Eyeballs and Tipping Points

Caveat: this post is not about the Aether Age: Helios writers, that's just the example I have to reference.  This will apply to every issue of FU or any other project with more than one writer.

The bad thing about The Aether Age: Helios is that it is a pie split so many ways.  This is exactly the good thing about such a project too.

Let's take Aether Age out of this and use a theoretical anthology.  It's called The United States of Texas, and is a shared world project that imagines the fall of the United States shortly after the world reaches post peak oil.  The guidelines are composed of the typical technical details, a timeline that describes the big picture sweep of history, a political map of North America, a description of each of the newly-formed states, and any 'out of bounds' subject matter.  The Capitalist Anarchy of Mexico doesn't get to nuke Nova Albion: that sort of thing.

OK, cool.  Or maybe not, but I do like me some alt history.  Just sayin'.  Reading period passes, and we end up with some fantastic stories, cover art, an expanded time line, perhaps future historical quotes.  All is good.  There follows that phase when the contents are edited and compiled, sent off to the printer, and finally, one fine day, the book is published.

I'm talking small press.  And to be clear, I'm don't have an antagonistic attitude toward traditional publishing/big publishers: I hope to be there someday.  I do see the changes taking place in the publishing landscape as an opportunity for small press publishers *and writers*, if they.... umm, if WE are smart about it.

With our proposed anthology, we have, say, twenty contributors.  That's a twenty-strong marketing department.  Twenty local libraries that are going to see advanced publicity flyers, follow-up visits with the book in-hand.  Twenty regions where local bookstore owners are going to hear about the book.  Twenty regions where local papers, public radio, and more are approached with news of the book.  And perhaps that is small-thinking.  Perhaps 20 people can easily contact an exponentially larger number of potential book buyers/vendors and/or advertising sources.  Social media, etc.

If the work is good, with twenty people applying their resources, a tipping point is reached and the word takes on a life of its own.

But why?  Why put so much effort --and for writers who have since moved on to the next story, novel, project, it is a lot of effort-- into something that is split so many ways?  Because, it's not sales of the one book, but  eyeballs focussed back on one's work that matters.

The book need never 'expire' (see This Post) and may be leveraged as a tool by those twenty contributors.  Did I mention that the United States of Texas carries this crazy license, CC-BY-SA, that means a savvy writer can follow-up with their own work published in the same shared universe?  The writer could either seek to publish this through the original publisher, or they could buy their own ISBN numbers, request that the original publisher review the work and give their stamp of approval that the new work is cannon (or not, if the writer has a big enough following, that may not be needed), and publish the new work under one's own publisher name (Peak Oil Press, maybe.)  Try for a J.A. Konrath.

Some of this is pretty specific extrapolation regarding contributors to an anthology with the CC-BY-SA license... and, again, I'm not hitting on the AeA contributors, who have been great supporters of the project. (And we've had many big supporters outside of the TOC.)  Rather, I'm suggesting the benefits of such a licensing scheme to both the writers and the small press publisher.  If one of our writers did this with The United States of Texas (returning to our fictional anthology) and attained huge success, even if it were published outside of our operations, due to the attribution required by the license, that means more eyeballs pointed back to us, our anthology, and our other work.  Providing we make it easy for readers to find it, and buy it.

I am berating someone here: myself.  If this post is unfocused, it's because the ideas have yet to fully gel. But, I see a way forward... and that success will rely on the ability to leverage ebook formats/platforms in addition to the more traditional paths to readers, and in effectively promoting the work, in all its formats.  I have yet to get epub generation skills, but I will.  This is another thing: don't be lazy.  We can probably do more than we first expect, eliminating additional production layers.  That said, I've requested a quote from 52Novels... because laziness aside, time is often worth paying someone else to do the tech stuff.

I read through my posts before I publish them, asking myself: do I feel good putting this out?  The self-publishing ideas above I find terribly uncomfortable.  I'm not sure that I will 'go there', but it would be an interesting experiment.  I feel strongly about the importance of contributors as well as publishers/editors to take it upon themselves to promote the work.

So, I guess this could irritate some people: I have a full time job, and kids, and a significant other.  I can only do so much.  I'm a writer, not a marketing person.  I didn't choose to publish a book: that's their job.  I get that sentiment.  Me too, regarding all the commitments.  I've done a terrible job at using twitter effectively, where participation is the key, with the self promotion sprinkled in here and there.

When it comes to marketing, though, if our goal is for people to read our work, then we must be our own advocates.

BB