It's one of those ridiculously busy summers, but it's all fabulous fun. I'm utterly delighted to be part of Kindle Authors UK, a group of traditional and indie published writers with work on Kindle, and, er, me.
There's a fabulous line-up of Emma Barnes, Debbie Bennett, Karen Bush, Ann Evans, Lynne Garner, Karen King, Joan Lennon, Susan Price, Enid Richemnot and Katherine Roberts.
It's a great chance to know them and their books and to listen to us all burble on once a month. I'll be posting every 16th. I'll be causing general mayhem as usual, probably babbling about live readings, and almost certainly unable to avoid posting some free poems for people, and talking about amazing writers. My first post, "Let's Talk About It" is, unsurprisingly about how much I love live shows.
Do pop over and say hello - and discover some amazing writers.
Thursday, 16 June 2011
Wednesday, 15 June 2011
Has Amazon declared war on the indies?
(And could that be the best thing that ever happened to us?)
So – hands up who calls themselves an indie? Hands up if you’ve enjoyed selling on Kindle? And hands up if you think you’ve got less lazy since you started selling on Kindle? I don’t mean time lazy, I mean idea lazy.
Still with me?
OK, I’ll start. Today sees the end of Amazon’s Sunshine Deals summer reading extravaganza, and for many indie authors it can’t come a day too soon. The effect on those of us tenuously in the top 100 has been devastating. Sales have tanked (from around 120 a day to 40 a day in my case) as ultra-cheap books by established authors have demonstrated that readers’ love of all things indie actually referred to price not content. And they’ll be with us for a while to come now they’ve worked into the recommendation algorithm.
But that’s not the most worrying development. The US forum moderators kicked all promotion threads into a “Meet Our Authors” forum, and today it seems at least two global changes have kicked in. The “insert product link” button no longer lists books, so you have to manually type in/paste a live link to a book, and the brackets many of us used after our book titles have all disappeared.
Those were two of the indies’ biggest marketing tools – the former offering readers simplicity, the latter being an attention grabber. These changes affect everyone in theory, but in practice impact the indies most.
So this is war on the indies, right? Well, quite possibly. Almost certainly Amazon is clearing the way for its own publishing programme.
But so what? I’m an indie. I’ve been saying for a while I think we’ve seen a change in what that means as more and more people with mainstream genre books have “gone indie”, meaning they’ve self-published, usually through Kindle. Heck, I’ve had a genre book in the top 100 bestsellers for almost 3 weeks. But for me whilst that’s great, and it’s been a financial lifeline at an incredibly difficult time on a personal level, it has nothing to do with REALLY being indie. I argued in April that the real winners on Kindle would be prolific midlisters who built a fanbase and didn’t rely on market vagaries – they would successfully replace the modest-income-addition they’d lost as publishers dropped their modest-income-addition-generating midlist.
For me being an indie is about freedom. It’s about writing the books you want, no, the books you *have* to write, and then being free to put them out in the world. They can be genre books or the most obscure experimentation, but the point is you didn’t put them there to make money, you did it because it mattered to do it your way, and to find your own readers, and get to know them and interact, and be less faceless than a regular author. Being indie is about individuality and community all rolled into one.
Which brings me back to my initial questions. It’s been too easy to make sales as an “indie” on Kindle. Lots of people spent lots of time on Amazon forums (yeah, me too) posting links to their books. They spent more time marketing than ever before, and with real success, and thought that was the key. Sound familiar, not just on a personal level but in terms of Business Studies 101? Yeah, of course it does. It’s the blinkered behaviour that’s characterised every bubble since time began – find a surefire way that works and stop looking for an alternative. Then wail and rend clothes when that surefire way vanishes.
Of course not everyone who Kindled their books was like that. The forums are filled with people who’ve used them to build a genuine relationship, Kevin Kelly style (I’ve said time and again the past two years how weird it is people stopped talking 1000 true fans – the reason’s simple: 1000 true fans isn’t easy. It seemed ersatz. It wasn’t). And people who do other stuff as well. They’ll be the ones who ride out the storm, because the readers will follow them.
