Announcing ‘Deviant Dollar’ Stories
Mister James | Mar 04, 2010 | Comments 9
Yesterday I tried something a little different. I wrote a short story, converted it to digital, sold it on Smashwords and here on the website. It sold for 99 cents and was called SNOWMEN.
Why did I do this? Various reasons.
The biggest being that as a writer, a content creator, I should get paid for what I create. Not Stephen King or James Cameron dollars, of course, but something. I give away free podcast novels that no one donates to…that’s the brutal truth. It seems that for people to fork over their hard earned dollars to a creator, they feel they should be getting something specific. Like a short story, a piece of art, a song or two. I’ve got hundreds, hell, maybe even a few thousand supporters of my work, yet no one donates to help me continue to do what I love to do, and what they apparently love to hear: storytelling.
That’s fine. I’m not placing the blame on any one or any model of creative output. I will continue to tell stories for free and put them up on the website. I appreciate the support and hopefully when the time comes for my book to be on shelves, you’ll go out and buy a copy to show your appreciation for the hundreds of hours I’ve put into podcasting my fiction. Thank-you in advance.
However, I’ve come to the conclusion that the FREE model is no longer a sustainable one for the creator. Sure, there may be the odd person that breaks out of the mold and goes on to have great success by giving their work away for free, but those people are few and far between nowadays.
I’m getting married in a few months, moving to a new country, and starting a new life with my wife and daughter. FREE just doesn’t cut it anymore and I need to generate some extra income, no matter how little it may be, every cent helps.
I sold SNOWMEN to sort of test the waters to see if most of you thought I was worth 99 cents. Based on the response, I’d say the majority of people agree that yes, the content I create is worth a buck. I’m still scratching my head over why more people don’t donate willingly to content creators, but that’s for another blog post.
So based on the response I got from yesterdays little experiment, I’ve decided to move forward with a project I’ve been noodling on for a while now. I’m calling it ‘Deviant Dollars.’
Once or twice a month I’ll be putting up a short story here on the website and on Smashwords and selling them for a dollar. The price of a taco, as my buddy Matt Wallace puts it. The goal is to, of course, generate some income for me and my family, while doing what I love to do: tell stories. If 50 people purchase a Deviant Dollar story, that’s 50 bucks. By selling directly to the you, the reader, I’ll most likely earn more money than if I were to submit them to short fiction markets, and you won’t have to wait the 6 months to a year to see that story in print. It’s fast, it’s direct, and it cuts out the middleman. That’s another factor that weighed in on my decision to do this.
There are going to be people that say I am undercutting the market. That I am bringing down the cost one should expect to pay for something, thus making it hard for other creators to charge more for their work if they should choose to do so. To those people I say this: you pay your bills your way and I’ll pay mine my way. I’m not worried about the online fiction market, it’ll be just fine whether anyone charges or not. I think a buck is a reasonable price to pay for a short story of 2,500-3,000 words. If you don’t, that’s your problem. Not mine. Don’t buy one.
I have yet to decide if I am going to offer audio versions of these stories. If there’s enough call for it, then maybe I will. But I’m telling you now that if I do, those will sell for 2 bucks. Audio takes up a lot more of my time than sitting down to write, and I know that my time is worth 2 bucks. At least.
I hope you can appreciate my position here, and why I am doing this. I’m not greedy, money hungry, or a snake oil salesman. I’m just a guy that likes to tell stories, and thinks he should be paid for his wares every once in a while. I don’t think that’s too much to ask from anyone.
Thank you for your continued support and even if you never purchase a Deviant Dollar story or donate to my free fiction, you and I are still cool. Keep the emails of encouragement coming, and I’ll continue putting out content for you to enjoy.
~James
Good on ya, dude. I’ll be first in line, every time.
Thanks, Hutch. YOU the man!
It’s a very reasonable proposition. I have been dragging my feet on my next book knowing that the time in (probably thousands of hours, between writing, editing, recording, promoting, editing the audio etc…) will net me a pittance. Like you, I have a family to feed, andy time needs to be invested on even mildly profitable writing.
I sence a sea change in the winds.
Also, if all of your stories are as hella entertaining as Snowman, I will continue to purchase them!
Yeah, I said hella. Sometimes it just feels right.
Haha! Thanks, Drew. Glad you likes Snowmen.
Yeah, there is a change in winds coming. Whether it will be a lasting change or not, I don’t know, but I’m willing to be one of the first in line to test the waters so hopefully other creators can follow.
Good post. I agree with you adn applaud your efforts, but I take issue with one thing you said:
” Sure, there may be the odd person that breaks out of the mold and goes on to have great success by giving their work away for free, but those people are few and far between nowadays.”
Those people have always been few and fair between and their success is based on more than giving it away.
Good luck!
I agree wholeheartedly with your model and laud your efforts. The issue that I see for micro-sales like that is that the transaction fees alone (paypal or other third parties) would be far too significant. I was avoiding a similar move for some of my creative content with the thought that the price point would be too low for the medium of exchange.
Bast of luck with the move and your endeavour.
Thanks for the support, Jason. I thought about the transaction fees but decided that it’s a small price to pay for earning a little bit of money. I guess it just depends on your endgame. I’m not looking to make HUGE dollars off of this. I just want people to see that supporting an online creator monetarily for their work isn’t a bad thing, and maybe pay a few bills in the process
[...] interested in learning more about how you can support him, check out his website and the Deviant Dollar Stories [...]
Anyone who tells you you’re undercutting the market is probably looking at it from the wrong angle. It costs like six dollars to buy a copy of Analog and there’s probably about 5-7 stories in there not counting columns, editorial, and whatnot.
From the perspective of a media consumer with a calculator, a dollar a story is about even or slightly more expensive than the market. Not to say that I think your price is too high. My enjoyment rate with Analog tends to be <50%. A story I enjoy is totally worth at least a dollar to me.
Whether or not it ends up being less lucrative on the author side I couldn’t say. Depends on how many people end up buying the story over the course of time vs. how much a pub would have purchased it for. At SFWA rates, it’d probably take a long time before any single Deviant Dollar Story broke even … but a story you’re making money from is instantly more profitable than one that you haven’t found a publisher for yet.
For the question of why people don’t donate, I think it’s out of their way and it just kind of goes to the back of their minds. I started donating to podcasts back in December, but I’d been listening to podcasts since the previous January. I’m not sure how to convert passive consumers to active participants. The thing that finally got me moving on it was that I’m a writer and I’d like to think that when I get some things going, people would be willing to pay me.
How do you move someone who doesn’t aspire to write? I haven’t got a clue.