, because John Scalzi arguably got his start in professional SF writing by giving stuff away.
David Wellington got his first print contract by giving his novels away on his blog.
Neil Gaiman recently gave E-copies of American Gods away, and according to Harper Collins it most definitely increased sales, at least at Independent Booksellers.
So, I can see (however anecdotal the evidence) that giving stuff away has had positive effects on both newcomers and old pros.
The only argument against it that I can see is that old fashioned publishers don’t know how to work the angle, so they run the risk of “giving it away” and not getting any returns.
And ignorance is never an excuse.
The market has clearly changed–the internet has made copying and distribution virtually free, why not pass some of that on to customers?
To Paul:
Scalzi has been paid, but not by everyone that reads his material. Enough have that he’s made money, but if someone was to read a book for free and decide it isn’t worth buying his books in the future, there’s not much he can do about that.
Conversely, Ellison seems to suggest that everyone that reads the material should pay for it, and thus drive the cycle. Granted, he’s not in a position to need new readers, but if he was than this stance would actually make it harder to market himself to readers.
It’s a give and take, and for new writers it seems to work.
This discussion is part marketing and part IP strategy; divorced of the IP, there are plenty of businesses that incorporate some element of ‘free’ in order to generate paying business: many attorneys will give a ‘free consult’; car dealerships let you take a test drive; the deli counter at the supermarket offers samples.
Much of the ‘new’ economy rests on developing the tail: someone who writes thousands of words may ‘get paid’ through advertising revenue on their site or from t-shirt sales on CafePress.
In all honesty, I think Harlan was ultimately talking not about marketing but about IP issues. He’s engaged in several lawsuits over the issue, has speechified on the subject many times and believes that Copyright and restricting access – or, to put it more favorably for him – retaining control – are what has gotten him where he is today.
Scalzi is, in this instance, talking about marketing. I’m sure that when he put OMW up ‘for free’, he was being paid to write other things and saw this as a way to expand his product offerings. When he sold the novel to TOR, he was probably actually double-dipping – and good for him.
My own blogging efforts are similar in nature. If I want to have a future audience that I expect will generate some income for me, I’ve got to offer them something to be interested in. On the IP side – everything I write, I have to make a decision on whether it’s something that can go in the ‘free pile’ or not. On the marketing side, I’m fully engaged right now in ‘growing the brand’, which is always a negative cash flow situation. But negative cash flow doesn’t mean ‘no pay’, it just means ‘haven’t gotten to the positive cash flow yet’.
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