And what of people like me, and the rag tag bunch of us at Year Zero and eight cuts gallery for whom indie is an ethos not a business strategy? Well, I’ll carry on doing live shows, weird online exhibitions, sharing recipes, and looking for weird and wonderful ways to bring what I write to people who don’t know about it. I’ll thank Amazon for the kick up the backside and warning not to get complacent (as well as for the sales whilst they were there of course). I’ll remind myself every day of what matters about writing, and culture as a whole. And I have to say I’ll rather enjoy the fact that very soon it’ll stop being cool to be indie. It’s made me a bit hot under the collar flyingthat close to the mainstream sun.
And at teh risk of sounding like a "take your medicine" parent, it'll do indie writers in general a power of good. The real indie writers. Those who've succeeded on Kindle because they engaged with readers will carry on succeeding. For everyone else the end of a cash cow may eb what's needed to get them doing it right and non-lazily before they learn bad habits.
Oh, and here are my books :)
Black Heart High
The Company of Fellows
The Man Who Painted Agnieszka's Shoes
Songs from the Other Side of the Wall
(life:) razorblades included
So – hands up who calls themselves an indie? Hands up if you’ve enjoyed selling on Kindle? And hands up if you think you’ve got less lazy since you started selling on Kindle? I don’t mean time lazy, I mean idea lazy.
Still with me?
OK, I’ll start. Today sees the end of Amazon’s Sunshine Deals summer reading extravaganza, and for many indie authors it can’t come a day too soon. The effect on those of us tenuously in the top 100 has been devastating. Sales have tanked (from around 120 a day to 40 a day in my case) as ultra-cheap books by established authors have demonstrated that readers’ love of all things indie actually referred to price not content. And they’ll be with us for a while to come now they’ve worked into the recommendation algorithm.
But that’s not the most worrying development. The US forum moderators kicked all promotion threads into a “Meet Our Authors” forum, and today it seems at least two global changes have kicked in. The “insert product link” button no longer lists books, so you have to manually type in/paste a live link to a book, and the brackets many of us used after our book titles have all disappeared.
Those were two of the indies’ biggest marketing tools – the former offering readers simplicity, the latter being an attention grabber. These changes affect everyone in theory, but in practice impact the indies most.
So this is war on the indies, right? Well, quite possibly. Almost certainly Amazon is clearing the way for its own publishing programme.
But so what? I’m an indie. I’ve been saying for a while I think we’ve seen a change in what that means as more and more people with mainstream genre books have “gone indie”, meaning they’ve self-published, usually through Kindle. Heck, I’ve had a genre book in the top 100 bestsellers for almost 3 weeks. But for me whilst that’s great, and it’s been a financial lifeline at an incredibly difficult time on a personal level, it has nothing to do with REALLY being indie. I argued in April that the real winners on Kindle would be prolific midlisters who built a fanbase and didn’t rely on market vagaries – they would successfully replace the modest-income-addition they’d lost as publishers dropped their modest-income-addition-generating midlist.
For me being an indie is about freedom. It’s about writing the books you want, no, the books you *have* to write, and then being free to put them out in the world. They can be genre books or the most obscure experimentation, but the point is you didn’t put them there to make money, you did it because it mattered to do it your way, and to find your own readers, and get to know them and interact, and be less faceless than a regular author. Being indie is about individuality and community all rolled into one.
Which brings me back to my initial questions. It’s been too easy to make sales as an “indie” on Kindle. Lots of people spent lots of time on Amazon forums (yeah, me too) posting links to their books. They spent more time marketing than ever before, and with real success, and thought that was the key. Sound familiar, not just on a personal level but in terms of Business Studies 101? Yeah, of course it does. It’s the blinkered behaviour that’s characterised every bubble since time began – find a surefire way that works and stop looking for an alternative. Then wail and rend clothes when that surefire way vanishes.
Of course not everyone who Kindled their books was like that. The forums are filled with people who’ve used them to build a genuine relationship, Kevin Kelly style (I’ve said time and again the past two years how weird it is people stopped talking 1000 true fans – the reason’s simple: 1000 true fans isn’t easy. It seemed ersatz. It wasn’t). And people who do other stuff as well. They’ll be the ones who ride out the storm, because the readers will follow them.
