Coming Up Shorter
There may be a market for shorter pieces of writing for electronic devices. I'm very interested in this because I have a piece I wrote that was to be part of a book, and I can't write that book for a while, and the piece seems to be pretty stand-alone. Hmmm.
Check out this Jenna Wortham story in The New York Times, "Shorter E-Books for Smaller Devices." She writes about the first e-book she read on her smartphone. "No typical tome," she writes:
It was "Lifted," an article -- at 12,000 words, a very long article -- about a $150 million Swedish bank heist. It cost me $3.The work was written by Evan Ratliff, a co-founder of the Atavist -- a new digital publishing house that commissions and sells nonfiction articles written exclusively for distribution on smartphones, e-readers and tablet computers.
The Atavist is among the growing number of organizations that are cultivating a certain niche of writing -- stories and articles that are longer than a typical magazine article but shorter than a novel -- in the hope that they will find a comfortable home on the glassy screens of evermore prevalent mobile devices. "Word counts are getting shorter in most magazines," said Mr. Ratliff, who is also a contributing editor to Wired magazine. "On a mobile device, we shouldn't be bound by those constraints."
The attention spans of readers -- many of us, anyway -- are actually not getting shorter, Mr. Ratliff says. The problem lies elsewhere, he adds: "It's the platform."
The physical dimensions of mobile devices are, in some ways, quite limited. So it's important to exploit the advantages that the devices do have, he contends. Success, he says, depends on thinking beyond a "one-to-one transition from book to e-book," and on doing more than replacing paper with pixels.
The Atavist integrates clever tools into the text, like interactive timelines and character biographies to help a reader quickly find her place without spoiling the plots. I found that this helped me spin through "Lifted" without the digressions that have usually turned me off of e-books.
Mr. Ratliff did not share specific sales figures for his venture, which began in late January, but he said interest was "much higher than anticipated." The Atavist isn't the only boutique publishing house planning to exploit what it believes are readers' nascent appetites for more medium-length material. Many digital boutiques, including Push Pop Press, Cursor and Byliner, are also promising to deliver new breeds of content primarily through mobile devices.
What would you pay for, essentially, a chapter of a book? Would you pay?
I've read a bit about the experiences of authors self-publishing eBooks on Amazon. There seems to be a sweet spot for full-length novels at $2.99. Above this price sales apparently plummet.
To an author, this sounds like not very much. On the other hand, a self-publishing author keeps 70%, or about $2 of the total price, which is not bad at all.
For short pieces, I think you are looking at $0.99, like songs for an MP3 player. The point is to have a price low enough that people will spontaneously buy rather than think about it.
a_random_guy at February 14, 2011 12:04 AM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2011/02/14/coming_up_short.html#comment-1843650">comment from a_random_guyI've read about the $2.99 price point, but I'm not personally talking about a whole novel. Also, I think it's unwise to self-publish unless you have some sort of platform and ability to sell your work yourself (promote it, I mean).
Also, there are people like Seth Godin who self-publish because they recognize the publishing model is broken and people who do it because they aren't willing to put in the amount of work it takes to get an agent. And by work, I mean writing and rewriting and rewriting and rewriting, and so on.
Amy Alkon
at February 14, 2011 12:17 AM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2011/02/14/coming_up_short.html#comment-1843652">comment from Amy AlkonOh, and I have a 5,200 word autobiographical piece on how I dragged myself up by the scruff of the neck from being a friendless loser and pulled myself together (with lots of humiliations and learning experiences in between). It's advice by example rather than finger-wagging advice, and directed mainly at teen and 20-something girls...probably...although it's funny, too.
Amy Alkon
at February 14, 2011 12:23 AM
Asimov's "Silly Asses" comes to mind. It's just one page long. Whatever the length, it has to be good. And something that stands out. Ellison. Bradbury.
On a seperate note, who the hell is "Arcade Fire"?
