Yesterday, we linked to a brief webcast interview with Cory Doctorow about copyright, libraries, ebooks and other topics. Today, he's published a new and very interesting article in Publisher's Weekly where he will be a new monthly columnist. It's a long article but it's worthy of your time. Here are just a few highlights.
Free e-books work for me. I've been a full-time writer since I quit my day job as European director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (a charity that works for online civil liberties) in January 2006. Since then, I've made my living through a combination of royalties and licenses (foreign translations, film options, etc.); earnings from Boing Boing, the popular blog I co-edit and co-own; speaking fees; column writing; and the occasional grant, teaching gig or residency. Mine is the semirandom hodgepodge of income sources that characterizes most of the freelancers I know, as skills, circumstances and capacity dictates.
Still, this business of my giving away e-books is a controversial subject. I encounter plenty of healthy skepticism in my travels, and not a little bile. There's a lot of people who say I'm pulling a fast one, that I'd be making more money if I didn't do this crazy liberal copyright stuff, or that I'm the only one it'll ever work for, or that I secretly make all my money from doing stuff that isn't writing, or that it only works because I'm so successful. Of course, when I started, they said it only worked because I was so unknown.
Much More After a Click
People want proof that this works—that I'm not deluded or a con artist. But it's hard to prove.
[Snip]
I'm a contrarian on both of these propositions: that I'm losing money by giving away e-books, and that I'm losing money by using a publisher.
[Snip]
I have set out to produce a book that can be had in a range of packages and at a range of price points from $0.00 to $10,000.
Doctorow then writes with plenty of detail about various the formats his book can appear in and how much each version will sell for along with a few other ways to make some money. One thing is for sure, both the ebook and audiobook versions will be free.
As we said before, this article is worthy of your attention.
Formats and a Few Other Ways to Make Revenue Include:
+ eBooks (free)
+ Audiobooks (free)
+ Donations
+ Print-on-Demand Trade Paperback
+ Premium Hardcover Edition
+ Commission a New Story
+ Advertisements
+ Donations of books
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