And what of people like me, and the rag tag bunch of us at Year Zero and eight cuts gallery for whom indie is an ethos not a business strategy? Well, I’ll carry on doing live shows, weird online exhibitions, sharing recipes, and looking for weird and wonderful ways to bring what I write to people who don’t know about it. I’ll thank Amazon for the kick up the backside and warning not to get complacent (as well as for the sales whilst they were there of course). I’ll remind myself every day of what matters about writing, and culture as a whole. And I have to say I’ll rather enjoy the fact that very soon it’ll stop being cool to be indie. It’s made me a bit hot under the collar flyingthat close to the mainstream sun.
And at teh risk of sounding like a "take your medicine" parent, it'll do indie writers in general a power of good. The real indie writers. Those who've succeeded on Kindle because they engaged with readers will carry on succeeding. For everyone else the end of a cash cow may eb what's needed to get them doing it right and non-lazily before they learn bad habits.
Oh, and here are my books :)
Black Heart High
The Company of Fellows
The Man Who Painted Agnieszka's Shoes
Songs from the Other Side of the Wall
(life:) razorblades included
Sunday, 12 June 2011
Kindle Summer Book Club
I'm delighted that Black Heart High is part of the Kindle Summer Book Club, a really rather super reading and discussion group to take away the summer blues (well I get summer blues, anyway - I like dark and dank myself :)), featuring books by some of the bestselling independent authors on Kindle.
Coming very soon will be an anthology featuring all the writers, but the hub of the group is the FRABJOUS FACEBOOK PAGE. CLICK HERE TO LIKE IT. Each week we'll be discussing a new book - there's a list below. It'll be like Richard and Judy/Oprah (delete as approporiate - for those in the US, Richard and Judy are like Oprah but without the love-hate relationship with James Frey; for those in the UK, Oprah is like Richard and Judy only without the shoplifting beef).
So here's the books! Links are to UK Kindle but they're all available everywhere.
THE SHOP, JCarsonBlack. The murder of a celebrity inAspensets the table for an orgy of death, destruction and infamy, involving a shadowy conspiracy that goes to the heart of Government, in the heart-poundingUSbestseller .
SUGAR AND SPICE (USEDITION), Saffina Desforges (US link). Would you trust a convicted sex offender to help you find your daughter's killer? The groundbreaking debutUKcrime novel that dares to tackle the last taboo - now recreated for theUS.
CATCH YOUR DEATH, Mark Edwards & Louise Voss. Imagine if Dan Brown and Stieg Larsson got together to write a conspiracy thriller set in the English countryside, featuring a killer virus, psychopathic killers and a race to save the world...
BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR, Sibel Hodge. Armed with cool sarcasm and uncontrollable hair, feisty insurance investigator Amber Fox is back in a new mystery combining murder and mayhem with romance and chicklit…
BLACK HEART HIGH, Dan Holloway. 3 years ago Kayla and Spark promised to keep each other safe. Whatever. When Spark is left for dead in a brutal attack, Kayla knows she's about to find out what 'whatever' means. First of a dark paranormal romance series to be released one book every two months for a year.
THE OVERTAKING, Victorine Lieske. First in an exciting new young adult series from the NYT bestselling author. Shayne Bartlet has been kidnapped, his telepathic powers disabled and his memory altered. He’s not having a good day...
DISINTEGRATION, Scott Nicholson. When a fire destroys his home and kills his daughter, Jacob Wells enters a downward spiral that draws him ever closer to the past he thought was dead and buried. A shocking psychological thriller from the author of Liquid Fear.
LIFE IS BUT A DREAM, Cheryl Shireman. A story about the power of love, the devastating consequences of depression, and the strength of the human spirit. A woman goes alone to a secluded cabin to rethink her life in the stunning debut novel from a talented new writer.