Radwaste at February 14, 2011 3:01 AM
Visit the App store or the Android market and you'll see many reviews like this "... it was a piece of crap but for $0.99, what the hell." $0.99 seems to be the price point at which most everyone in the e-Device world will buy just about anything (like a fart application.)
AllenS at February 14, 2011 5:24 AM
What's the typical scenario?
If it's reading during a daily commute - the platform shouldn't matter. The user is committed to read in installments. That's how Dickens published, remember?
Who reads a book in one sitting? Well, that's not a behavior related to format, is it?
So: I think this is not much of a distinction from a user's perspective.
A bigger indicator of desired/tolerated length is probably fiction vs. non-fiction.
Ben David at February 14, 2011 6:47 AM
Yep, I think a $.99 price point for something that's a long book chapter probably works. Over that and I suspect it becomes much tougher sell.
e-Book format for Kindle is probably an easier thing to do than put it into the iTunes store, though I'm not familiar with the process for iBook approval by Apple, only the app store approval process.
Christopher at February 14, 2011 10:22 AM
I don't think I'd pay for just one chapter, even from you ;). But I might pay $5.00 per month for twenty short pieces of writing from authors I enjoy a la carte style.
Biz op?
MissFancy at February 14, 2011 10:55 AM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2011/02/14/coming_up_short.html#comment-1843873">comment from MissFancyInteresting idea, Miss Fancy.
And I do have to say, the chapter from me is sort of a coming of age/coming of self-esteem primer for young girls. But, I could price it at 99 cents. It's part of a book for young women that I plan on writing -- there's another for guys that I'd like to do as well. If only I could write faster!
Amy Alkon
at February 14, 2011 11:28 AM
I say it really depends on the contents.
For casual reading type stuff, 99 cents is probably the limit. I think something like MissFancy's idea of a monthly subscription would be good.
Something more academic in nature, I would pay more for if it was something I was interested in. I bought access to a paper(?) I ran across while looking for something for class. It was not for the class and I paid 8 or 9 dollars.
The Former Banker at February 14, 2011 2:04 PM
Geez, if I were a thug I'd like the idea of a raft of people reading e-this or e-that on the train. Nobody will see me coming, and there's a nice gadget to play with, for myself.
Radwaste at February 14, 2011 2:18 PM
I LOVE the idea of long-form journalism for 99 cents. I would buy it to read online and on my Kindle. The issue would be how to market it so that an interested person would know about it and learn enough about the writer to be interested in more of her work. Obviously writers like Amy can just offer it to their large blog readership. I would find out about it here and go to Amazon to purchase it, but what about writers I haven't been exposed to yet? Maybe there could be something like the Genius recommendations on iTunes. I guess Amazon already has something like that but it doesn't predict quite as well things I might like.
I would like to support good writers in a way that doesn't hurt my pocketbook. This could replace the money I used to spend on magazine subscriptions. Keep working on this idea, Amy!
Miss Conduct at February 14, 2011 2:25 PM
Who reads a book in one sitting? Well, that's not a behavior related to format, is it?
I read an unabridged copy of 'Battefeild Earth' in just over two hours.
Hubbard may have gone face first off the deep end, but he knew how to tell a story
lujlp at February 14, 2011 6:01 PM
Miss Conduct:
I LOVE the idea of long-form journalism for 99 cents.
- - - - - - - - - -
Yeah, that sounds good - I would gladly replace lamestream media with subscriptions to journalists I trust - Goddess, Michael Totten, Claire Berlinski, Thomas Sowell.
Direct-to-market columnists.... yeah....
Ben David at February 15, 2011 3:04 AM
You wouldn't even have to commit to a subscription-based publishing model. You already have a huge backlist of "commute consumable" material which has never been read by e-book owners. Just make some of your articles or advice columns available for 99 cents a shot. Just imagine a packed subway train roaring with laughter about the return of the Pink Rambler. :-)
Meet Amy Alkon, the next Charles Dickens...
Cheers,
Rainer
Rainer at February 19, 2011 3:54 AM
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