Electronic Storyteller’s Bowl

Sharon Lee –

Don Sakers – librarian

Lawrence<= /st1:place> Watt-Evans – 1^st person to successfully publish through SB=

Phil Foglio – Girl Genius

Steve Miller – pub self-destructed and so went to S’s Bowl

Definition: pause at the cliffhanger until a few coins are put into the bowl.

Sharon – give them 2/3 of the story and ask for paypal for the last.

Watt-Evans – Mind’s Eye went broke ‘= cause concept didn’t’ work. So did successors and he figured 1991 was just too soon. In 2004, he had pub’d 6 book= s with DelRay and then fell out with newbies there. Happy at Tor ever since but they didn’t like his old fantasy series so it was orphaned with the 1^=
st five chapters of a new one done. But readers still wanted to have it finished, so he remembered discussions with Eliz Moon and put 1^st chapter on website and sa= id if I get $100 I’ll put up next chapter and keep doing this until finished. Didn’t expect= much, but 1^st week he got $400. Started to say: maximu= m one chapter per week. So by 4 cha= pters, had received $1000. And said = on site, “If it ever comes out, I’ll send a book to whoever has pa= id for it.” Much more came= in, and he decided it took so much time that $100 per chapter wasn’t enough. Also, it was only 1st draft, and after 4 drafts and a paid editor, and eventually, DelRay(?) R= 11; no WildSide published it.

Steve Miller - this is a reader-driven success story; if you don’t already ha= ve readers, probably won’t work.

Phil Foglio – we were already pretty successful = as self-publishing with Girl Genius, but of other stuff, not so good – n= ot enough advance orders to justify regular printing. His wife said, put it on line. He had always recommend= ed web comics and now he was committed to one.&nb= sp; Started with freebies of issues already published and then started w= ith new. When old met up with new, server crashed and now have dedicated server. Thinks 3 out of 100 readers will actually buy a book.

Sakers – Tried it. Got rights to Support SF.com link,= but didn’t get much beyond 2 or 3 payers per readers. Again, you have to have establishe= d rep and readership, and then you will find the web sells a lot of bound books as well.

Watts-Evans – put up a whole library but still h= ardly got paid.

Sharon – pointed them to a discussion group and that really helped to sell i= t.

Watt-Evans – on second one I set up a web-post b= log and announced each new chapter and it worked pretty well.

Miller – it also helped that we already had a ma= iling list for a series, and so we had a way to get the news out, as well as connections to the rest of the sf community.

Watts – I was= active on SSF.net and others such, and made announcements of new materials there.<= /p>

Foglio – we already had connections, too. And we had a basement full of prin= ted copies to send out for pay.

Foglio – go to Project Wonderful

Watts – when = you put up a notice: “no chapte= r this week; insufficient funds received” and sometimes get the nut inside 40 minutes.

Miller – have things for sale on Café Press. Looking for groups of = people to go out and spread word of mouth.

Foglio – Project Wonderful is a service where yo= u can bid to get your ad up on a website that carries their ads. Pay for big one, small one, which = day, etc.

Watts – and y= ou get to pick where your ads will appear. Much better targeted. = Better value for money.

Audience – PW gets 25%

Watts – took = illos by daughter and put onto Café Press.&n= bsp; And can be selling spinoffs – wall plaques, T-shirts,

Miller &= #8211; what other feedback beyond PayPal have you got?

Sakers – lots of good comments. Site still up, but says that parti= cular project has closed.

Watts – a lot= of people like writers but not publishers, so they’re happy to donate, sometimes an angel doing it substantially.

Sharon – Fledgling seemed to have been cut off because publisher died, and p= eople paid for it within a week, thinking they had been cut off.

Audience – the ego strokes the big donor gets ba= ck make it worth it.

Miller – community response through blogs. Some say “this is an agent f= or change, and I’m happy to support it.

Sakers – also on blog, finish each one (?) with = click here to support writer and gets $0.25 each, making about $15 per week.

Foglio – Twitter website.

Miller – community is broad enough to allow diff= erent strokes for different folks. I decided that I had to get $300 per week to make it worth while. And you need to get back for your = time spent in maintaining the website, as well.= Doesn’t write directly in Dreamweaver anymore.

Watts – uses = template for every page, with links on side to jump to other pages, with paypal butt= on very obvious. To avoid updati= ng every week on the sidebar, used html in ACE, a free software. And had to do a blog post and gene= rally announce a new chapter, taking 90 to 160 hours per week.

Miller – we send out a teaser of each chapter in= a post and send it out. On LiveJournal.

Watts – ̶= 0;if you send money, you get on the email list.”

Foglio – somebody else does it different way.

Audience – find a good friend who is nerdy to do= your web stuff. I know how, but don’t want to take the time.

Foglio – I married mine.

Miller - so step right up and apply for minionhood.

Saker – you wouldn’t have to make donation= s.

Watts - so people w= ould kick in a book just for getting onto the mailing list.

Miller – so far Locus ignores the alternative publishers. SFscope.com= is a collection of news from the field. <= /span>Tells what’s coming out, a la Locus. Also club events. Not filtered by importance.

Watts - …beca= use the web doesn’t have to pay for paper.

Miller – be sure there is an rsf feed, etc.

Audience – pixel stained techno-peasant wretch.<= /p>

Miller – you mean we’re all scabs, giving = stuff away that usually has to be paid for. Writing might become a cottage industry.

Foglio – I got some snarf from store owners. But that’s a mistake, becaus= e our store sales have actually benefitted and we can prove it.

Watts – some readers say, “Oh, yeah, you’re the guy whose career tanked, so now you’re giving it away.” But I’m ac= tually making as much as would be getting as advance from a major publisher.

Miller – when I sell a book through a publisher,= I won’t see any money until the advance is paid out and the royalties a= re never that great after that.

Saker – you need 1000 true fans. But if you had them, the publisher= gets so much you don’t that 1000 isn’t enough. You NEED to self-publish.

Miller – chapbooks will sell, even. And if waiting for rights to rever= t, can sell around 10,000 copies, and brought in far more money than got from publishers.

Watts - Largest sha= re of sales goes to shipping and/or printer.

Foglio – print to order?

Miller – they’re relatively expensive and = take a goodly chunk, too. We would l= ook for blank slots in their printing schedule and slide ours in, to lessen cos= ts.

Watts- and if publishers give you snarf on terms, go t= o a blank slot and limited printing to fulfill obligations, as a limited 1^=
st edition.

Sakers – to keep from stigma, get it reviewed in …

Sharon – when they buy 1^st draft, get subscription to signed copy= of when/if hardback – promise this to get them to do the paypal.

Audience – website addresses, please.

Miller – finagling a portal for S bowls offering= s www.corval.com – banner at top.

Watt – we will run it for those worthy, one way = or another. www.watt-evans.com.

Saker – supportsf.com

Foglio – booth in Dealers Room

Miller – lots of our stuff is available in Baen Webscription.

Audience – but will you be writing only for the = web?

Watts – well, I’m making a living this way. Maybe in the future.

Miller – when you do the kind with a lot of busy hyperlinks, it’s too much of a burden on the writer.

Lee – and it interrupts the readers.

Watts – I wou= ld have footnotes as popups. Some rea= ders liked it, some didn’t care. Could put in elaborate background with that. Doesn’t do any harm, anyway.=

Audience – you can blow an entire afternoon on Wikipedia.

Audience – price of paperbacks.

Panel – price of oil makes shipping, inks, etc, = very much higher. …It’= s not that they raised the author’s cut, remember. 6% is all. After pay back advance.

Miller – we can meet expenses while still writin= g.