Happy Pixel-Stained Technopeasant Day!

April 23, 2009 2:33 PM

It's been only two years since the writer Jo Walton proposed a day for authors to post their writing for free online. This was in response to the resignation speech of Howard Hendrix, former V.P. of the Science Fiction Writers of America, which turned into a rant on the evil of giving away work for free on the internet.

The specific words that caused this holiday proposal were from his resignation speech:

Webscabs claim they're just posting their books for free in an attempt to market and publicize them, but to my mind they're undercutting those of us who aren't giving it away for free and are trying to get publishers to pay a better wage for our hard work.

Since more and more of SFWA is built around such electronically mediated networking and connection based venues, and more and more of our membership at least tacitly blesses the webscabs (despite the fact that they are rotting our organization from within) -- given my happily retrograde opinions, I felt I was not the president who would provide SFWAns the "net time" they seemed to want at this point in the organization's development, or who would bless the contraction of our industry toward monopoly, or who would give imprimatur to the downward spiral that is converting the noble calling of Writer into the life of Pixel-stained Technopeasant Wretch.

Sarcastic reaction to technophobia from a science fiction editor aside, the first year met with success and a flood of free online works from the more internet-comfortable members of the SF community. This year, the International Pixel-Stained Technopeasents community is proud to keep the traditon alive. In addition we have a some other writers giving their contributions, such as Lawrence Watt-Evans and Ryk E. Spoor AKA Sea Wasp

Is it a rebellion of the "information must be free" set? is it free advertising? Or just a chance to post stuff, while tweeking the nose of the anti-internet publishing crowd? Give them a read, and decide for yourself.

posted by happyroach (42 comments total)

Webscabs claim they're just posting their books for free in an attempt to market and publicize them, but to my mind they're undercutting those of us who aren't giving it away for free and are trying to get publishers to pay a better wage for our hard work.

Yes, wouldn't it be great if we could all just agree on a price floor for our work; that way we'd all be guaranteed to make money! Oh wait, that'd be a per se antitrust violation.

It sounds like somebody has a problem with the free market. The race to the bottom might eventually cause the death of the industry, but only because none of the writing was worth paying for compared to 'good enough' free alternatives.

I think the real problems with giving this kind of work away for free are that it can (1) produce an entitlement mentality that helps people rationalize copyright infringement of non-gratis works and (2) cut down on the economies of scale that make publishing viable.
posted by jedicus at 2:40 PM on April 23 [1 favorite]

old guard-new upstart friction is, at least, interesting.
posted by the aloha at 2:45 PM on April 23

Metafilter: rotting our organization from within
posted by Joe Beese at 2:49 PM on April 23

I'm starting an oil company and I'm charging $10 a gallon for gas. Stop ruining everything, Exxon you oilscab!
posted by GuyZero at 2:56 PM on April 23

"Sarcastic reaction to technophobia from a science fiction editor aside ..."

No fair!
posted by Glee at 3:01 PM on April 23

I think the real problems with giving this kind of work away for free are that it can (1) produce an entitlement mentality that helps people rationalize copyright infringement of non-gratis works and (2) cut down on the economies of scale that make publishing viable.

Is this all that different from what Hendrix was saying? He could certainly have phrased it better, but I think his point was the same as the one you're making.
posted by frankchess at 3:01 PM on April 23

I don't generally follow authors about their own domains, but Brandon Sanderson, one of the young knaves in fantasy writing has decided to make the drafts of one of his forthcoming novels available, as he writes them. He's done now, but you can still get the old versions.

And of course, we have Cory Doctorow's buffet of download options for "Little Brother", and his archive.org offerings. He's pretty happy with how it's gone, and plenty of people are still paying attention to him paying for his books.
posted by filthy light thief at 3:03 PM on April 23

Would this be an appropriate time & place to highlight authors who are doing just this? Such as, oh, I don't know, Peter Watts, whom I discovered via a comment somewhere on Metafilter?

Disclaimer: I borrowed his stuff from the library, and was so taken with Starfish and the rest of the Rifters series that I paypalled him $50.

On preview: Good, I'm not the first.
posted by Decimask at 3:07 PM on April 23 [3 favorites]

Previous free SciFi on Metafilter.
posted by Decimask at 3:10 PM on April 23 [2 favorites]

The idea that artists should face constraints in what they are allowed to do with their own work is an incredibly bizarre and evil idea. The comparison he tries to make to unions and "scabs" reveals a deep disrespect for writers, and an attitude that literature is a simple comodity. Weird.
posted by Jimbob at 3:15 PM on April 23 [2 favorites]

they're undercutting those of us who aren't giving it away for free

What a noble argument. He's giving up pimping because the sacred institution of prostitution is being ruined by marriage.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 3:20 PM on April 23 [6 favorites]

And of course, we have Cory Doctorow's buffet of download options for "Little Brother"

Cory Doctorow wrote a book? I was unaware. He should have promoted it more.
posted by Ratio at 3:28 PM on April 23 [13 favorites]

You can also find various short stories for free at Tor.Com, Fantasy Magazine and the University of Michigan Fantasy and Science Fiction Library.

