You wouldn't do something you supposedly love, just because nobody pays you for it? ~ were it the way i wanted to make my living, then no. hell, no. were i musician, i'd consider it in terms of part of a marketing strategy (and i'd have to consider the cost of studio time) because there are very direct sources for recouping lost sales. sorry, dawn, this isn't introducing a gray area. i *do* write (not as often as i should) because i love, and i *do* share *that*, but, and here's the important part, i wouldn't do that for something i planned on selling. for starters, publishers want to know that they've got first rights to something they paid for.
I'm not dissing people who (a) want to make money with their writing, and (b) have faith in the traditional business models, and (c) do not have faith in alternate business models. ~ what business model is that, though? there's a difference between giving away samples, like a bar of soap you might get in the mail or even coupons, but when you give the entire product away for free, what's the plan there? that people who have read will then buy it? i'm sure a few will. i'm also sure most won't. is it hedging your bets that the next book you write will sell more based on the idea that so many more people have read the previous one? then charge them for the second book? meanwhile, a thousand other completely free books are there to be read.
it's a bad business plan if you ask me. it probably makes sense to a lot of writers. then again, writers aren't reknowned for their business skillz. if someone could explain to me how a writer is supposed to make a living by doing this, i'm willing to reconsider my position, but hopes, dreams and prayers aren't going to sway my opinion. i need to see a real plan that applies to an average mid-list author who'd otherwise be able to support himself in traditional publishing, not the exceptions. there will always be exceptions.
Yes. Goes for just about anything, though. You don't hear about all those folks who don't get published, or whose books never take off. ~ actually i do. believe me, the vast majority of people who go in for things like free publishing will be those who failed to make it as a 'real' author or who are afraid to be rejected. if you think the quality of novels on the shelves right now is bad, you ain't seen nothin' yet.
But see, I'm not kidding myself into believing I'm going to be one of those success stories. ~ this is good. how, then, do you plan on making any money from writing? a lot of people would write t.v. shows for free, too, just to have something they've done seen by millions of people. unfortunately, no one can make a living giving away their talents for free all the time. i'm sure there are a lot of non WGA members who'd not blink at screwing those on strike. some people just don't care about solidarity. still, if you've got the talent to produce sellable material and can do so to meet a deadline, you're in the top echelon of your craft and should expect compensation.
The thing is: "free content" doesn't stop people from buying books. See, the world is full of fools like me. The question is - and I understand the worry even if I don't share it - are they enough to make a reliable living for authors in a similar fashion that current business models can (they're not that good at it, either, I'd say). ~ it would stop me from buying the book unless i needed it for reference, and probably even then i wouldn't if i still had it on the computer. i just don't understand this mentality: to me it's like paying for an airline ticket after i've landed and based on if i enjoyed my ride. having it on my bookshelf collecting dust doesn't make much sense.
let me ask you this: if a 'novel' has been downloaded a million times, is that incentive to have that published? sure, that's a possibility. if it's been downloaded a thousand times, is that incentive? uh, no. and do you read a library book then go out and buy it? if you do, you're in the small minority. not much difference with online books, is there? until i see a free novel (NOT done by an already famous author) that's been published and hear tales of how *that* worked out in a positive way, i can't support this method. realistically, if it's publishable, sending it to publishers would be cutting to the chase: i have to wonder if all those 'free' copies floating around out there will negatively impact sales.
i aver that free content absolutely does kill book sales just like it kills CD sales. if ford were to give me a free car, and if i really liked it i might go to a ford dealership the next time i was in the market for a new car. however, if ford says it won't give me another free car but chevy says it will, guess what i'll be driving. even if ford gave me another free car, how is ford making money?
know how many word processing programmes i've bought in my life? zero. because i can get programmes for free off the net. they may not be as good, not have all the bells and whistles, but they're free. i say free novels will even hurt much better novels published traditionally.
publishers don't exist because you bought the book and loved it. they exist because you bought the book. if you could return books you bought just because you didn't like it once you were done, publishers would be out of business, agreed? i'd say there are 'fools' that would buy the book after they decided they needed to own it for some reason, but the simple fact of the matter is there aren't enough to sustain the industry. and even if a publisher thinks there are enough, then he's taking a huge gamble.
and he'll probably lose miserably. because he's not selling sunshine, he's selling the *promise* of sunshine.
those aren't 'restrictions' really. gee, you'll allow me post the first several novels of a popular series? thanks! wow, what a deal. what do you mean i can ONLY post a mere five or six collection at a time!
okay, i'm being a bit sarcastic here. and i agree, these people aren't naive (and there's NO risk to them). the naive people are the ones risking giving away sellable product for free without the slightest thought about the long-term impact it would have not only on their own submitted story, but future stories and the industry as a whole (see, i'm coming back to that solidarity thing, but knowing a lot of people just don't care). (besides, like i said, most of this stuff probably isn't really that sellable, at least in the shape it's in without having the benefit of being seen by agents or editors. do these sites scan entries for quality? what guarantee do you have as a reader that 90% of this stuff just isn't pure junk?)
again, i don't think it's a valid business plan to expect people to pay for something that's free, especially when that free material probably isn't on average as high a quality as it would be had it gone through professionals' hands. the first thing to suffer will be any kind of professional editing standard. some will do their best (which still won't be good enough in the real world), some will stand out (a few, definitely not a high percentage), but most will likely be as if someone took a shit on the internet and expect you to agree with their malformed writing principles (unless someone somewhere is reviewing entries for *some* kind of quality, and even then that's not to say these 'editors' know what they're doing).
remember, you usually get what you pay for.
current business models for traditional publishers aren't that good? what makes you think it's not? it's a volume business where a lot of people have to be paid along the way based on something that in a lot of ways has a ton of subjectivity tossed into a fickle market's mix. all things considered, i find it amazing any publishing house is able to survive at all, especially when you've got millions of rejects doing everything they can to undermine the industry for little or no profit (and yet certainly have dreams of being recognized by and picked up by a big publisher) and most assuredly many, many of them having no real professional standards of their own. i'd venture to say they have a pretty good business plan tempered by hundreds of years of culmative experience.
kinda beats out the lone novelist doing his own version of editing who'd never get a contract through a real publisher, eh?
i'll say it: it's stuff like this that appeals to frauds, wanna-be's, rejects and hobbyists. in other words, people who couldn't cut it (or were afraid to try) in real life. a professional novelist who's livelihood depends on people actually buying their books is probably wondering if it's too late to go back to college. can you imagine a pro saying, 'my, gawd, finally i get to give away my novels for free!' i can't, anymore than i imagine a free novel writer thinking to themselves, 'gee, i wonder if i can get insurance through the writer's guild?'
most novelists, however, would dearly love to make an actual living from their writing and when someone comes along (who's already made his fortune) and does something like this, it just further undermines future writer's ability to earn a livelihood, imo. 