Coming very soon will be an anthology featuring all the writers, but the hub of the group is the FRABJOUS FACEBOOK PAGE. CLICK HERE TO LIKE IT. Each week we'll be discussing a new book - there's a list below. It'll be like Richard and Judy/Oprah (delete as approporiate - for those in the US, Richard and Judy are like Oprah but without the love-hate relationship with James Frey; for those in the UK, Oprah is like Richard and Judy only without the shoplifting beef).
So here's the books! Links are to UK Kindle but they're all available everywhere.
THE SHOP, JCarsonBlack. The murder of a celebrity inAspensets the table for an orgy of death, destruction and infamy, involving a shadowy conspiracy that goes to the heart of Government, in the heart-poundingUSbestseller .
SUGAR AND SPICE (USEDITION), Saffina Desforges (US link). Would you trust a convicted sex offender to help you find your daughter's killer? The groundbreaking debutUKcrime novel that dares to tackle the last taboo - now recreated for theUS.
CATCH YOUR DEATH, Mark Edwards & Louise Voss. Imagine if Dan Brown and Stieg Larsson got together to write a conspiracy thriller set in the English countryside, featuring a killer virus, psychopathic killers and a race to save the world...
BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR, Sibel Hodge. Armed with cool sarcasm and uncontrollable hair, feisty insurance investigator Amber Fox is back in a new mystery combining murder and mayhem with romance and chicklit…
BLACK HEART HIGH, Dan Holloway. 3 years ago Kayla and Spark promised to keep each other safe. Whatever. When Spark is left for dead in a brutal attack, Kayla knows she's about to find out what 'whatever' means. First of a dark paranormal romance series to be released one book every two months for a year.
THE OVERTAKING, Victorine Lieske. First in an exciting new young adult series from the NYT bestselling author. Shayne Bartlet has been kidnapped, his telepathic powers disabled and his memory altered. He’s not having a good day...
DISINTEGRATION, Scott Nicholson. When a fire destroys his home and kills his daughter, Jacob Wells enters a downward spiral that draws him ever closer to the past he thought was dead and buried. A shocking psychological thriller from the author of Liquid Fear.
LIFE IS BUT A DREAM, Cheryl Shireman. A story about the power of love, the devastating consequences of depression, and the strength of the human spirit. A woman goes alone to a secluded cabin to rethink her life in the stunning debut novel from a talented new writer.
Sunday, 5 June 2011
A week is a long time in literature
There isn't a message to this post, nor is there a nice, easy take-away lesson. Hmm, maybe there is. And if there is it's this. Sometimes more seems to happen in a week than you ever imagined you'd pack into a year. Some weeks make it feel like your goals have shifted. No longer do you crave sales or accolades or recognition or whatever it is you thought you craved. Your one goal is one day, maybe, if you work hard enough and really earn it and have a lifetime's worth of luck all concentrated into one moment, you may once again achieve a full night's sleep.
It was always going to be a busy week. But I had no idea just how busy. Or how much fun it would be
Just before the start of the week, The Company of Fellows (download here) reached the top 100 of the UK Kindle charts, and on Friday this week it hit the top 50. But I thought this was going to be a week where nothing really happened with this book. That was before Blackwell's held a readers' poll to find their favourite Oxford novel and I put a note about it on Facebook. And bam! People started voting, and voting. And despite the fact I wasn't in the original 15 choices, the book came out top.
Blackwell's were fantastic. Rather than chuck out this random upstart, they embraced the book, and have given it a place front of house in their world famous Oxford store. Which meant going and handing over copies.
And doing an interview and photoshoot for The Oxford Times.
So, to what I knew I would be doing this week. On Wednesday eight cuts gallery published Penny Goring's The Zoom Zoom, bringing to a head a remarkable journey with Penny's work that began over 2 years ago, and in which she has developed into the most startlingly original and brilliant writer of her generation. The Zoom Zoom is a masterpiece, and as of Wednesday available for Kindle and in paperback. Getting the book absolutely perfect has taken up a huge amount of head space the past few months because the project is so important to me.
