Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Thinking Outside the Book

It used to be that books stayed the same. You could count on them, hold them, smell them. You bought them at a bookstore, where you also had the chance to hear the author speak. Not so much anymore.

But that doesn’t mean authors and companies aren’t thinking outside the book.

According to an article in Fast Company, Unbound has “crowd-financed” a book. The principle behind Unbound is “to take the ancient, leather-bound business model of book publishing, rip out its crumbling pages, and replace it with crowd-funding, social interaction, and tandem digital publications and real hardback books.”

Unbound proposes a book on its website. People can then choose to donate or fund the book. The more you donate, the more “access” to the author you get, such as a dinner with him/her.

I think this particular model would work best with authors who are already names, either as writers or some other form of celebrity.

But…in a way, it is similar to the rise of the Internet as a way to promote yourself. Because of blogs and other social media, readers now have greater access to writers they love, as well as new writers. Knowing a writer online means you’re more likely to buy their book.

Unbound is revving up the idea, but so are individual writers. Each time you connect with a reader via your tweets or posts or other online method, you, in a way, give that reader access to you. And as they get to know you, they’re more likely to buy your book, read your book, possibly review the book, and buy the next book.

So, if you’re thinking that all the time you spend online is a waste, think again. It pays to think outside the book.

20 comments:

  1. Great idea, but when does the author get time to write?

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  2. Good question, Jarmara. It cuts into your writing time. But even before the advent of the Internet, authors had many other things to do besides write. We tried to set up appearances at bookstores and libraries, with book clubs and groups. We maintained contact lists, etc. The time sucks have increased, but at least we're no longer typing our manuscripts on a typewriter (and re-typing and re-typing).

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  3. Typewriters = shudder. I'm sure we'll see more companies try different experiments like this. It'll be interesting to see which ones float to the top.

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  4. True, Laura. Changes and new ideas can make things more complicated as often as they can make things easier.

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  5. I sort of like the idea. A book club IN a book would be a lot of fun (with readers asking questions and the author interacting with answers and thoughts about the book.)

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  6. It's a whole new world out there that is challenging us old broad writers. But not to stay current is sure death -- in more ways than one. Thanks for reminding us.

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  7. I do like this idea. I like the viral public funding systems that I've gone on - I sent a friend who needed dough to mount her play to one and she did swell.
    hmmmm...

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  8. Great article. I saved it and will rad through it a second time once I finish my first cup of coffee. Very interesting for sure.

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  9. Perhaps this will be a new something to try. Not just for the big name authors, but the ones less known. Would it work? I don't know. But I like having new ideas and opportunities.

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  10. Definitely something to think about. The Southern Indiana Writers sort of played around on the edges of that when Corydon, Indiana invited us to write a set of ghost stories for their 200-year-birthday Halloween celebration. They gave us the sites to "haunt" and we wrote the stories, then they had local kids in drama classes dress in costume and read the stories on a tour of the sites. :)

    And the town stocks and sells the book in the Visitors' Center.

    Marian Allen
    Fantasies, mysteries, comedies, recipes

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  11. If what you say is true, I should be a millionaire any day now!

    Morgan Mandel
    http://www.morganmandel.com
    http://morganmandel.blogspot.com

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  12. That is the wildest trick I've heard yet!

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  13. If I tried that, I'd be lucky to raise ten bucks!

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  14. Intriguing thoughts with this one.

    " Each time you connect with a reader via your tweets or posts or other online method, you, in a way, give that reader access to you. And as they get to know you, they’re more likely to buy your book, read your book, possibly review the book, and buy the next book."

    Honestly, I think that's very true. It's how you have interaction with your fans and readers.

    IMO, you would have to schedule certain times to do it. I think it's all in how you look at it too. We schedule meetings and take breaks when we work outside the home. Why not schedule chat breaks when we work from home? It makes sense to me.

    Sia McKye's Thoughts...OVER COFFEE

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  15. It is so hard to keep up with all the new avenues for connecting on the Web. Trying to find the balance between networking and writing is always a huge challenge for me. On the other hand, I do really enjoy meeting new people and connecting with friends I have made online. Sometimes I enjoy that for too long. LOL

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  16. Good points. In May, I saw Stephen Mooser, the cpresident of SCBWI speak. He said that future e-books will be interactive. It will be interesting to see how this develops. And scary.

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  17. I like "Thinking Outside the Book." What an interesting idea. Wow. Who knows what other creative ideas writers will come up with.

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  18. It's funny you've mentioned Unbound, as somebody at my writing group was talking about it recently. I'll have to check it out.

    Not sure how I'd feel about going to dinner with a favourite author. There'd be that fear that you wouldn't get on with them in person! But yeah, the Internet certainly gives you the kind of access that was generally unavailable twenty years ago. In some ways it's great, but in others I'm still dubious. :)

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  19. It's okay to fool around on the Internet. Just don't for get to do the job you love. :D

    I know several authors on the web that I would have never known otherwise. Even though I don't write books, I appreciate their advice and wonder how I ever made out before I knew them.

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