An article from UK paper The Independent on how giving away audiobooks online can generate a fan base and result in sales of print copies. Just as Cory Doctorow proved with eBooks and PDFs, give your content away and fans will discover new works. Screw DRM -- the future is letting the audience decide what they want to pay for.Dr Horrible is another example of this and Part 2 is out tomorrow. The main server is back up and everything is fine over at drhorrible.com. But while you're waiting for that, Digg up this article for Scott - we love his books and podcasts and it's about time the rest of the world shared the terror!
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I completely agree with this mentality. I think things like ebooks and podcasting is fabulous technology but I think a lot of people jump the gun when they're trying to figure out how to financially benefit in a totally linear way from it. There are a few good epublishers in paranormal romance and I wouldn't snub my nose at them by any stretch, but I really think if I do ebook, I want to offer it for free, from my site, hope it's good and hope it goes mini-viral.
ReplyDeleteI'm interested in building a long term relationship with readers that will later pay off, not getting someone to throw down $3-$5 on an ebook today. (most of that money which I would not see anyway)
*are fabulous technology. Grammarz iz hard.
ReplyDeleteHi Zoe,
ReplyDeleteYes, giving it away doesn't cheapen it at all when it comes to things like this. ebooks are an interesting idea but the model doesn't work for me.
Giving your writing away, whether it's in blog, book or podcast form does help you build those relationships that will last. And if you give people what they want they will want to throw their money at you.
I love your blog, btw :)
Thank you WOH!
ReplyDeleteI'm hoping to have things ready to give away starting in September.