The goddamn socialists.
posted by happyroach at 3:30 PM on April 23

Is this all that different from what Hendrix was saying? He could certainly have phrased it better, but I think his point was the same as the one you're making.

I don't think so, at least not that I saw in his rant. He seemed entirely focused on author pay and not larger systemic issues such as the entitlement mentality or the realities of the publishing business model. I'm not sure he would disagree with me, but at least in the linked rant he seemed to have a pretty narrow view of the issue.
posted by jedicus at 3:36 PM on April 23

Previous free SciFi on Metafilter.

Here's more free SF in podcast format (did anyone but me actually listen to all these?)
posted by Artw at 3:49 PM on April 23 [1 favorite]

You've got to be fucking kidding me. I clicked on the Brandon Sanderson link and just read that Robert Jordan's posthumous final novel in the Wheel of Time series (which Sanderson is ghostwriting) is actually going to be THREE MOTHERFUCKING SEPARATE novels. I'll have grandkids before that goddamn story ends. It's already been 20 fucking years.
posted by sciurus at 3:52 PM on April 23 [2 favorites]

You know, once upon a time I got a free copy of one of Vernor Vinge's books. Since then I've bought every one as soon as I was aware it was available. So, that being said:

...but to my mind they're undercutting outselling those of us who aren't giving it away for free and are trying to get publishers to pay a better wage for our hard work.

FTFH
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 4:03 PM on April 23

Peter Watts

The book was alright, but I liked the slideshow better. How is the Rifters stuff?
posted by Artw at 4:06 PM on April 23

If I buy a $20 hardcover SF book, how much gets to the author? How about a $6 paperback? Or the same book from a second hand store for $2.50? How about when I take it out of the library?

These are sincere questions, I've paypaled musicians in the past after I enjoy their downloaded music, I'd like to know how much to send to the writers.
posted by dirty lies at 4:18 PM on April 23

[T]he resignation speech of Howard Hendrix, former V.P. of the Science Fiction Writers of America, which turned into a rant ...

I make a statement.
You lecture us.
He rants.
posted by Joe in Australia at 4:34 PM on April 23

dirty lies, generally about 10% goes to the author. It's standard on signing a publishing contract to be paid an "advance" on expected royalties. You do not receive royalty checks until you "earn out" the advance. Most authors who are not famous never earn out their advances so the advance basically becomes the fixed one time only paycheck for writing a book. Last time I looked first time author advances for SF were in the $5,000 range.

I have at this point made about that much in tips from my own online novel, and probably received a hundred times the fan feedback I'd have gotten had it been disappeared into the publishing world of "just novels without promotion." I have seen more than one article advising first time authors to spend their first advance hiring a publicist, because the publishing house won't do it for you and if the book doesn't take off there might not be a second contract.

Given that I have a real job and might never have had the inspiration to write full time, I am quite happy with my online novel, and if it butthurts poor widdle Howie and his obsolete industry that I may have diverted a few thousand bucks from those hack mills which seem far more interested in publishg Yet Another Medieval Dragon Fantasy than anything bold, different, or challenging, then they can go DIA[insert SFnal fire euphemism].
posted by localroger at 4:42 PM on April 23 [3 favorites]

I happen to run a website dedicated to a couple of pulp / post-apocalyptic / sci-fi / men's adventure series (the website is JamesAxler.com and the two series are Deathlands and Outlanders, if anyone is interested), and over the years I have become friends with several of the authors.

Recently one of the authors and I partnered up to produce a new novel serialized a chapter at a time on the web. It started out as dark sarcastic humor, best described as "Shaun of the Dead meets Mad Max" when we first talked about it, but it has turned into something a little darker and more serious that we are both very proud of. The author, Alan Philipson, has been writing pulp series fiction for twenty five years now under a variety of house names, and he is in my opinion one of the best in the business.

We are following the model of Cory Doctorow and of David Wellington (Monster Island, Monster Nation, Monster Planet, etc.), and our intention is to continue to serialize the book a chapter at a time to build an audience, and then once the novel is complete to sell it in a variety of electronic and print on demand formats. From my experience and research, if people enjoy the free book they will ultimately want a physical copy for their bookshelf.

If any of you are interested, I invite you to check out intentionally-cheesy-titled Slaughter Realms: Iroquois Vengeance. The website provides a history of the (fake) series, with the Prologue and Chapter 1 live now and Chapter 2 going live tomorrow at midnight.