On the same day, I published my new book Black Heart High (available for Kindle for 70p), which marks the start of a new year-long project - a paranormal dark romance series of 25-30,000 word books that I'll be publishing once every two months for the next year.
And then there were the gigs. On Friday I got to read in Oxford at the launch of issue 6 of Structo Magazine, a wonderful broadsheet literary publication. It was a fantastic evening where I got to meet some amazing writers, and discovered a new star, the remarkable Conan McMurtrie.
And then there was yesterday. Yesterday was *the day*. The New Libertines at Stoke Newington Literary Festival. And what a day it was always going to be. 12 writers. One band. Meeting the wonderful Jane Alexander and Stella Deleuze for the first time. A two hour gig at the fantastic, gothic and decked-in=purple-and-pineapple Baby Bath House. Only at the start of the week I had no idea just what that would involve. The panic over PA, the tube nightmare, the tacky floor and seating chaos. The end result was a sell-out performance to a wonderfully receptive crowd and some absolutely remarkable performances, including Penny's Bone Dust Disco officially launching the paperback of The Zoom Zoom.
Then it was across London by any means to catch up with my best friend and inspiration behind the New Libertines show, Cody James.
And this morning, to round out the week, I had the wonderful news that my piece In Paris and London has been accepted for "Defining Jane", a fantastic project by Stacey Yates, piecing together a life in words and photographs based on police reports of anonymous deaths.
Wednesday, 1 June 2011
A VERY big thank you
Buy the Company of Fellows for 70p for Kindle in the UK
To everyone who voted and made The Company of Fellows the Favourite Oxford Novel in the Blackwell's Bookshop readers' poll. And equally to Blackwell's for not only running the poll but for graciously saying they would display The Company of Fellows despite the fact it was not on their original list of contenders. That's above and beyond. I'l be taking copies round this week. I would utterly recommend everyone who voted to open themselves an account at Blackwell's online and consider them as an alternative to Amazon.
And also, whilst I'm thanking, a massive thank you to the 1776 people who bought The Company of Fellows for UK Kindle in May alone and propelled it into the overall top 100 charts not only on Kindle but Amazon UK's overall fiction chart. The book is now on the cusp of the top 50, which is beyond my wildest whatnots. I look forward to celebrating with an event in the near future.
Meanwhile, any and all purchases are hugely welcome - don't forget you don't need a Kindle - the Kindle app is free for your phone, Mac or PC. The book's still just 70p here.
And anyone who comes to see me at The New Libertines show at Stoke Newington Literary Festival this weekend will be able to buy the paperback for the knockdown price of £8. The last few tickets can be bought from the box office here.
To everyone who voted and made The Company of Fellows the Favourite Oxford Novel in the Blackwell's Bookshop readers' poll. And equally to Blackwell's for not only running the poll but for graciously saying they would display The Company of Fellows despite the fact it was not on their original list of contenders. That's above and beyond. I'l be taking copies round this week. I would utterly recommend everyone who voted to open themselves an account at Blackwell's online and consider them as an alternative to Amazon.
And also, whilst I'm thanking, a massive thank you to the 1776 people who bought The Company of Fellows for UK Kindle in May alone and propelled it into the overall top 100 charts not only on Kindle but Amazon UK's overall fiction chart. The book is now on the cusp of the top 50, which is beyond my wildest whatnots. I look forward to celebrating with an event in the near future.
Meanwhile, any and all purchases are hugely welcome - don't forget you don't need a Kindle - the Kindle app is free for your phone, Mac or PC. The book's still just 70p here.
And anyone who comes to see me at The New Libertines show at Stoke Newington Literary Festival this weekend will be able to buy the paperback for the knockdown price of £8. The last few tickets can be bought from the box office here.
Monday, 30 May 2011
30 Day Song Challenge
I love music stuff and clog up this blog with way too much of it I know, but I've recently enjoyed taking part in the 30 Day Song Challenge on Facebook and twitter so here is another music post - the ultimate musical autobiography as it were.
