I started reading the web comic Shadowgirls back in August of 2007, shortly after the site went live. Written by David A. Rodriguez and drawn by Dave Reynolds, the about page says:

At the tender age of fifteen, Charon McKay disappeared from the small coastal town of Innsmouth. When she turns up, nine month later, she is incoherent and raving; and slightly more surprising…pregnant. No one knows who the father is and even Charon is unable to remember what happened to her. The only thing people know for sure is that she gave birth to a beautiful baby girl named Rebecca Sue McKay and that both her and her mother are decidedly strange. In fact, most people stay away from them entirely. But Charon and Becka have more immediate worries. Strange creatures have appeared in Innsmouth and awaken dark and terrifying powers within the girls. Only the Shadowgirls can stand against this ancient threat…if the power doesn’t consume them first.

The story uses as its springboard H. P. Lovecraft’s town of Innsmouth, and the Deep Ones part of the Cthulhu Mythos. The art and the storyline are both fantastic, and I’ve been an avid reader since I discovered it.

They have already developed a loyal fan base who chatter in the comments section of each page, debate on what each page means, talk about what they think is going to happen, and interact with both the artist and the writer. There is also an active forum. However, the Daves have taken it a step further by creating a sister site, the Innsmouth Insider, where one of the characters, Fides, blogs about the conspiracies that are going on in Innsmouth, and what it means in terms of what is going currently in the storyline. Fides has also interacted with one of the main characters of the comic, with promises of help.

The entire sister site is written in character, with multitudes of comments from other fictional characters on the posts. In addition, readers of the comic are also able to post responses to Fides’s posts, playing along in across between role-playing and make-believe. As the Innsmouth Insider is new, and readers are still adapting to the part it plays, (readers have to click the vote incentives to find out the user name and password for the Insider), I am watching it closely to see exactly how well this form of roleplaying will work with the comic. (As a side note, the Daves are planing on creating RPG guides to go along with the comic, the first of which will be in the spring of ’08.)

The site is well done, the comic is quality, and the Innsmouth Insider is an intreging way of enticing and incorporating the reader. It is a site I will be watching closely to see how well it does in the long run.

As I wrote the post yesterday about giving away content online, I started thinking about my beloved Duotrope. (Yes, there really is a love affair going on, or maybe more of an infatuation, as is more one-sided. Anyway.) Duotrope is free, they give away their content, and they work amazingly hard at it. Instead of charging up front for it, they instead have a status log that keeps track of their money level, and they ask for donations from users. I never would have paid up front for the service, simply because I had no idea if it would be as good as it seemed. However after using it for a while, I willingly donated last year, and twice again as much this year, because their service really is that good. However, asking for money after writers tried their service was a large risk for them. What if their users didn’t think their content was good enough to pay for? What if they thought it was good, but not good enough to pay for? It’s a gamble, but so far it seems to be paying off for them, although not by a whole lot.

It is a gamble for authors to give out content online as well. As a blog writer, you also have to be a savvy marketer. You have to figure out what people will like, and make sure that the content you post is of a quality that will not only keep a reader’s attention, but also make them remember what you wrote about. The window of opportunity to grab people’s attention is very small, and if a piece of writing is of low quality they aren’t going to read further, come back or – perhaps most importantly – recommend it to anyone else. There goes your word of mouth. And word of mouth is one of the most important tools of all.

Giving away any type of free content is a gamble that requires hard work, but done correctly the payoff can be worth it. For Duotrope, they receive the funds they need to stay running, and great word of mouth. The payoff for a writer isn’t necessarily going to be in cash, as while you are marketing books you aren’t going to be soliciting donations. The payoff in word of mouth however can be better than any paid advertising.

