I’m listening to Chris Anderson Free: The Future of a Radical Price. I’m listening for free on Spotify.com. Yes, they found a way to get me to download the software. It’s on my desktop, I’m getting the feel of it and, if I’m never going to pay a subscription, I’m being advertised to, so they are getting what they wanted and so am I.
This week had an interesting talk with Marlene Johnson, MD of Hachette Children’s Books, and Rhydian Peters, Chairman of Peters Bookselling Services, about our digital future.
I think Chris Anderson will get to the Ubiquitous Candle argument about books soon. Candles used to be everywhere. people needed them and bought them. With electricity, candles had no use any more, so they became an art/gift item, made in smaller numbers so the price went up. The same will happen to books. They will become free. There is no way to stop the obvious without destroying the internet. Books will become gift items sold as souvenirs of the web item.
I now completetley “GET” the free thing. My job is doomed! Why go buy a book when you can get something similar on the net? specially now that Google is to turn Chrome into a net Os. Your netbook will startup and be online instantly. No waiting. The internet is your hard drive. I feel the moment I’ve been predicting for the last ten years has probably arrived.
But I just want to carry on doing what I do best. I guess that’s what the candle makers said and coopers and the fletchers and the lino manufacturers.
I know there is a demand for what I do – the difficulty is making a living from it online. I think I have to become an online author and illustrator. I think I have to build my name/brand so that I can begin to sell more than just books. Build a fan base, I suppose. The trouble is my fans come and go so quickly, I don’t really keep them as life-long fans who buy books. Perhaps I should have gone into something adult – each year I have to capture a whole new market. It’s exhausting!
So: I’m going to open up my artistic life. Include my fans. Let them know what I’m up to – maybe do more videos on YouTube, then maybe I could sell artwork and posters and cuddly toys too. I’ve started putting free content on my site already. See the Dark Claw Saga. Read the story and you will be able to buy merchandise from CafePress too. I think I should litter those free pages with adverts then offer a premium subscription service advert free. There has to be a way through this and I think talking, blogging and Podding about it can only help create interest. It’s going to be a massive amount of work, but should be fun too.
Now, back to my free audio book. Oh, did you want a review? It’s very thought provoking – how’s that?