Day 01 – Your favorite song – Portishead: Machine Gun
Day 02 – Your least favorite song - Noah & Whale: 5 Years' Time
Day 03 – A song that makes you happy – The Libertines: Don’t Look Back into the Sun
Day 04 – A song that makes you sad – Red Hot Chili Peppers: Scar Tissue
Day 05 – A song that reminds you of someone – Wham: Wake Me Up Before You Go Go
Day 06 – A song that reminds of you of somewhere – Dido: Thank You
Day 07 – A song that reminds you of a certain event – Blur: Beetlebum
Day 08 – A song that you know all the words to – Nine Inch Nails: Hurt
Day 09 – A song that you can dance to – The Smiths: How Soon is Now
Day 10 – A song that makes you fall asleep (in a good way) – Suede: Everything Must Flow
Day 11 – A song from your favorite band – The Kills: No Wow
Day 12 – A song from a band you hate – Foals: Cassius
Day 13 – A song that is a guilty pleasure – Spandau Ballet: Through the Barricades
Day 14 – A song that no one would expect you to love – Andreas Johnsson Glorious
Day 15 – A song that describes you - Nirvana: Dumb
Day 16 – A song that you used to love but now hate – Chris De Burgh: Lady in Red
Day 17 – A song that you hear often on the radio - The XX: Intro
Day 18 – A song that you wish you heard on the radio – Jessie Grace: Science Tree
Day 19 – A song from your favorite album – The XX: Blood Red Moon
Day 20 – A song that you listen to when you’re angry – Skunk Anansie: Brazen
Day 21 – A song that you listen to when you’re happy – The Dead Weather: The Difference Between us
Day 22 – A song that you listen to when you’re sad - Melanie Pain: Bruises
Day 23 – A song that you want to play at your wedding - Boellmann: Suite Gothique
Day 24 – A song that you want to play at your funeral – Marilyn Manson: Sweet Dreams
Day 25 – A song that makes you laugh – Monty Python: Eric the Half a Bee
Day 26 – A song that you can play on an instrument – John Cage: 4:33
Day 27 – A song that you wish you could play - The Dead Weather: The Difference Between Us
Day 28 – A song that makes you feel guilty - The Cars: Drive
Day 29 – A song from your childhood – Lena Lovich: Lucky Number
Day 30 – Your favorite song at this time last year – The Velvet Underground: Venus in Furs
Day 01 – Your favorite song – Portishead: Machine Gun
Day 02 – Your least favorite song - Noah & Whale: 5 Years' Time
Day 03 – A song that makes you happy – The Libertines: Don’t Look Back into the Sun
Day 04 – A song that makes you sad – Red Hot Chili Peppers: Scar Tissue
Day 05 – A song that reminds you of someone – Wham: Wake Me Up Before You Go Go
Day 06 – A song that reminds of you of somewhere – Dido: Thank You
Day 07 – A song that reminds you of a certain event – Blur: Beetlebum
Day 08 – A song that you know all the words to – Nine Inch Nails: Hurt
Day 09 – A song that you can dance to – The Smiths: How Soon is Now
Day 10 – A song that makes you fall asleep (in a good way) – Suede: Everything Must Flow
Day 11 – A song from your favorite band – The Kills: No Wow
Day 12 – A song from a band you hate – Foals: Cassius
Day 13 – A song that is a guilty pleasure – Spandau Ballet: Through the Barricades
Day 14 – A song that no one would expect you to love – Andreas Johnsson Glorious
Day 15 – A song that describes you - Nirvana: Dumb
Day 16 – A song that you used to love but now hate – Chris De Burgh: Lady in Red
Day 17 – A song that you hear often on the radio - The XX: Intro
Day 18 – A song that you wish you heard on the radio – Jessie Grace: Science Tree
Day 19 – A song from your favorite album – The XX: Blood Red Moon
Day 20 – A song that you listen to when you’re angry – Skunk Anansie: Brazen
Day 21 – A song that you listen to when you’re happy – The Dead Weather: The Difference Between us
Day 22 – A song that you listen to when you’re sad - Melanie Pain: Bruises
Day 23 – A song that you want to play at your wedding - Boellmann: Suite Gothique
Day 24 – A song that you want to play at your funeral – Marilyn Manson: Sweet Dreams
Day 25 – A song that makes you laugh – Monty Python: Eric the Half a Bee
Day 26 – A song that you can play on an instrument – John Cage: 4:33
Day 27 – A song that you wish you could play - The Dead Weather: The Difference Between Us
Day 28 – A song that makes you feel guilty - The Cars: Drive
Day 29 – A song from your childhood – Lena Lovich: Lucky Number
Day 30 – Your favorite song at this time last year – The Velvet Underground: Venus in Furs
Tuesday, 17 May 2011
Rediscovering Archaic Words (freemium)
This is a post over here. Please feel free to discuss in either place :)
Looking for free-to-paid and free-to-volume interfaces is a reactive and restrictive strategy. You are limiting yourself to what has worked and what has been shown to work and closing yourself off to things that might turn out to work very well. If you believe in free, look for ways to be free, and see where they lead. Be proactive. Following established models is great. And I wouldn’t advocate making exceptions your primary strategy. But don’t be closed, be open. There are lots of ways to be free. If you think free works, seek them out. Make your proposition not “My books free, how can I tell people and how can I monetize it?” but “How can I give my work away?”
