A bit of news first. For you new reader(s?) I’ve put all the Blog postings in chronological order on my website. This way it reads more like the story it’s supposed to be without making you drag around through the archives. Not a big deal now but in 5 years it’ll make things much easier. Just click on the banner up top and follow the “Blog” link. Also newly posted is “Cruising With Pets” in the magazine articles section. Click “Words” then “Articles” off of any page.
Jeez, look at the time. I better stop with the Rants and finish up the introductory stuff so we can get on with something fun.
Last week I talked a bit about the economic motivation behind my Business Model which was: good stuff, good communication, and a fair – and open – pricing structure. That doesn’t address the details nor does it address the financial motivation behind this whole venture which is to eat well and not have to cook under a bridge. For a Wannabe Writer this is a tall order. As with any Business Model I’ll enumerate the reasons I’m going to be a miserable failure first. Then I’ll go on to discuss why those things couldn’t possibly apply to me. Lastly, I’ve got to at least pay lip service to the whole money-making angle.
The problem, well the first problem more accurately, is that there are so many other writers out there. Some 152,000 in the United States alone according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s just for people who put “Writer” in the little box on their tax form and make enough money to have to file the form. I think you could safely multiply that by 10 to factor in all the people who are just dying to be a Best Selling Author and working their tails off to get published.
Next, there’s that whole lack-of-talent thing I’ve got going on. I’m unable to hide behind multiple Degrees in English Literature and Journalism. I was trained as a scientist for Christ’s sake. Have you ever actually reada scientific paper? Watching ice melt in the Yukon would have more pull on your entertainment dollar. My uninspired verbiage is out front for all to see. I’m just getting started. I have no experience cutting my chops in news. I have not found my Voice. I have no Style.
Then, I’m up against the Inexorably Approaching Future when books, as we know them, will bid a fond adieu and slip into the mists of time along with horse carts, argyle socks, 8 track tapes, tube TVs, and CDs. For authors whose underlying motivation is to walk into Barnes and Noble and see their Name In Print on the front table, these are dark times indeed.
Sounds like a Perfect Opportunity.
First, I’m not concerned about the numbers. This world we live in is a big place and sheer numbers of “competitors” is no barrier to entry in any field. The way I look at it is this. Suppose I thought the number of people working at Walmart – a number in the same league as Wannabe Writers –was the reason I couldn’t work there. I would have to give up my dream to be the guy shooting the carts at you as you walk through the door. Clearly those legions of vested minions would be no impediment to my ultimate career. Similarly the sheer multitude of other Wannabe Writers shouldn’t concern me until I reach some measure of success and wish they would all go away. Competition being what it is.
Most of those numberless Writers are still stuck firmly in the 20th Century. They have written their magnum opus. The myriad authors are trying to find an agent to represent them. Once they do this agent will try to find a publisher to print the book and, in a nod to the future, create an electronic version. If they can get both an agent and publisher – an event which has about the odds of a Pick-6 lotto – then the writer gets a little money, the publisher prints up a few thousand books, and everybody sits back to see what happens. Which is usually nothing. I’m going to bypass the whole agent/publisher side of things which will streamline the process of getting what I write in front of you, my readers. Sure I’ll never see my Name In Print at a Barnes and Noble but, soon, there probably won’t be any Barnes and Nobles to see it in.
My lack of talent at writing is not really a concern. I’ve muddled through life so far without exhibiting much talent at anything. I’ve just gotten to the point where I rationalize that if it’s something I’m completely unable to do then it’s probably something that wasn’t worth doing to begin with. I have been doing a lot of reading recently to see what I’m up against – talent wise – and it feels like a family reunion with cousins I never even knew I had. There is, of course, the frequently cited Ms. Carmangia who seems Hooked on Phonics with a European flair. Then there’s Ms. I-Don’t-Need-To-Proofread with an opening sentence to one of her books which includes “changes in he wind” and other paragons of lucidity like “he’d had his throat had been cut”. But she looks kind of cute in her dust cover photo. Then there’s Mr. Over-Eighty-Million-Books-In-Print who is a very popular formula author. He used the adjective “Machiavellian” four times in one book describing things none of which was Machiavellian. Clearly success and talent are not closely entwined in Popular Fiction. I should fit right in.