There has been a lot of discussion both in the blogsphere and here about giving away book content in pursuit of a book contract and/or publicity. There are a couple successful examples of books published first online, with John Scalzi being one of the most well-known. He posted his first two novels Old Man’s War and Agent to the Stars online, both of which were then re-published in print format. He then sold four more science fiction novels. Part of the reason he succeeded is that he has a hugely successful blog, along with the fact that he self-promoted like crazy, and didn’t just put the story up and then sit back to wait. Author Cory Doctorow gave away his book Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom online, but simultaneously as the print version came out, not before. Not only that, but he was already successful as a co-editor of Boing Boing, a non-fiction writer, and is a proponent of loosening copyright laws. Scott Sigler published his first two books as serial podcasts and which then were printed. Unfortunately they had a very short print shelf life, although he does have a new print book Infected coming out this year. My point is that these cases are rare, and it takes a lot of work on the author’s part to have a chance of succeeding. Non-fiction and blog-to-print books seem to do slightly transferring to hardcopy, and The New York Times had a great article about web-published work jumping to print. Again even there, the successes are rare.

Now as an alternative, publishing excerpts and extra content to whet readers’ appetites can do very well at drawing new readers. From the NYT article above, the authors of the graphic novel The Shooting War posted just eleven chapters on a webzine Smithmag.net, and then reworked and expanded the material for the print version. The Church of the Customer Blog says that “Try-before-you-buy is tried-and-true. It’s high-value. It’s some of the best marketing available to you,” and that authors should be happy Amazon.com allows readers to get a taste of a books via their site as that gives the reader their “try.” Amazing graphic novelist Eric Drooker offers slideshows of parts of his graphic novels on his site. HarperCollins is offering readers the chance to read certain books for free for a month on their website, however, there are some strict controls that limit what can be done with the book; it can’t be read on a portable reader, it can’t be printed, and it has to be read on the site. With this method, I can see how it would tempt a reader to purchase the book, as sitting at a computer and reading a whole book from a website isn’t that appealing.

On my own site as far as publishing book content, I plan on offering extra information and short stories about my characters, places, and events as well as resources I used for background research. I link to my short stories that have been published, and might possibly reprint pieces that have been published in print but are not available online. I am also considering creating podcasts of my published work. Will I publish the whole book? No. First chapters? Probably. Everything is a juggling game, but just like going into a bookstore and reading parts of a book to “test-drive” it, catching a reader’s eye and then their interest can be the deciding factor as to whether a book will succeed.

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about Zooty & Flapper, a “pre-publishing site” that several sites, including Storycrafters and Writers Beware, warned authors off of as it took away a writer’s first publishing rights for very little payoff. The proprietor of said Z&F site, Mr. Pappalardo, who apparently is tracking down and commenting on and/or chastising the authors of posts about him left a comment on my post about him. While it didn’t address any of the specific problems I and other raised about this site, he raised a couple of points that I want to rebut.

Thank you for your comments.
I have been called a scam, clueless, stupid, jerk, etc by the followers of Jean and Victoria Strauss. Both have said I know nothing about marketing a book. I do not know the publishing industry.
Note: Forbes did a story back in 12.01.06 about an author Cory Doctorow who gave away 30,000 free books (down-load) to readers. Within three years he had sold 700,000 of the same book. Cory never has a book published before he gives it away free.
http://www.mdbell had a story today about author Neil Gaiman. His publisher agreed he should give away free (down-load) one of his books to build a larger following.
Those who think I’m a nut might want to read the above. And, there are others.
The experts who have made an effort to bury me, should first check what has proven to work.

The thing that most of the commenters were concerned about was the site’s announced intention of offering other people’s manuscripts for free. The concerns that were given about Z&F had nothing to do with whether an author could give away their own work and succeed, although there aren’t a whole lot of success stories. The examples he lists prove absolutely nothing about his site and its originally stated intention. Doctorow was giving and away and promoting his OWN work – not taking on others’ work and publishing it all on one site. The thing is though, Doctorow devoted a huge amount of energy to ONE book – how could a site that offered to publish many authors’ work possibly even attempt to do anything close to that? And Gaiman? there is no way that man has to worry about a book contract. He is a brilliant writer with graphic novels, movies and books under his belt. He has nothing to loose by giving his work away free.

Pappalardo also has a page up where he talked about first rights that gives me cause for concern because of the misinformation he is spreading. For instance, while he is correct on what constitutes published, he is wrong on much of what he considers to be unpublished. (Bold text is mine.)

1) You gave up your first North American serial rights.
2) Your book went through an editorial process.
3) It appeared in an online journal.
4) It appeared in print publication..even a small print run.
5) It appeared in a literary anthology (collection).