Obviously I come down on the "giving it away for free" side of the argument. Only time will tell if I am right.
posted by Lokheed at 4:42 PM on April 23 [1 favorite]

Of course, putting your novel on the web is all fine and dandy, but if you're not mates with Cory Doctorow or similar internet celeb you're shit out of luck as far as getting people to look at it goes, unless you want to spend your time spamming it onto ....OH HAI THERE!

:-)
posted by Artw at 4:47 PM on April 23 [1 favorite]

Artw: I liked the Rifters series way more that Blindsight. Especially Starfish. It was like tree-based heroin. Go sample, the whole thing is there for free.

"If I buy a $20 hardcover SF book, how much gets to the author? How about a $6 paperback?"

On preview, answered by localroger.

"Or the same book from a second hand store for $2.50?"

IIRC, nothing. It's second-hand.

"How about when I take it out of the library?"

Now that's a good question. In Canada, at least, there's apparently a fund of some kind dedicated to paying authors some amount when their books are borrowed(?). I have only the vaguest memories of it from LIS501, though. (googles a lot)

Here we go. Wikipedia: Public Lending Right, and the Public Lending Commission of Canada. Payout stats for Canada indicate the average is $600/year, with a median of $292.
posted by Decimask at 4:48 PM on April 23

If I buy a $20 hardcover SF book, how much gets to the author? How about a $6 paperback? Or the same book from a second hand store for $2.50? How about when I take it out of the library?

I've read that around $2 and $.25 respectively are typical for hardcover and paperback (after it's earned out, as localroger notes.) My figures may be old and outdated. (And mass market paperbacks tend to be at least $8 these days.)

The author gets nothing directly from second-hand sales or library use (in the U.S. -- the U.K., for one, pays authors dividends on library use.) But you've got to figure that anticipation of the ability to sell it to a used bookstore later plays a role in some people's purchases of new books, and authors whose library books circulate a lot are more likely to have their future books bought by that library. These things are a part of the book sale life-cycle, not just some black hole.

Of course, other people -- editors, designers, artists -- may have put a lot of blood, sweat, and tears into a given book.
posted by Zed at 5:04 PM on April 23

unless you want to spend your time spamming it onto ....OH HAI THERE!

I would never have started a thread here to promote the book, but it seemed appropriate to reply about it in this thread. If I am out of line, by all means the moderators are welcome to remove my post and I won't be the least bit offended. I've been a member here for years, and although I am not a frequent poster by any means I have certainly posted in other threads on a wide variety of topics, so it's not like I am just here to spam. Sorry if it was a derail.
posted by Lokheed at 5:10 PM on April 23

Remember, kids, it's pronounced Siff-WAAAHHHH!
posted by eriko at 5:19 PM on April 23

(Looks at Lokheed's posting history)

Nah, you're cool.
posted by Decimask at 5:20 PM on April 23

I think giving away freebies is going to be a great promotional tactic, up until we hit a tipping point in which enough people are doing it that most folks, when faced with a dollar amount, will just go somewhere else. Don't get me wrong, if it's your work, you can do with it whatever you can get away with, but let's not ignore that individual actions, en masse, can affect the marketplace as a whole.

The newspaper business should serve as a cautionary tale. I'm certain that bloggers who write as well as journalists exist. Pity it'll be so hard to find them out of all of the chaff. Shame that they will rarely have the budget necessary to, say, fly to another country to do a story. Or otherwise invest in the long-term development of a story. Journalism has mostly screwed itself through greed and laziness, and more or less deserves the fate it will probably get. It will, however, take something with it when it goes.

Similarly, when writing goes the same way, and we are inundated with junky freebies by people who are working other jobs full-time, we'll get by. Not without a certain loss, though. I suspect that many will hardly notice the difference. Just another race to the bottom, like fast food. We have our exceptions here and there, but for a sample of what the future of unpaid writing looks like, I suspect that the most of it will look more like the comments on YouTube than what you might get here.
posted by adipocere at 5:24 PM on April 23

adipocere, we're inundated right now with junk we have to pay for.
posted by Decimask at 5:27 PM on April 23

Lockheed (and any others who will hopefully post links to their stuff here) - I'm just funning you.
posted by Artw at 5:27 PM on April 23

The Reputation Economy!

The Future. It'll be awesome. All Libertarian and rocket packs and shit.
posted by tkchrist at 5:41 PM on April 23

Kafka was poor, sickly, and more or less unknown during his lifetime. Still, he did alright in the creating-art-of-lasting-beauty department. On the other hand, if he was better paid maybe we could've kept him alive/sane longer and gotten more than three measly novels and a handful of shorts out of him.

