Comments on: Monetising the short fiction webzine market

By: Paul Raven

Paul Raven — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 14:11:49 +0000

I’ll look forward to them. The most obvious thing that has leapt to mind is that getting a bloc of publishers together might be a good idea – strength in numbers, and so forth. I need to do some more thinking …

By: Jason Stoddard

Jason Stoddard — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 14:00:30 +0000

Aha, yes–well, in that case, if you find the secret formula, then both you and your contributors deserve to benefit!

This post has given me a lot to think about. You can expect some more articles on my own site as a result of this. I’m convinced that there are many things we can do to bring the field forward!

By: Paul Raven

Paul Raven — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 06:37:13 +0000

Good food for thought, Jason, many thanks. Some big ideas to think about there. As regards the money issue, I was not so much apologising for wanting to make some money as I was making it clear that I’d want all my contributors to get paid before me!

By: Jason Stoddard

Jason Stoddard — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 23:32:46 +0000

Neil: yep, this is my life, too. And I’ll concur that you are *really, really lucky* if your online marketing is handled by only a single agency with a single reporting system–and if they pay *any attention at all* to the data, even at the end of the month. I’ve seen so many horror stories (typically with large, traditionally-focused agencies) that sometimes I want to beat my head against a wall.

I concur on finding the online evangelists within the publishing markets and pitching them on a sponsorship deal. Someone who has dropped, say, a few hundred thousand on Second Life may think a sponsorship on this site is a relative bargain.

Also, we need to find the online fiction evangelists. BoingBoing pays attention to Futurismic; a couple of my own stories were linked from them. Is a closer relationship possible? Is Futurismic a possible fiction adjunct to BoingBoing? Apologies if I’m getting too close into your business model and business strategy here. Is there a closer relationship possible with the fiction forums on SomethingAwful and similar sites, without burying you in having to play “the friendly fiction publisher” on their site all the time? Is there something similar you can do with Slashdot? Could you be (gasp) the fiction arm of io9?

And–I have to say it–please don’t apologize for wanting to make a buck. No other profession has to do so. And, if we’re *really* going to move this forward, we need people who can make a living at this. As in, “I am an online publisher,” or “I am a science fiction author.” Not, “I am a (part time) online publisher (who is funding this with my own cash)” and “I am a science fiction author (who knows I will never, ever make a living at this.)” If you hit the magic formula and this venture makes you rich, congratulations. You don’t need to apologize.

By: Paul Raven

Paul Raven — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 18:40:20 +0000

Being entirely candid, Justin, I’m not sure. Steve Rubel and the Techdirt guys talk about good advertising being content in its own right, and I think we’re in for a lot more of it in years to come. That said, I kneejerk at it badly. It just tastes funny, y’know?