All correct.

Unpublished if….
1) Won a prize but not printed. correct
2) In a workshop ( online writing workshop ). ONLY if the online workshop was password protected, i.e. not available to the general web population. If it was an open workshop. it has been published.
3) Appeared on a blog.. but this is changing. Has been considered published for quite a while. Some publications might not consider it published, but most do.

He also has some misconceptions reguarding what authors want.

If you are an unknown writer building a following of readers, you may want to give up the first right to a book.
Publishers do not want a one book wonder anyway. Your second, third etc books will have a following you can show a publisher.
Read rosenfelds article on Writers Digest and determine what is best for you. Most publishers and/or agents really don’t care about someone’s web following unless they like the book. So giving up those rights has not real benefit.

As for myself, I have chose to give first rights to a publisher before giving away free books. If well received by readers, my publisher will still have first serial rights. This is super confusing. If he has given first rights to a publisher, than that means it has to be published in that format before he can offer it for free online – and only IF the terms of his contract allows it. If it hasn’t been published in their format, by posting it online he is taking first rights away from them, and that could get him in a whole bunch of trouble. First rights is the first time it appears in print. Period.

I stand by my original post on Z&F. As he is now pushing only his own work though, he can publish and promote it however he likes. However, I partially agree with him on one thing – that giving away some of your own work can help bring in publicity and reap some rewards. I’ll post more on that tomorrow.

Via the Marketing Whore, I discovered the Church of the Customer Blog. Run by two marketing “writers, speakers and consultants,” Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba blog about different marketing tactics, companies that have used both good and bad PR, and the way blogs fit into the public and marketing consciousness. I checked it out, read a little bit, and ended up reading the whole archives, back to 2003. I was going to link to it in my next High-Five-Fridays post, but I found so many good articles that I decided to write a whole post about them. There were several other articles that caught my eye, but as I want to keep this post concise and to the point, I will only talk about the ones I found to be most relevant to my own blog.

The first point is the whole concept of showing, not telling. There were two posts in particular about this topic, one regarding the demoing of road construction machinery in China by Caterpillar. As they point out, this is a brilliant move on Caterpillar’s part because these machines are not well known in China, and all of the print advertising in the world isn’t going to give a clear image of what their product can do to their target audience. But show their consumers exactly what their product can do, and viola – clear and direct marketing of a product that will now spread via word of mouth. The other example mentioned was how Charmin toilet paper provides free toilets in Times Square, NYC. As there is a serious lack of toilets that aren’t “for customers only” in Times Square, they provide a needed service connected to a recognizable name that consumers will recognize when they go shopping for TP. (As long as they are clean toilets!) What does this have to do with blogging? Well, if one of the reasons for a blog is to talk about a product or service, such as a book, there is a lot to be gained by showing your audience what you are talking about, whether it be background information, research that has been done to authenticate the writing, samples of the book, or extra content. The goal is to give the reader an understanding of the book, make then curious about the whole product, as well as increase word of mouth.

Another couple of posts talk about how a blog fan base is built with a diagram of “The Cycle of a Fan,” and “The 4 types of community.” Both are excellent ways of putting the information into a visual format that clarifies how a blog’s readership grows.

And finally, 10 things about writing your first business book and Lessons from a 40-date book tour. While both are regarding the publication and promotion of business books, there is a lot of information that can be applied to other subjects, as well as my genre, fiction. The biggest lesson from the latter article is “Plan at least 6 months out from the first event. If you’re an author, that may mean planning starts before the manuscript is finished.” This also includes giving yourself a long window of time for planning a book tour and building publicity – Jackie says that they should have allocated 3-4 months to building up their book tour for the coming year, rather than the 2.5 they did, as “associations with chapter meetings often have their new-year programs finalized by September or October”. The former link had several pieces of valuable information, including:

• * First, spend 1-2 years building an audience.
• * Book royalties won’t buy a BMW.
• * Invest heavily in your writing.
• * Follow the six-month rule (The six months before publication are the most important marketing months for your book.)
• * Invest heavily in your marketing. (“Rick Barrera, who wrote the Wall Street Journal bestseller “Overpromise and Overdeliver,” equates books to Doritos. It’s easy to share Doritos, and easy to make more, so give away a lot of books so more people will consume them. A book is the best business card imaginable to your business knowledge, so put that Dorito it into eager, outstretched hands. They’ll reward the favor.”)