Maybe Hendrix's idea that literature should be run like a business isn't total bullshit. On the other hand, we have no idea who will write the next great novel. A certified professional writer? A hobo? An ambulance driver?

But it's not about "art" is it, rather Hendrix's own entitlement issues. The world obviously owes him a living. How else will there ever be great stories written and told.
posted by Glee at 5:47 PM on April 23

All Libertarian and rocket packs and shit.

Sounds like Reddit.
posted by brundlefly at 5:58 PM on April 23

I thought literature in Kafka's day WAS run like a business?

The thing is, there's tons of free literature out on the net and has been ever since fanfic.net was established. Professional level writing is something else entirely, and for a number of reasons I'm skeptical that it will be affected by the presence of free writing all that much.

However a problem is still making money out of something published on the web. As webcomics have shown, that's more of a problem than Hendrix's Ludditism.
posted by happyroach at 6:13 PM on April 23 [2 favorites]

I simply can't get too worked up about this. Those authors who's work will have some lasting impact are not usually commercially viable, but university literature departments have some pretty good ideas. Why not just pay those ones some living wage for publishing their stuff online for free? So make the most important works freely available.
posted by jeffburdges at 6:39 PM on April 23

I give away my writing for free. However, I do it on my own site. If somebody else wants me to write for them, they have to pay me. If somebody wants to reprint my writing, they either have to pay me or give me something I find valuable. It's my work, and I can put it on my own site for free if I like. I have never taken a job that Howard Hendrix would have had were it not for the fact that I am cheaper or free. I have never taken a job away from any writer like this, and I refuse to do work-for-hire for anything less than I am worth.

But I have a lot of projects that I work on, and they take an awful long time, and, so far, nobody is jumping to publish my fiction, which is still in the drafting stage. I enjoy posting it every step of the way, I enjoy getting feedback along the way, and, step by step, I am building an audience for my work. When a new band posts MP3s of their work on MySpace, are they taking food out of the mouth of Bob Dylan?

This argument is preposterous. Bon Ivar put his songs on MySpace, and now gets paid very handsomely for it. Posting your work online is part of the process of creating an audience for your work, and should not be confused with causing anybody economic hardship. That is caused by out-of-date business models.
posted by Astro Zombie at 7:43 PM on April 23

Those authors who's work will have some lasting impact are not usually commercially viable, but university literature departments have some pretty good ideas. Why not just pay those ones some living wage for publishing their stuff online for free?

This is an amazing assertion. Are you seriously positing that most works considered canonical in western literature were not commercially viable? Are you seriously positing that university literature departments are able to identify which works will last for the ages in the first few years after publication? The whole idea flies in the face of every shred of historical evidence.
posted by Justinian at 11:53 PM on April 23

When I asked about Urban Fantasy Adventure/Mystery Books, I was surprised to find that one of the authors/series recommended offered the first book for free on the Kindle (T.S. Pratt's Blood Engines). I think this is a great idea and reading the free book led me to purchasing the next two in the series.

I'm not sure how well this vector would work for otherwise unpublished authors, but for established-if-not-well-known writers, it seems like a good way of generating some sales/interest.

I mean, if it works for drug dealers, why shouldn't it work for scifi?
posted by robocop is bleeding at 5:40 AM on April 24

Posting your work online is part of the process of creating an audience for your work, and should not be confused with causing anybody economic hardship. That is caused by out-of-date business models.

Bear in mind, that Hendrix is very much of the old-school model; he won't have a blog, he won't have e-mail...presumably he writes at home in a darkened den on an old Smith Corona. I mean, I can't see that myself- you can't even use it to look up porn when you're tired of writing!
posted by happyroach at 9:14 AM on April 24

he won't have e-mail

I've exchanged email with Hendrix, so I can tell you that much ain't true.

He's a very smart guy with a good sense of humor, and he's very far from being a Luddite. I disagree with his quixotic position on this issue as much as anyone, but I can do that without extrapolating that he's wrong about everything else.
posted by Zed at 9:42 AM on April 24 [1 favorite]

Similarly, when writing goes the same way, and we are inundated with junky freebies by people who are working other jobs full-time, we'll get by. Not without a certain loss, though. I suspect that many will hardly notice the difference. Just another race to the bottom, like fast food. We have our exceptions here and there, but for a sample of what the future of unpaid writing looks like, I suspect that the most of it will look more like the comments on YouTube than what you might get here.

If only we could come up with some sort of "meta" system that would allow us to "filter" out the good stuff from that endless sea of chaff.

In fact, something like that might be really good for finding the best stuff on the web too. Until then, I guess we'll just have to keep reading through every single comment on YouTube, hoping to find something interesting...
posted by straight at 1:27 PM on April 24