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

[http://users.livejournal.com/_aisling_/]

I would enjoy reading on the web but it's turned out to be rather difficult to make any donation at all in my case. To my suprise, none of the cards I have got can be used for money transfer abroad - or, at least, I have been explained so in the bank. Still hope to learn more about the ways!

[jelazakazone.livejournal.com]

Can you use paypal? I recently sent someone in England a payment through paypal. I think we kept things in USD for her because she makes purchases here on occasion, but it seemed fairly straightforward.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_aisling_/]

Well, they told me in the bank that if I want to use paypal I should have some different type of card, rather expensive and unnecessary for anything else but this paypal system. But I feel that I shouldn't give up and try my other card, issued by a different Russian bank. Perhaps, I'm simply unaccustomed to such things!

[jelazakazone.livejournal.com]

How frustrating!

[http://users.livejournal.com/_aisling_/]

I'm currently trying to contact some people on specialized forums and I think I'll be explained how to start using paypal with my cards, so there is still hope! lol