On being independent

What Amanda Palmer has to teach you.

Posted by JanOda on Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010

As I mentioned in the editorial, I have many gut feelings about independent publishing, but converting those feelings into something coherent is quite difficult for me. And maybe the feelings I have do not align with your opinion, but I’d like to take the time to share my thoughts and hopefully open up a discussion on the business side of webfiction. And where better to begin than by looking at successful examples of independent publishing?

I first heard of Amanda Palmer when Eli posted a link to a blog post of hers about independent artists and why she wasn’t afraid of asking money from her fans.She’s really thought it through, so go read her blog post and the and the follow up post too, because they’re really interesting.

It struck me then that webfiction authors should think the same way, and that’s when I became a fan of Amanda Palmer the person. (I later became a fan of Amanda Palmer the artist too, but that’s a different story.) I still think that what she says in those blog posts is true, and is the way forward for everyone working independently.

Sometime this week Amanda Palmer and OkGo celebrated being released from their record labels, so that they could now be actually independent artists, which they had been before in spirit if not in reality.

You can find the webcast of that celebration here, including an excellent rundown by Mike Mansick, too. One thing that struck Mike also struck me, so I’m quoting him here and adding my thoughts on it below.

“The first is that during the interview session between acts, Amanda was asked about “direct to fan” stuff, and she made a point that I’ve been trying (perhaps unsuccessfully) to highlight for quite some time: and that’s that each act needs to do something that fits with what works for them. Her fear is that there’s so much talk about “direct-to-fan” offerings, that people are going to start just trying to all do exactly the same thing, rather than charting a course that’s unique to them.”

“The whole point of learning how to better connect with fans and giving them reasons to buy, is not that everyone has to use Twitter, or that everyone has to offer “tiered” offerings. Or that everyone has to tour, even. It’s that there are many different ways that each artist can connect with fans and give them a reason to buy directly, and that each artist has to figure out the way to apply the concept in a way that fits with their own personality and sensibilities.”

I realize that they are talking about the music business, and that the analogy to the publishing business (though I’d much rather refer to it as the book-business) doesn’t always ring true. However, I do believe that being an independent artist, no matter if you sing, write, dance, puppeteer or read the future, is more than just about your artform, it’s a way of thinking, and acting upon it.

The internet has brought artists everywhere an incredible power to be able to directly connect with their fans. The Long Tail has never been closer — if you don’t know about the Long Tail, Novelr has an excellent post about it and its relation to webfiction. In theory writers should have an advantage, because the internet is very focused on the written word. And yet I often feel that most webfiction authors aren’t really independent artists. Not because they are bound to anything or anyone (except maybe the real life job and obligations), but because they don’t make full use of the power they have. Independent artists are free. Free to experiment, free to ask favors, free to collaborate, free to be silly, free to step out of the ordinary. And yet, so little of that happens in the webfiction community.

I realize that most authors write for themselves mostly, or just like to share their stories. But I also believe that everyone who writes wants to have as many people reading their work as possible. And to be able to keep writing and be read, people need money to survive. So I think every webfiction author dreams of being successful in doing something they love. Which means being successful as independent artists.

Or at least, that’s how I see it.

If you browse around webfiction stories you’ll see the same tricks and ideas almost everywhere. Donation buttons, incentives ranging from becoming a fan on Facebook to tweeting about the story and so on. If you’ve been around the block a while, like I have, that becomes repetitive. And it stops working.

As Mike pointed out in his article on Amanda, “each artist has to figure out the way to apply the concept in a way that fits with their own personality and sensibilities” and I’d like to add fans to that equation too.

I believe it’s time for webfiction authors to step up, and use the power they have. And in case you’re convinced that webfiction is way too underground for it to work, The Amanda Project, which is an innovative and interactive webfiction project, was actually served as an example in my class about the future of the book, by the main spokeperson of Boek.be. If the often backwards and conservative book people in Belgium realize that webfiction can be interesting, so can the rest of the world.

They just need a wake-up call.

Can you give them one?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010 at 1:31 am and is filed under Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

  • Have you heard of Max Barry's "Machine Man" webserial experiment ? I know he is not exactly independent- having already published 3 traditional and successful novels he already had his own personal audience to bring over to the web. But the serial was still written independently, for the web, so it is very relevant. I think this post hits some right chords. Machine Man was successful because Barry used the web medium precisely as Amanda Palmer said: by adapting his personality, writing style and the characteristics of the online world to a new kind of fiction. It's not enough to write fiction online, it has to be FOR online. His model is really interesting and it actually worked, getting me into webfiction more broadly. The idea of successful serial fiction is to keep readers guessing and wanting to read more...and my observation is that on the web that works only by posting short pieces regularly- Machine Man's model capitalized on the engagement of the serial by offering the first 43 pages for free (that's more than a month, since each page is delivered every weekday) and THEN asking for a small fee - once people were already engaged in the characters and the ongoing plotlines... I sure prefer this model for webfiction than reading a looooong chapter posted rarely on a blogspot page with a donate button.
  • Interesting idea. It would be intriguing to do a study on all the different business models used by webfiction authors and compare success rates.
  • So, I followed MCM's post and read his blog. Now I'm unsure of where to respond, but I decided to do it here, since this is more about webfic in general and not about MCM in particular. Okay, actually, it's just about me, and the death of dreams. (:P)

    My readers and money have dropped off this year too, but I attributed it to going into hibernation for the winter (with books available for sale). I posted three serials from June to December of last year, and really felt like I was building an audience, and starting to make a little bit of money, especially for a first year thing.

