I've often wondered if I should try to create an electronic version of Electric Velocipede to sell alongside the print version. Would this actually increase my readership? Would it be worth the effort?
Truth be told, I don't know if there's enough or any interest in an electronic Electric Velocipede. Of course, part of that might be that those who read electronically don't know about the zine since it isn't in a format that they interact with. Or the zine could be too specialized in content to support electronic readership. I don't know, and I'm not sure how to research the idea.
Would it be worth my time to try and broker a deal with Fictionwise to sell the issue electronically during the time that an issue is the current issue? Would I want people to be able to buy individual stories from an issue through Fictionwise, or should it be the whole issue and nothing else? Would Fictionwise even be open to the idea? They might be, since they sell Asimov's, Analog, F&SF, etc. Is Electric Velocipede big enough to warrant their attention?
Or should I try this idea? The service is called PayLoadz, and it uses PayPal to accept payments and then gives people access to the electronic files to download them. Author Kevin Kelly says:
Customers download the books anytime, and the money flows into my Paypal account. I do nothing. Yet when all is accounted for my total profit from a digital file is equal to the total profit from selling the equivalent paper book -- with about 1/100th the trouble.It's an interesting idea, and something I would consider trying.
But here's the big question, would my authors agree to this? I think the world is going more and more digital (and my last issue was posted online for free, so perhaps this question isn't one I need to ask) but you never know how people are going to react to having their material available electronically.
What do you think?
Tags: Science Fiction, Electric Velocipede, electronic publishing, Kevin Kelly, PayLoadz, Fictionwise
5 comments:
I'm cool with it. But I'm a big e-media booster. You may have to think about what sort of rights you're buying, tho.
I think Fictionwise would be a fine idea -- they're open to lots of good fiction and different formats. I'd buy EV from them.
Most of my published fiction has been sold to online markets, so I have no problem with adding to that electronic tally.
Any story longer than about 1,000 words I'd prefer to have in paper than on a screen. It's why scifiction.com never worked that well for me - though there were some dynamite stories on the site. But i'm an old fuddy-duddy. Go for bits and mortar if it's not too costly in time or money to try it. My two cents, probably a bit more than they're worth.
I think at this point it would be a bigger pain than a benefit to go electronic with Electric Velocipede (hmm, does that sentence even MAKE sense?) especially in light of Fictionwise wanting a certain number of issues before they list you and me not obtaining electronic rights to begin with.
It would be easier to create a new online zine and try to work out some sort of thing from there.
Don't get your hopes up, I don't have time for something new right now.
John Klima
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