What goes around poll

[rolanni]

There's been a sort of movable discussion wandering through a couple writer communities I'm part of, brought on in part by writers who are trying to figure out how best to grow their audience, make a living, and maybe even get a bigger piece of the action.

Not surprisingly, many of these conversations come 'round to web serialization for fun and profit, what works, what doesn't. Some folks are of the opinion that giving one's work away "for free" is always a bad deal for the writer, some folks think that giving work away "for free" is the wave of the future, whereupon we're all gonna starve, some folks think that asking readers to kick in a buck for downloading a novel direct from the author is tacky, some think it's OK, but that no one will pay.

In other words, it's a complicated subject and lots of bright people are struggling to make sense of it, and to figure out how to work current realities to their benefit while simultaneously trying to figure out where current realities are going to take us in one, three, six years.

Now, Steve and I did well with our web serializations. I honestly don't know if that's because of a Paradigm Shift, or because we have Incredibly Cool Fans(TM), or because we were writing a Liaden story -- or a combination of all those factors and a bunch that I haven't thought of.

In the spirit of trying to figure some stuff out myself, I offer the following poll, going from the general to the specific.


[Poll #1381306]

Comments

[green-ogre.livejournal.com]

If I am getting something, the maximum price I would pay would vary.

For a PDF, 5-15
For a massmarket, 15-20
For a copy of the book (trade or hardcover) 25-50

I don't mind giving you guys a premium in advance over the cost of the "item" I will get especially if it is signed.

For a PDF or ebook, though the value is less. I buy a lot of ebooks from Baen and if you're going to publish there, I can get a nicely formated ebook for my Sony eReader whereas a PDF is a pain to read except on a PC.

Hit return on comment, gah!

[dorfird.livejournal.com]

I haven't read the first two mysteries yet.

Re: reading your books on the computer

[(Anonymous)]

Hi Sharon,
I agree with those who have posted/commented that reading a novel on a computer screen is a struggle at best, and painful to the eyes at worst. That said, I love your Liaden work so much that I read the first serialized novel on PDF for hours straight, and just took tylenol for the eyestrain and headache that I got from doing so.
Call me a luddite if you will, but I prefer having an actual book in my hand to read when I sit down to entertain my weary self, and I don't think that will ever change, no matter how many Kindles or E-readers with bigger screens they come up with.
Sadly, due to the economy and my chosen profession (journalism) I've not been able to afford to buy as many books as I used to, and that includes buying books online or paying for serials.
However, when things start turning around in this recession, I do plan to make a 'donation' for Saltation, though I've not read any of it yet.
I think that your Duanfey and Longeye books are good reads, as well, and I hope to get a copy of Longeye one day soon.
DeAnn