    The only real problem was that I stopped writing. I had the material ready to go, so it was no problem posting it, but I just couldn't write anything new to save my life after August of last year. Thinking I was overworked with the website side of things, I stuck two books up for sale on the site, both with lengthy previews, and, um...no one bought them.

    Months later, still not writing, I decided that I couldn't write without interaction from an audience, so I started posting another serial. (I'm lucky to have a good backlist of stuff from when I was pursuing traditional publishing.) I have readers, but they aren't buying the darned thing. I figured it was because of me and my writing and taking a break. But if MCM's having similar problems, then that is interesting.

    Oh, and about the death of dreams. I think I've just had to acknowledge that this is not going to be my profession. Even if by some miracle I could make as much money writing as I do at my day job, I'd have trouble giving up health insurance and retirement benefits. And I'm not sure, if I have children in the next few years, (which I hope to) that I could handle the stress of not having financial security while trying to raise them Furthermore, if trying to publish web fiction is stressful now, I can't imagine keeping up with it AND kids. So that's the death of my dream of making a living writing.

    Which sounds terrible, but has actually been kind of liberating. Now that I don't have to worry about whether or not I'll be able to make money from writing, I've been writing again. Which, I realized, is what I want to do more than make money.
  • MCM
    I wish I knew what the change was all about. Last year, the economy was feeling much worse than it is now, and yet things were better. I really can't decide why things have been dropping off so suddenly. It could just be a seasonal thing... maybe people start parting with their money more easily in the second half of the year. I'll have to wait and see how things play out.

    The "death of a dream" thing resonates with me, too. I basically produce half a million words every year, and despite that effort, I can't come close to making a living this way. But it's not really a question of effort or quality or any of that... it's about timing and luck, and for whatever reason, 2010 seems to be a bad year for both of those across the board. If I had a day job, I'd be sticking with it :)
  • Jeez, that's depressing.

    And... HALF A MILLION WORDS?!?!?
  • MCM
    And that's not even counting the words I use to make fun of you!
  • What would you do without me to boost your wordcount?
  • MCM
    I think you're right, but at the same time, the problem isn't that there isn't fun and innovation going on, it's that the audience gets desensitized too quickly to keep them happy for long. It's not a criticism of the audience so much as a realization that things have to keep moving (and fast) if we want to maintain interest.

    I write because I love it and can't stop, but I don't really write for myself. I write for an audience that's engaged and seems to enjoy what I'm doing. Once that starts to falter, it makes me rethink my strategies and maybe reconsider what I want to do next. Getting bored with "like" buttons is fine, but developing something better for a seemingly-apathetic audience doesn't seem like a good investment of time, either.

    I wrote a totally tangential post about the dangers of being indie, which starts with this post and goes badly off-topic: http://1889.ca/2010/06/the-dangers-of-being-indie.html
  • MCM.
    You cannot write a post like that and then close comments.
  • MCM
    The comments aren't closed! They're open! I just checked!
  • Personally, I think I've been spending too much time trying to figure out how to monetize my art and not enough time having fun creating it. I came to a conclusion recently (um, okay, maybe it was just now. I've been struggling with this for a while). I will keep writing whether anyone pays me or not. I will keep writing whether anyone likes what I write or not. And I will keep writing whether anyone reads it or not.

    That's the way it's been going my whole life. That's the way it will keep going. Sure I'd like to make money, but it's not happening. (It's happening even less now than it did when I first started.) I miss the way things were before I was trying to make money doing this. It was FUN then. I want more fun.
  • Fun is important. People need to be more silly in general. It can be such a release to let things go. I understand the need to make a living. But it should never get in the way of creativity, and fun.
  • Jan I really think you've hit the nail on the head here. Although from the editorial I was *sure* I was going to disagree, I find myself agreeing with basically every point here XD
  • What did you think I was going to write about? I'm all curious now?
  • Brilliant post. Linking to you from Novelr now.
  • I am putting on the ol' thinking cap myself to figure this out. The models I used to use don't work any more; you're right, too many of us used them. Of course, right now few people are paying me anyway. I'm on hiatus. I'm hoping that when book one comes back out, they'll be ready to come back, and when they come back, they'll be ready to support me.
  • It's a hard line to walk I think. I think fans of independent artists need to realize that those artists need their support, in an active way, because without support, no art. But I also think the independent artists need to deserve that support, by being original.

    I haven't figured this out at all myself, and it might be easier for me to say it because I'm not an artist myself. But I honestly think that the unoriginilaty of the 'money drivers' might be working backwards.
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