Priced to Sell: Is the Future Free?

[ficbot]

I think there are a lot of faulty assumptions here. You are not relying on ONE reader to make all your sales. If you sell 10,000 books at $5 each, that's $50,000 right there---spend a year writing it and doing some solid self-marketing, and it's an attainable goal. Europe, USA and other, that's less than 3500 books per zone, which is below a typical 'print' run. $50,000 is an acceptable 'salary' for a year's work. I am a teacher and earn less than that.

Readers I know are not saying they don't want authors to have compensation and that everything should be free. The perceived value of an ebook is just not the same as the perceived value of a print book, and all of the complaining in the world about whether that's fair or good or whatever won't change that. iTunes has proven that people ARE willing to pay a fair price for stuff they can get for free if they look for it. It just has to be easy, and affordable.

As for what SHOULD be free, I would like to see most authors offering at least a sample chapter. If I can't pick it up in the store and see it, I should be able to do the same type of thing on-line and get a sample. I have bought ebooks on the strength of free samples before.

[junkyardwillie]

The issue that I think we are really dealing with right now is that there is an information overload in the system. There are hundreds of satellite/cable channels now, tons of information on the web, 100s of movies and books that come out every year and who has time to watch them all.

The problem I think is that the cart has gotten in front of the horse. If there were only lets say 50 television channels then the thought that studios help "filter" good shows would make sense, but there are hundreds of channels that need programming so instead we get John and Kate plus 8 rather than a show that actually has this thing that they used to use in televisions shows called a script. Book companies, movie studios, television companies have all grown to a level where they can no longer provide the service they were meant to do which is filter good content. I'm just as likely to find a funny video clip searching Youtube as I am flipping channels for 2 hours trying to find a good television show.

The outcome that I think will come from this movement towards "free" is a huge purge. The whole law of supply and demand is that you can't sell stuff for more than people are willing to pay. There will be a few people that will create content that people will pay for, but the vast majority will not get paid for the crap they produce. Since it has become cheaper and easier to distribute content more people are trying to get their hands in the pot but they will not be able to get to it. The good part of this will be, since people will be overwhelmed by crap if you are able to produce a quality project droves of people will run to it and the "winners" will reap all of the rewards while the "losers" struggle. I don't mind what is going on, if you see things like Family Guy where Seth McFarlance was able to make a billion dollars off a cartoon it makes total sense when you look at the other crap content that is available. People are starving for good content, they don't want crap. The problem has become there is too much information out so how do you know what is crap and what is worth paying for so everyone tries to get everything for free. Once something is deemed a hit (good content) the monetary compensation will come.

[Amalthia]

I like free as much as the next person but when it comes to fiction I'm willing to pay to have some sort of quality control. Though if it's free then I can't complain about typos.

As I was reading this thread I was visualizing the publishing industry turning into another fanfiction.net...Sure there are some gems but who has time to find them?

I don't see the pay model going away anytime soon because people like me are willing to pay for quality non DRM ebooks. I think the key for the publishers and ebook sellers is to make their content easier to use/access, and provide better quality than what's free out there. Shouldn't be hard if they have the original digital copies of the novels they are buying...

[Jill74]

These are very good reviews.

[Jaime_Astorga]

Originally Posted by Amalthia

I like free as much as the next person but when it comes to fiction I'm willing to pay to have some sort of quality control. Though if it's free then I can't complain about typos.

And quality control should fall to companies, to whom "quality" means "whatever will sell most?" And while controversy seems to do well in books, really out-of-the-mainstream views movies (also a form of fiction) don't tend to get made.

Originally Posted by Amalthia

As I was reading this thread I was visualizing the publishing industry turning into another fanfiction.net...Sure there are some gems but who has time to find them?

There are ways. Reviews, sites dedicated to recommending the good fiction. Popularity can be a good indicator. Besides, how do you find the "good" stuff now, even, with thousands of books available?

[doreenjoy]

Originally Posted by Jaime_Astorga

And quality control should fall to companies, to whom "quality" means "whatever will sell most?" And while controversy seems to do well in books, really out-of-the-mainstream views movies (also a form of fiction) don't tend to get made.


There are ways. Reviews, sites dedicated to recommending the good fiction. Popularity can be a good indicator. Besides, how do you find the "good" stuff now, even, with thousands of books available?

These two statements seem to contradict each other. If popularity is a guide to what is good, then the publishers should not be criticized for seeking what will sell the most.

Publishers are not in this business to promote haute culture; we're in this business to make a living.

[Moejoe]

“The album just came out and it would be #1 [in the] euro charts if not for michael jackson re-releases. So that’s good. But here’s something funny: the best selling itunes track is ’shot in the back of the head’. Why is that funny?”

“Because its the track we’ve been giving away for free for the last 2 months and that we’re still giving away for free. Odd.”

-Moby

[Moejoe]

Double post oops

[Amalthia]

My idea of quality control means at least a good proof reading to remove typos and some sort of oversight as to big plot holes. I'm not talking about quality of the content here.

[Amalthia]

Originally Posted by Jaime_Astorga

And quality control should fall to companies, to whom "quality" means "whatever will sell most?" And while controversy seems to do well in books, really out-of-the-mainstream views movies (also a form of fiction) don't tend to get made.


There are ways. Reviews, sites dedicated to recommending the good fiction. Popularity can be a good indicator. Besides, how do you find the "good" stuff now, even, with thousands of books available?

Actually, I kind of went ot the library and just read the summaries and looked at the book covers for the longest time. when I was growing up there wasn't amazon.com and book reviews at the website. Now I go there and look to see if the title sounds interesting and what people are saying about the book.

I should have defined quality in my original post. To be clear I'm not talking about content or how much it sells but quality control in the sense that someone is there fixing the typos and plot holes and pushing the author to make the story the best it can be. The best fan fiction authors I've run across seem to have two or three beta readers and their work is to me at the same level if not better than much of what is published.

one of the reasons I've gradually stopped reading novels is because they all started to sound the same. At least with fan fiction if it starts to sound the same I haven't lost money and I can switch fandoms and still read the type of content I like to read.