Question Mark @ the Intersections of Pre-Orders and Scribd Oyster etc
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Pictured Left :
American Robins Arriving in Vermont :
The First Swoop of Spring – a Photo Memoir, Available on Scribd
35 original images.
1,506 story-word commentary.
Two Bonus Bird Material Sections:
12 additional images with light commentary.
An inspirational story in nature for people.
Available on all participating outlets.
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“the intent of this blog is to incrementally build a body of thought that works toward integrating various topics, yoga, fitness, and the arts – it’s a process…”
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Site Areas
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Question Mark :
@ the Intersections of Pre-Orders and Scribd Oyster etc
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Categories : Author Bio Info & Updates
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Previous Related Articles :
Why I’m Uploading 50 Plus Titles to Scribd & Oyster
First Impression re Scribd & Oyster – I Like It! And Why…
Update: First Impression re Scribd & Oyster – I Like It! And Why…
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Intro
Mark Coker recently posted a nice piece with information about the benefits of creating a pre-order status for one’s new work.
Included is an embedded slide show “about preorder strategy” presented on Slideshare.net :
(it may or may not show in my blog format, but the link is also below)
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My interest in this article is to :
1) share info that’s tempted me twice already this year, but was unable to do, as I had a title for Valentines Day needing immediate release.
Mark’s post, on the Smashwords blog, has some nice links (titled: Indie Authors Share Preorder Tips, Tricks and Insights) to posts writers are putting up giving info about their experiences with pre-orders.
Big kudos to him for sharing and making that kind of info available.
2) pre-dwell within my own mind, and for my future strategies, how pre-orders (which I still want to try) and the new subscription services I’m participating in, Scribd and Oyster, might fit together
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Preview sample from Scribd, “Rendezvous, Place Saint-Michel”
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Conjecture, ie Brain Storming What-Ifs
Why
Despite my intent to try Pre-orders on a future title – and recognizing that my favorite template (Netflix) for why I feel subscription services like Scribd and Oyster have more than just a chance announces coming availability of new titles –
I tend to feel the potential disruptive nature of the status quo of things ebook-digital is so strong, pre-order as we know them now, may not be the same anymore.
Porter Anderson, in a post at Writers Unboxed, in talking about Hugh Howey’s early finding regarding earnings in publishing today, mentions (esp in the comments) how disruptive the whole digital evolution / revolution has been so far.
In response to a comment I placed bringing up subscription services, he mentions how “subscription models..are mostly in their infancy as yet…”
Picking my own items of interest from the very free ranging comments and threads in that article, only makes me more curious, how (rather than if) Scribd’s and Oyster’s models will impact more traditional attempts to gain momentum and attention, like pre-orders.
My Guesses
My hunches, and they are only that, are that “ways” can be found to still gain benefits from pre-orders. But possibly in a muted, if not mutated, way.
Pre-orders are a means of gaining steam via anticipation that creates enough orders (bottom line) to generate a buzz that will continue to propel the author and his or her work up the visibility trail.
Nothing wrong with that!
However…
in a subscription model, much as my wife and I do with Netflix, we aren’t rationing dollars for an item that then precludes our being able to enjoy other titles and authors (films).
Yes, we would like to watch / read the newest popular media offering.
But we don’t have to.
We can wait.
Enjoying a feast of other available work…until that newest greatest title is available.
Which shouldn’t be a problem in a digital subscription format with unlimited content-quantity available.
Unless the publisher or author have declined to be in the subscription model.
Then it’s a choice (at least there’s a choice) of paying to have something right away, or simply choosing from among the myriad of quality titles becoming available each day.
Plus –
…there are examples of artists like Beyonce simply going direct, with no pre-advance work, pre-orders or big hype, to her public.
Beyonce’s Surprise Album – Google search.
Naturally, for the vast majority of writers today, myself very much included, the name recognition to do something like Beyonce, with equal results, is slim.
Plus, as one of the links in the Google search above showed, Target refuses to sell Beyoncé’s surprise self-titled album, there may repercussions, for not distributing in a traditional manner (pre-orders, single copy sales) vs being in a subscription service.
I hope not.
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Conclusion
And analogies and alignments of music and books and movies like these aren’t perfect fits. Maybe not even close.
But they are thought-provoking for me. They make me wonder, think, and contemplate what the future is bringing round to us.
Mark Coker, in his blog post, 2014 Book Publishing Industry Predictions, in item # 10, may have said it best –
“Subscription ebook services will change the game – If the ebook subscription services – the most notable of which are Scribd and Oyster – can make their business models work, then they’ll drive a game changing shift in how readers value and consume books.”
I believe, any models that benefit both the authors and the readers, and create enough value to also make money as the vehicles for our mutual benefit, will thrive.
Mutual benefit, versus mutual self-destruction, should be what will best drive everything we value.
In the arts, and in life.
All the best wishes everyone 🙂
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namaste´- con dios – god be with you
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*** INTEGRATING YOGA FITNESS AND THE ARTS
Related articles
(some of these i’ve linked to in other articles, but this is a nice assortment) :
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