Quote:
Originally Posted by Steven Lyle Jordan
It's too late to add a poll to this thread, but... how many believe that a micropayment system, say, 5 cents for a book, would create such an increased level of sales that it would ultimately bring in more to the author (sales increase by a few hundred to a thousandfold) than a $3-4 book price? Could that create a living wage for an average author? Could it overcome the initial obscurity of an average author?
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Micropayment could work *if it were actually possible.* But online, there's no "throw a nickel or a quarter in the hat" option. Micropayments through the internet require
(1) both author & payer/reader having an account with the same payment processor (whether that's MasterCard, PayPal, or the author's own site);
(2) giving a cut to the processor;
(3) keeping accounting records--more overhead gone to administration;
(4) often, minimum donation levels.
The closest thing we have to micropayments is advertising hitcounts.