20 months ago I wrote a piece for the fabulous Guy Gonzalez about the freemium debate in the writing world. Freemium was a buzzword in the wake of the publication of Chris Anderson's Free. He and Malcolm Gladwell were at each other's throats. Smashwords was new. Kindle was barely taking its first steps. Everyone wanted to know how FREE would change publishing forever (trawl the early posts of my old blog!).
Now, you rarely hear people talking about Chris Anderson (not even The Long Tail - see my previous post on The Large Middle). Or Kevin Kelly, whose 1000 True Fans is still the single most important article for any would-be self-publisher.
[caption id="attachment_326" align="aligncenter" width="201" caption="download my bestselling The Company of Fellows. It's just 70p"]
[/caption]
There's a good reason for that. We have genuine success models. We have Amanda Hocking and John Locke (we also have the same white elephants we always had - the likes of Konrath and Leather: as established figures, they as irrelevant as Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails). They made their name through Kindle. Not Smashwords. Not even really Scribd. They made their way, in other words, not by being free but by being cheap. AND they made their way not by building a following of 1000 fans each willing to pay a lot, but by selling lots of very cheap books to a gazillion people.
So, are Kelly and Anderson irrelevant now? Does free have a role in a writer's plans?
[caption id="attachment_325" align="aligncenter" width="144" caption="Download my adult full-length poem SKIN BOOK. It's FREE"]
[/caption]
I want to make some points. Debate can follow later, along with rabble-rousing (I feel the need to get more opinionated again. Endless diplomacy sits ill!), so for now just a few points:
At the time of writing my book The Company of Fellows is #125 overall paid for Kindle UK at 70p There is a lot of my work available for free on the web. Try Year Zero Writers and its Dan Holloway tag for almost all my shorts and poems for free.
Looking for free-to-paid and free-to-volume interfaces is a reactive and restrictive strategy. You are limiting yourself to what has worked and what has been shown to work and closing yourself off to things that might turn out to work very well. If you believe in free, look for ways to be free, and see where they lead. Be proactive. Following established models is great. And I wouldn’t advocate making exceptions your primary strategy. But don’t be closed, be open. There are lots of ways to be free. If you think free works, seek them out. Make your proposition not “My books free, how can I tell people and how can I monetize it?” but “How can I give my work away?”
20 months ago I wrote a piece for the fabulous Guy Gonzalez about the freemium debate in the writing world. Freemium was a buzzword in the wake of the publication of Chris Anderson's Free. He and Malcolm Gladwell were at each other's throats. Smashwords was new. Kindle was barely taking its first steps. Everyone wanted to know how FREE would change publishing forever (trawl the early posts of my old blog!).
Now, you rarely hear people talking about Chris Anderson (not even The Long Tail - see my previous post on The Large Middle). Or Kevin Kelly, whose 1000 True Fans is still the single most important article for any would-be self-publisher.
