From: Samantha Atkins (samantha@objectent.com)
Date: Wed Apr 03 2002 - 01:56:12 MST
jeff davis wrote:
> I got to thinking again, about the business model for
> electronic publishing, when, some time back, Damien
> posted the following, regarding the possible
> electronic publishing of his work:
>
> "Suppose I e-posted advertisements (somehow/somewhere)
> that my latest novel can be downloaded free from one
> given server, and asked for a $1 or less tip. Terrible
> idea: I need to pay for server space, and the
> inundation of hits from my zillion eager fans will
> lock up the system and send them to Piers Anthony
> paperbacks instead.
This is somewhat silly. Books are not very big as downloads go.
Server space is not that expensive. Disk space needs are
minuscule, the transaction could be kept very simple. There
would not be much of a problem serving up many thousands of
copies a day. A more interesting scheme would be distributing
the work on a p2p file system. But even a central server
adequate to the job would take a reasonable SDSL or better
connection and a few thousand dollars of hardware and some
pretty simple server software. Even easier would be to use one
of the online store portals with PayPal or some micro-payment
system tied in.
>
> So what if, instead, I use a sort of benign pyramid
> scheme:
>
> I send Eliezer, Spike and Robert an attached e-copy of
> the 85,000 word novel apiece (after politely inviting
> and receiving their request for it).
>
> Thereafter they can do what they wish with it, but I
> ask nicely that if they enjoy the book they send me a
> buck (by whatever appropriate means, maybe Paypal) AND
> THAT THEY SEND A TEASER TO ANOTHER THREE FRIENDS who
> they judge might care to read it."
>
> END OF QUOTE
>
Well you could do a Napster like twist where other people can
get their copy off of your system.
> As for marketing, conventional publishing presupposes
> marketing costs--you pay the publisher for this very
> major task. If you propose--as I infer from the
> above--a more decentralized, reader-to-reader,
> word-of-mouth method to accomplish the same
> end,...hey, it's just another way to get the job done.
> If it works, you're an innovative marketing genius.
> If it doesn't, who cares. People try new things all
> the time. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't.
>
> Anyway, I thought about Damien's above-proposed
> method, and took it a bit further. Reconfigure the
> person-to-person/reader-to-reader
> marketing/distribution mechanism by PAYING THEM. That
> is, pay a percentage to anyone who generates sales of
> your work. Say, 40 percent for all first level
> recommendations, 20 percent for second level
> recommendations, ten percent for third level, and so
> forth. If you have to market--and you do--don't shy
> away from it and don't let irrational greed mislead
> you into thinking that parsimonious is better than
> generous. You want rational greed. You need the
The problem is that I will be flooded with offers from potential
sales partners for sundry items. No thanks. It is much better
to have online catalogs where products of various kinds can be
registered. This is not that hard to do. What do you think the
web stores do? The code underneath is not that complex at all.
New goods would simply be registered in the appropriate
categories and people could search for type of goods and various
subcategories and author/originator/manufacturer and so on.
Picture something like a more distributed electronic book
Amazon. Author publishes excerpt, blurb, book cover image and
so on and link to download. On-line store gives general format,
search capabilities, payment mechanism, feedback from readers,
ratings and so on for a small slice of the book earnings or a
fixed fee. There is no reason the per book fee need be very
large, especially if the books are being stored and served up
elsewhere on the net.
- samantha
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