Please feel free to discuss, argue, agree and disagree in the comments section. All I ask is that everyone to be polite and respectful to everyone else.
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Could a "Freeware" Model of Sales Work in Publishing?
This post was inspired by a comment made recently by Sarf, and I thank him for the input that led me to consider this question. Here's Sarf's original comment:
I have some questions for your readers.
First the set up:
A person pirates your book by downloading a copy from the web.
They love it. Are you as the author glad or sad?
Now said person writes you a check for the cover price of the book and mails it to you. Do you care if they pirated the book or not?
My (abridged) response to this was:
If I wanted to give it away for free, that's easy to arrange; by trying to get published, it's implied I don't want to give it away for free. I'm not [doing this for attention or praise, so book-love is not enough.]
[As to the question of being paid after the fact,] I want money for my work, but at the same time, I believe I should control whether or not my work is for sale in the first place [thus payment does not erase the ire I feel at having my work taken without my consent].
Sarf is a programmer, so I understand why he's curious about this question. The model he suggests is in keeping with the one "freeware" works under: a computer program is put onto the web for anyone to download, and the creator asks people who like the program to either pay hir† or buy a more powerful non-freeware version of the program.
It's a model worth thinking about, because pirating is something we'll never stamp out, and there's a lot of wisdom to trying to find a system where pirating simply isn't considered a problem. The freeware model views "pirating" to be a way to win customers.
The author Cory Doctorow is buying into this idea. He has said that obscurity is the thing that threatens his livelihood, not piracy, and so he offers some of his books online, for free, and asks people to pay him if they decide they like what they see. To him, he's getting his work read by new people and hopefully winning loyal customers.
I will note that there's not much empirical evidence to suggest this is working, although there's also not much evidence that it's doing Mr. Doctorow any harm. The jury's out.
The last thing I'll note is how music piracy gave way to iTunes. Some people will always steal, but most of us are uncomfortable with that. When the music industry started offering their customers what the customers wanted (the ability to browse for music, the ability to download, the ability to buy one song instead of an entire album) rather than what the industry wanted them to want (the status quo), the public bought into that in a big way. Most of the people downloading music now are paying for it. A few years ago, that wasn't the case.
As eBooks become more popular, the publishing industry should be thinking carefully about what they want the future to hold. Enforcing the status quo could backfire, so thinking flexibly about how books are sold is a worthwhile endeavour.
† "hir" is a gender non-specific way of writing him/her. I like it; I'm usin' it.
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What do you think? Is piracy theft, and therefore always wrong? Can piracy be harnessed as way to generate sales? Can the freeware model work for publishing? Is there another model that you think would work better? I'd love to hear your thoughts.
2 comments:
By definition, piracy is unauthorized reproduction or distribution so imo, is always wrong. I think of it similar to the term litter... garbage out of place so if you tell me to put litter in its place, you are telling me to throw it on the ground or wherever I want. If that isn't what you want, you need to give it a proper name.
However, I think that the freeware / shareware model has merit for publishing. I find that shelling out $10 a book, I am much less inclined to read things I have to buy. The number of books I have purchased that I don't get past the first few chapters because the style of writing just doesn't work for me has lead me to find other avenues to expand my reading. With those other avenues, you need to entice me back to purchasing which might mean a little give and take. Some likely will take advantage of it but those are likely the same people who will sit in Chapters and read the entire book rather than buy it instead of sample read it first as intended.
If I had an ability to read a few sample chapters similar to how itunes allows you to sample a song before purchasing, I would be more inclined to purchase more material. Amazon allows this with some of their books and I find that I am more inclined to go ahead and purchase because of it.
Not a big reader like my siblings, but also have that Scottish bit to me which has me hating to waste money but willing to pay for quality. Show me the quality and I likely will show you the green in return.
Mike and I support podcasts we enjoy - not required but willing to support talent we want to see continue.
I am more of a Consumer of media, And as a consumer I want my media now in the format I require.
I will go to allot of work for instance to find a E-book from a author that like.
But if that e-book is not in a format that I can use I will pirate rather than go without. If I really enjoy the book I feel guilty about it. That is why I wonder if a E-Guilt system could work. A web site where I go and I punch in a author/ artist and a amount and send them the money.
I really don't see the difference between paying for a book up front and paying for it after I have read it. I am allot more honest than the guy in chapters reading the whole book.
As to you feeling like you are in control of your work for sale is mute point. The moment you sign the sales contract with the publish it is out of your hands. Poof you don't control where or how it will be sold from that point. As a publisher is a company they don't care how they get the money from a book as long as they all get paid for every copy.
There is a couple big name bands experimenting with "Pay what you like" NiN is the bigest and there latests single that they released on the Web got them a few million in the first day alone.
Some lesser known bands are allow doing this with mixed success. And TBH some of there music isn't fit for my trash can, and they expect that slaping "pay what you like" on it will make them a success. You still have to produce good media at the end of the day.
When it comes to media DRM is the bane of it. This is a system marketed to allow the content producers to sell more media, What it really is for is to make all media a buy once.
Think of it like a book that when you read the last page burst into flames and ended up a pile of ash on your lap.
The media company's say that you can down load the media whenever you need. but in reality the media is locked to your computer. you can't move it to the living room, or read it in the tub.
The problem is E-media that is DRMed has to many points of failure, Server go off line, publisher go out of business, your cat pees on your computer you upgrade your computer, ...
The Freeware/ Shareware model is a good one for software as there is a clear upgrade path. You put out a subset of features and the get payment for enhancements.
I have allot of photos up on Flickr and for them I use the creative commons license, I retain copyright, but grant a unrestricted license for non commercial use. So if you want to use my photo for your web site, or desktop great, if you want to publish it in your magazine you better talk to me about payment.
I see a future in a couple of years that if you don't need a physical product then it will be downloaded. Downloading is just more efficient. It also lets consumers consume at there pace not the producers pace. Tivo has changed the way TV works. It has also shown us that consumers want Media when they want it. They don't care if the show airs ate 3AM they will watch it at 6 pm after work the next day.
The next step down this path isn't Tivo a show, it is subscribing to a RSS feed that tells your Tivo to fetch the newest episode of this show. Then when you sit down at your TV you get a list of all the shows that are unwatched. and you spend a evening watching the shows you like.
To paraphrase a movie.
The information wants to be free, man!
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