Finally I’m all about embracing that oncoming fast-freight that is the Future of verbal entertainment. I mean, suppose I really do end up living under a bridge. Obviously shelf space will be limited and there’s just so much room in a shopping cart – I know this from personal experience during practice runs – that one can devote to a library. This makes it expedient for me to go almost-all electronic from the get-go. As soon as I type word #1 in anything I write it’s in electronic format. Why should you have to pay somebody – other than me of course – to put it into a different electronic format?
That is the crux of the biscuit: what you pay and to whom you pay it. Musicians have already figured this out and, as CDs have started down the road of Saurian oblivion, have stepped up and said “The only people we really need are our fans.” The bands are dealing direct, cutting out all the sticky-pawed middlemen, and are thriving. One-on-one. Direct to their fans. Books, as we know them, are not far behind in this inevitable trend of digitization.
Why should you shell out ten bucks for a Kindle version of something that has been in electronic format since the author first put fingers to keys? $15 for a paperback? The author is getting pennies of what you pay. All the rest is going to people who really didn’t do anything. Ah, you think, that’s where the Economics Rant fits in. Yup. You got it. Rather than go up against the publishing and bookselling giants all battling over your Entertainment Dollars I’m going to settle in at the bottom and go after your Entertainment Dollar.
As in One Dollar.
To put this in perspective imagine standing by the side of the I-5 in Los Angeles waiting for the auto club to come and start your car. You see a $100 bill blow across the shoulder and into traffic. You are going to figure out how to cross the busiest road on the planet and get that C-note. You will justify the risk with something along the lines of “Hey, that’s dinner and drinks out there!” Now leave everything the same but change the venue to Main Street in Goodland, Kansas. The road is deserted but you notice a tumbleweed skittering across the road with a $1 bill impaled on a branch. The wind-blown bush lodges against the fence guarding the vacant lot where the bicycle shop once stood before Walmart came to town. This time you’re going to think “Gee that’s pretty far away. I’ll just leave that for somebody who needs it.”
That would be me.
What? You want me to pay One Dollar every time I read your stuff you no-talent, outcast, anarchist? Nope. I want you to pay me One Dollar to read all my stuff for a year. Admittedly, there’s not much stuff there yet but the keen-sighted among you will have also noticed there’s not any place to leave your One Dollar yet either. In fact, taking a page from late-night TV marketers, I am so certain you’re going to think that what you’re reading is worth One Dollar a year that I’m going to give it to you for free and then you can pay me the dollar later, after you find the tumbleweed-tangled Washington on your side of the street. I’m so sure that you’ll think it’s worth your hard-won dollar that I’m going to even give you a place to leave two. Just in case.
What about books? Yes, for those of you who have not yet upgraded your digitalia, there will be actual books too. Those are going to have to cost more because they’re not in electronic format. There will be giftable items as well and other such swag to make you feel like you’re actually buying something. I mean, which would you rather get for Valentine’s Day? An email with an Amazon Gift Card Number on it or an actual…. Wait. Let’s not give away all the secrets just yet. Suffice it to say that when you buy a book, or any one of numerous other tasteful and desirable items, from me you’ll be paying me cost plus One Dollar. And here I am, standing in the corner I painted myself into in last week’s Rant with my ill-considered statement about “fair and open pricing”.
That’s it in a nutshell. I think I’ve got all the bases covered to borrow an aphorism from football or soccer or something. The only thing left is finding all of those people who have stumbled across the tumbleweed and find themselves with money to burn. That’s going to be the topic for next week. Be sure to wear your grubby clothes because I’m going to put you to work.
What? You thought this was a one-way street?