Gunshots By Computer

Getting off the “blog-every-Thursday” track has really screwed up my sense of time. I realized today that it’s been over a week since I blogged. Then I realized I don’t really have enough to blog about every single day. I mean, I could blog about personal shit, but that’s, you know, personal. This isn’t the place for that.

I guess the fact of the matter is this: it’s a slow news week. Or month. As I reported last time, ALT is now available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble. It’s still available as a free download.

Wait. There’s something to write about.

A few folks have asked, “Why are you giving your book away for free.”

Short answer: Because I choose to.

Long answer: It has some to do with Cory Doctorow and a lot to do with the music industry. I’ve mentioned Doctorow before. It was Steve who pointed me in his direction, and the more I read about his experiment, the more I decided it was worth a shot (side note: check out his story, Scroogled). Yeah, I want my book to sell but, at this stage in the game, getting read is more important. I heard back from too many people out there who couldn’t afford the book, didn’t have access to a credit card, and so on. I’ve been there (hell, I’m there right now, and my back log of books to buy isn’t getting any shorter) and I know how much it sucks. There’s also this element of the unknown that has to be factored in as well. I’m fully aware that, to 99.9999% of the book reading population, I’m an absolute nobody, and for someone to buy a book by an unknown author without a blurb from an established author or, perhaps even more valuable, a recommendation from a trusted friend, is rather unheard of. I say this based on my own experience. Whenever I go into a bookstore, I look for the authors with whom I am all ready familiar; barring that, I look for that which has been recommended to me. I can think of only one occasion where I’ve walked into a store, bought a book by someone I’ve never heard of and, after reading it, decided it was money well spent. (For the curious, that book was The Cheese Monkeys by Chip Kidd.)

And, even then, I stood in the same spot for twenty minutes reading the first handful of pages.

I realize now that my book shopping habits are a lot like my music shopping habits. Touchy subject right now, this “buying music” thing, what with all the garbage in the headlines about pirates, torrents, the consumerist-voted worst company in America. We all know that CDs are overpirced–$17, $18, even $20 for an album is ridiculous, especially when you break down just how much of that profit actually goes to the artist. These days I tend to stample the wares before I drop my money. Hey, if a respected musicians can admit to it, so can a nobody writer like myself. Guess what? I’ve bought more CDs after being able to listen to them beforehand rather than basing a $17 purchase on one single. Before mp3 technology came along, I had a lot of crap in my music collection because there was no other option than to buy a whole album for just a few of the songs.

I understand that times are changing. It seems the last twenty years or so could probably be dubbed the “age of entitlement,” wherein consumers were expected to pay up on blind faith alone. Books, movies, music–we’re given samples in the forms of singles, trailers, hype and single chapters, sometimes to a degree of misdirection, and then are expected to pay up on that basis. What usually happens is that that frame of reference upon which our opinions are based usually misprepresent the final product as a whole. Sometimes it’s better than we expected; most times, it sucks and we scold ourselves for wasting the money. The funny thing is, this sense of entitlement is mostly perpetrated not by the artists, but by the gatekeepers and keymasters with all their lovely distribution channels, contracts and bank accounts (see also: publishers, record labels and movie studios). After all, the artist of the commercialized work in question all ready has their money, along with a slow stream of royalty checks (depending on the industry, and sans production costs, advertisting and advance-accumulation). So that $25 book, $10 movie ticket or $17 CD–most of that money, after overhead costs, goes back to the deep pockets of the ones holding all those keys. Not the artists. Hell, why do you think the Writers Guild of America members are on strike right now?

I know, I know, I’m a broken record. A million people have lamented about the same situation a million times before. Now it’s my turn.

So along comes this technology that makes it easy for folks to share what they have (and, in most cases, what they don’t have). And so begins the opposite side of the coin in terms of “entitlement.” Honest consumers feel entitled to know what they’re buying–to digest it before determining whether or not it’s worth their money. I know I’m probably making a naive generalization about consumers in general here, but bear with me a momenent. Today’s technology makes this possible much to the chagrin of the studios and labels. This is why the RIAA is suing consumers, because they feel entitled to your money and because they think you’re stealing from their pockets (and, technically, you are); at the same time consumers are downloading because they feel entitled to do so and, in some indirect way, to prevent theft of their own money by the RIAA by listening to an album before buying it and making an informed purchasing decision. Of course there’s a lot more to this - DRM technology, for example, and the question of fair-use - but I won’t go into it.

In fact, I realize now this is all a big digression in order to get to a simple point. Point? Yes, believe it or not, I have one!

Releasing my novel for free as an informed decision based on the climate of other industries I happen to regard highly in matters of artistic inspiration. Namely, the music industry. Some of you might have heard about Radiohead’s latest album, In Rainbows. Hell, it was on the channel 69 news out of Reading, PA, so I bet you probably have. But I bet you didn’t hear about Saul Williams’ latest album, did you? Gizmodo has a nice article about both (and their implications on the industry) here. Saul’s album, The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust, is absolute free (and I recommend it). You also have the choice to download higher quality versions for $5. No more than that. The point is choice. The option to buy it is there, but you also have the option to take it for free. The latter reinforces the former, in that if you find it merits supporting the artist in a monetary manner, you are free to do so. It is in this way that you are able to make the decision based on the full experience, rather than just a snippet.

So, coming back around, you can download A Life Transparent absolutely free. You’ll get what’s in the printed version, except for a back cover, white paper, glossy coverstock and all the arcane magic that makes a book binding stay together (otherwise known as glue and love).

In this incredibly bloated, digressed nutshell, this is why I released the book for free. If it makes any sense at all, I will be astounded. And maybe I’ve had this topic brooding in my head for a while now. I admit it, and apologize for the word explosion.

Since I’ve gone on for so long, I’ll try and wrap this up before the sun starts to rise.

This will probably be my last post before Thanksgiving, so I want to wish everyone a safe and happy holiday. Eat lots, sleep lots, and dream lots.

Oh, and read lots!

Best,

TK

P.S. J.K. Rowling appears to be a moron. Five bucks says she’s under pressure from Warner Bros. and her publisher to take part in the suit. Any takers?

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November 14, 2007 | Filed Under Blog 

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