Good stuff.

I’m going to state that I have no connection at all to the Church of the Customer site or its authors. I will never accept an offer for a paid post for any reason. I will however, share links as I find them helpful, so that authors (and other interested parties) can take advantage of them as well. While the thought did occur to me to keep my plans to myself, (muhahaha!) sharing the information won’t take away anything from my marketing plans, and it could help others out. So here you are!

1.) Smokey Mountain Breakdown – she’s posting flash fiction works throughout the month of February, and I have to say, what she manages to do in under 1000 words is freaking amazing. (Also, her Grandpa Alfie’s recipe for Wiener Schnitzel looks amazing too – I am so trying it.)

2.) The Infomercantile – Couple of other High-Fivers have linked to posts on this blog. It’s old black and white photographs, which are fascinating on their own, but the author also provides as much information as they have on the photos, as well as any additional research they have done. Enough great stuff to keep my little writer’s mind spinning.

3.) The article Five Easy Ways to Build Sustainable Word-of-Mouth, which is a response to Joan’s Top 10 Tips for Free Publicity. Both have some great ideas and commentary that can be applicable for writers.

4.) Author Kelly Spitzer has an ongoing column in her blog called “Get Real” where she poses a publishing question to authors and editors and then posts some of the responses. Very interesting reading.

5.) THE DOCTOR IS IN – a humorous look at the realities of the mixed emotions that can develop when a friend has some writing success – happiness for them, but also frustration and maybe a little bit of jealousy for not being at that point yourself.

The purpose of this meme is to give high-fives to 5 people, posts, blogs and/or websites you’ve admired during the week, so who are YOUR High-Fives? Post them to your blog and then Share the love.

Thursday at the new local independent bookstore, a fellow writer and I went to the Kindling Words Caravan, where a bunch of the authors who are in town for the Kindling Words Retreat gathered together to meet with local people. There is forty-some odd writers and illustrators, and a good number of them were at the bookstore. One highlight was meeting Jane Yolen, and the downside was that Gregory Maguire didn’t make it, (although I left my books there and he signed them )

It was a very odd experience for me. For one thing it was kids and YA authors, most of whom I was not familiar with, Yolen and Maguire being the exceptions. and there was so many people all about. Plus, many of the authors hadn’t seen each other in a while so they were all excited and talking. A good comparison would be my first MFA residency, where I kind of hung around on the outskirts as all these people knew each other and were excited to see each other, even though they weren’t excluding me, I felt a bit out of the “aura” heh. Where as the next time I went, for my second residency, (event though I was sick as a dog!) I knew people and milled about and was a part of it. The event was definitely a meet and greet, not necessarily a good time to ask questions, or have long conversations.

On the organization level, (this would be the little bit of type A I  have coming out) one thing that would have been easier for all involved would have been more specified places for the authors to sit, with their books readily accessible. I got the feeling that some of the authors really weren’t sure what they were supposed to do, and therefore that led to them wandering and/or looking as if they felt out of place.

But I did learn some things by going there that I am tucking away in my little writer’s brain. Jane Yolen was awesome. She went right in, found a place to sit, and sat herself there, very comfortable and confident. She was really nice and talked to everyone whose book she signed, and was definitely comfortable in her space. She had done this before, and it was obvious. Later, I was looking through the books by the authors, and one lady goes ooh! You’re looking at my book! it was rather cute, and I purchased the book for my daughter. I actually bought two books for my daughter, and had them both signed, and in both cases they authors gave me bookmarks with their websites. The first woman said that she has a sequel coming out and that my daughter could go to the website and find out about it, and the second told me that when my daughter was done reading it she could email and tell her (the author) what she thought about it.

I would have felt a bit more in my element if it had been fantasy, sci-fi or mainstream adult authors, but I’m really glad I went, partially from meeting the writers, but also because I got a feel for these events from this side, and I could watch how the different writers acted and interacted, and so when I am in that position, I will have a little bit of a head start on what to expect, and an idea of how to act