whuffie – noun – 1. the ephemeral, reputation-based currency of Cory Doctorow’s sci-fi novel, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom. (Wikipedia.) 2. Whuffie is a high five, it’s that look of appreciation you give for a job well done, it’s a thumbs up. (Craphound.)
I’m taking a momentary break from Sunday football (mainly because my beloved Colts are thrashing the Houston Texans 38-7 in the 3rd Quarter at last check) because I wanted to drop a line or two about some of the things I’ve been reading lately.
I followed a comment from Eli’s website (Novelr, as if you didn’t know by now) to Refresh Monkeys and the Usual Nuts – The Blog of Alexandra Erin. Though it isn’t the primary focus of her blog, Alexandra has spilled a bit or two talking about ways to make money off of electronic fiction. She’s got some good advice and smart tips for people who are thinking about going the e-publishing route (most of which amounts to: don’t. You can make more money and do a better job yourself. Which is, I think, solid advice if you’re someone who doesn’t need the validation of being accepted by a “publisher” and who isn’t afraid to get your hands dirty with marketing and/or reading communities.)
(And because I pimp, here’s a link to Alexandra’s current project: Tales of Mu.)
I’ve made my share of change with electronic fiction, mostly through Fictionwise editions of my small press novel From the Hands of Hostile Gods. (Psst. Don’t purchase from that link. My small publishers seems to have gone under, and while you’d get the copy you ordered because of their relationship with Lightning Source, I won’t see a dime. And besides, I’m going to post the full text here in the next few months. And that’ll be free.) And when I say “my share”, what I mean is that I’ve made enough that I could take you and I out for dinner to a nice restaurant.
I haven’t really thought much about making money from electronic fiction. See, I don’t buy electronic fiction. I’ve never even been tempted. I’ve spent a few hundred dollars on electronic non-fiction, but that was because I was paying for information I wanted or needed for projects. This isn’t a moral judgment on selling e-fiction, just a personal ethic that I’m not going to ask anyone to give me money for something I wouldn’t pay for.
And that brings me to whuffie. Whuffie is why I’ve decided to publish online. I wrote it. I’d like you to read it. I think you’ll enjoy it. I’m sharing my creative labors for free because I’ve bought into the concept that releasing creative content into the wild with no other expectation than to share, and maybe bring some interesting ideas to my readers while entertaining them, is worthwhile. It makes me happy.
I saw a statistic recently (that I’m not going to look up for you because I’m lazy) that something like half of web users under the age of 21 have published free content on the web. This is a massive paradigm shift from my generation. I was raised in the writing school that said you write, you query, you get published, you wait for the money. In between querying and publication, the manuscript sits in a drawer gathering dust so that no one can “steal your idea” or whatever. The fact is that fewer than 10% of professional fiction writers make a living from writing.
I wrote my novels to be read, not to have them sit in a drawer. I don’t see creative writing as qualitatively different than YouTube videos, Oblivion mods or open source software. They’re all labors of love that their creators hope will make someone’s life better, more interesting or just a bit more fun.
Probably the turning point for me came with reading an essay by Cory Doctorow describing his rationale for free distribution of his novels.
Not (just) because I’m a swell guy, a big-hearted slob. Not because Tor is a run by addlepated dot-com refugees who have been sold some snake-oil about the e-book revolution. Because you — the readers, the slicers, dicers and copiers — hold in your collective action the secret of the future of publishing. Writers are a dime a dozen. Everybody’s got a novel in her or him. Readers are a precious commodity. You’ve got all the money and all the attention and you run the word-of-mouth network that marks the difference between a little book, soon forgotten, and a book that becomes a lasting piece of posterity for its author, changing the world in some meaningful way.
– Cory Doctorow
For me, it’s about writing stories that are intensely important to me. It’s about having them read. And maybe, just a little, it’s about having a bunch of strangers think well of me and appreciate what I do.
(Plus, I really ought to give something back to the creative community after all the software and music I’ve, um, “tried out” without actually buying it.)
D.
Filed under: Blooks and Blognovel Analysis Tagged: | blog novel analysis, blog novels, blooks, whuffie