[caption id="attachment_326" align="aligncenter" width="201" caption="download my bestselling The Company of Fellows. It's just 70p"]
[/caption]There's a good reason for that. We have genuine success models. We have Amanda Hocking and John Locke (we also have the same white elephants we always had - the likes of Konrath and Leather: as established figures, they as irrelevant as Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails). They made their name through Kindle. Not Smashwords. Not even really Scribd. They made their way, in other words, not by being free but by being cheap. AND they made their way not by building a following of 1000 fans each willing to pay a lot, but by selling lots of very cheap books to a gazillion people.
So, are Kelly and Anderson irrelevant now? Does free have a role in a writer's plans?
[caption id="attachment_325" align="aligncenter" width="144" caption="Download my adult full-length poem SKIN BOOK. It's FREE"]
[/caption]I want to make some points. Debate can follow later, along with rabble-rousing (I feel the need to get more opinionated again. Endless diplomacy sits ill!), so for now just a few points:
- freemium is essentially about this question: how do you monetise free? In Predictably Irrational, Dan Ariely makes a strong case that there is a qualitative psychological difference between free and cheap. I'm not overly interested in how readers *value* books in a moral sense (that's a red herring that's used to beat people with the guilty stick), but it does mean that monetising free may be considerably harder than monetising cheap - Amanda Hocking's $0.99 intro to a $2.99 range is savvier than using free in the hope of gaining paid.
- If freemium is going to work, I think we need to look at both high volume and high price for the ultimate paid product. If there is a qualitative jump between $0 and $0.01 then if there is a place for free, it might as well be for introducing people to a $9.99 product or a $99 one as a $0.99 one. Whilst using low pricing will not work as an introduction to much higher multiples.
- At the moment most indie writers who make it are doing so through Kindle. They don't get to offer their books free on Kindle - at least, they can't wake up and say "today my book will be free" as they can on Smashwords. This may be skewing our view of the value of free. Publishers haven't had much luck taking on indies with marketing dollars. They are beginning to leverage free on Kindle. That's a space really worth watching.
- People may not read free books, but that may be irrelevant. What free can do is use volume downloads to inject a book into a distributor's search and recommendation algorithms. When they begin to charge that can be worth as much as word of mouth from the free downloaders. It ensures a minimum mass of paid readers who can then seed word of mouth recommendation if the book is up to scratch.
- Free is not just about freemium. For some writers (with my performance pieces and some of my other work, me included) being paid is not only not the ultimate goal, it's not any goal. The goal is bringing your work to an audience who otherwise wouldn't have access. Free may not be sufficient to do that. It may still be the best policy to work free as though you were going to monetize - and then not go the final step. So, advertising on the Kindle forums and Kindleboards as well as publishing to Smashwords, targeting Nook, where you can choose to make your work free
- loyal fans remain the key to long-term security. If you use freemium or if you use cheamium, the aim is not to sell lots of copies of this one book, it's to sell enough in the long term to make a living. My inkling is there's an algorithm linking fanbase to price and longevity (people who are fans of your work at x price will be y in number and will remain loyal for z years). Finding this balance will vary genre to genre, and is our quest for the philosopher's stone.
- Think of free as the first step to more than monetisation or volume. I'm going to bold the next bit because I have a feeling it's key. Looking for free-to-paid and free-to-volume interfaces is a reactive and restrictive strategy. You are limiting yourself to what has worked and what has been shown to work and closing yourself off to things that might turn out to work very well. If you believe in free, look for ways to be free, and see where they lead. Be proactive. Following established models is great. And I wouldn't advocate making exceptions your primary strategy. But don't be closed, be open. There are lots of ways to be free. If you think free works, seek them out. Make your proposition not "My books free, how can I tell people and how can I monetize it?" but "How can I give my work away?"
[caption id="attachment_327" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="If you like my books you'll love this novel. It's just £2.14"][/caption]
At the time of writing my book The Company of Fellows is #125 overall paid for Kindle UK at 70p There is a lot of my work available for free on the web. Try Year Zero Writers and its Dan Holloway tag for almost all my shorts and poems for free.
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