4 ms·

I think we'll see more serialized, short length, low price point works. Will someone pay 99 cents for 20-30 pages of a well-crafted story? I think probably yes.

I think we'll see more serialized, short length, low price point works. Will someone pay 99 cents for 20-30 pages of a well-crafted story? I think probably yes. I'm thinking of something like "Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality" - obviously Yudkowsky can't sell that because of its fanfiction nature, but something of that quality level, I think I'd pay a buck to read 4-5 episodes of it. Especially if I got hooked by the first 10 chapters being free. This should bring lots of new opportunities, especially for fiction writers. Hopefully, less fluff and more density too. Would you pay $2 to read a highly polished 20 page manual by Steve Blank? I would. Hopefully this becomes a way for content producers to get paid to craft high quality, dense content... I think this could lead to something of a revolution in quality, dense, though shorter content.

lsc 16y ago
The thing of it is, the author usually doesn't get much of the cost of the book. If the author could sell as many copies of an e-book on their own as they could with a publisher, they would usually be making as much or more charging one dollar a copy, I mean, if they got to keep all of that dollar.
- lionhearted 16y ago
  Agreed. I think the author's cut will settle in at between 60% and 90% for a short piece like that. Combine with instant purchasing via Wifi or 3G, and I think it'll emerge as a business model. The $1 to $3 range is really impulse buy territory, around the price for a coffee. I reckon we'll see more of that model coming up.
DennisP 16y ago
Stephen King did exactly that, though he screwed up the incentive. He released a new book one chapter at a time, allowing each chapter to be freely distributed. He charged a dollar for each chapter download, but it was optional. He asked only that 75% of downloaders pay a dollar. Where he screwed up: he promised to finish the book if his targets were met for the first two chapters. Naturally, for the first two chapters, they were. People were paying extra just to make sure. But after two, donations dropped dramatically. Ultimately, King broke his promise after seven chapters. Nevertheless, he netted half a million bucks for an unedited novel that he didn't even bother to finish.
- loewenskind 16y ago
  That's a shame. He should finish it, eat the hit and then be smarter next time. Sounds like he could make a lot more this way if he doesn't destroy his credibility.
- forensic 16y ago
  Wikipedia says he broke his promise because he "ran out of stories" not due to payment
  - chc 16y ago
    It seems unlikely that he would have "run out of stories" if people were still paying him to come up with more. I mean, he's been coming up with stories for decades and he runs out just then?
- conjectures 16y ago
  that's a case study to keep hold of.

lsc 16y ago

The thing of it is, the author usually doesn't get much of the cost of the book. If the author could sell as many copies of an e-book on their own as they could with a publisher, they would usually be making as much or more charging one dollar a copy, I mean, if they got to keep all of that dollar.

lionhearted 16y ago
Agreed. I think the author's cut will settle in at between 60% and 90% for a short piece like that. Combine with instant purchasing via Wifi or 3G, and I think it'll emerge as a business model. The $1 to $3 range is really impulse buy territory, around the price for a coffee. I reckon we'll see more of that model coming up.

DennisP 16y ago

Stephen King did exactly that, though he screwed up the incentive. He released a new book one chapter at a time, allowing each chapter to be freely distributed. He charged a dollar for each chapter download, but it was optional. He asked only that 75% of downloaders pay a dollar. Where he screwed up: he promised to finish the book if his targets were met for the first two chapters. Naturally, for the first two chapters, they were. People were paying extra just to make sure. But after two, donations dropped dramatically. Ultimately, King broke his promise after seven chapters. Nevertheless, he netted half a million bucks for an unedited novel that he didn't even bother to finish.

loewenskind 16y ago
That's a shame. He should finish it, eat the hit and then be smarter next time. Sounds like he could make a lot more this way if he doesn't destroy his credibility.
forensic 16y ago
Wikipedia says he broke his promise because he "ran out of stories" not due to payment
- chc 16y ago
  It seems unlikely that he would have "run out of stories" if people were still paying him to come up with more. I mean, he's been coming up with stories for decades and he runs out just then?
conjectures 16y ago
that's a case study to keep hold of.