Does this kind of website/community exist, and if not, would it work?

[Andail]

Ok, so I have this maybe not so original idea for an online writing community, and I would like your input. I don't have that much experience or insight in this stuff, but surely you do.

The idea is pretty simple. People become members of the community. There's a payment service that allows quick payments back and forth. You can be a writer or a reader, or preferably both.

The writers write original stories, which are released chapter by chapter. If you like someone's first chapter, you click on a fund button, which will charge you, say, 50 cents. When you have done this, you get access to the next chapter. And so on.

Essentially, this is both a way for people to support writers they appreciate, but also a way to easily get into a lot of literature (albeit mostly amateur), but only paying for things that keep you intrigued, and that you can stop reading - and paying for - in case you cease being interested.

There will have to be a few rules, such as a set minimum length for every chapter. There could even be two options; a chapter which is 15 pages or something for 50c, and a part which is 30 pages for $1.

Once you buy the first chapter of a new story, a new "book" will be created in your virtual library, and every time you buy another chapter, it will be added to this book. The books will only be readable through the website, although there could be additional apps for handheld devices that let you access your library.

There would be charts for the best selling story chains, but also special lists for the longest chains, or even the largest libraries.

I see the following advantages:
* Writers often find it easy to start writing, but difficult to keep up the pace. Here they can simply release the first chapter and see if people like it. The money and appreciation will hopefully compel the writer to keep going. If it ends up not being funded at all, the writer won't have to waste any more precious time, and can go back to plumbing or whatever.
* If somebody stops writing for whatever reason, you have only paid for the chapters you've read, and most of the times a very small amount.
* The writer isn't obliged to finish a story - as a reader your 50 cents only entitles you to see the next chapter when/if one is written. This means there are no risks involved, no promises to keep.
* The strength is in the numbers; as a reader you will never end up paying more than maybe ten bucks for a full length novel (300 pages), but if a writer can get just a couple of hundred readers that's a pretty substantial salary.

Thoughts? Has this been done already? Many times even? Is it a lousy idea?

[Darth Mandarb]

Amazing idea!

There are only two problems I see:

The low amount per chapter.  Because, for example, if you're using Paypal to process the transactions a $0.50 transaction will probably be about $0.40 in fees (and a merchant account would be even worse) making it completely devoid of profit/benefit to the author/site.  A system where the users could buy site "credits" would probably work better.  Something like $5 = 5 credits (this is the minimum), $10 = 11 credits, $20 = 22, and so on.  That way the minimum transaction is $5.

The biggest problem is protecting the content (and I don't mean from piracy).  If an author on a site like this were to become popular they'd be wined and dined from a big (criminal) publisher who would dangle money in their face, take the rights to their story, and then demand it be removed from your site thus cutting into the effectiveness of the site (and the profits, of course).  So there'd probably need to be some kind of "contract" or EULA for those submitting their works to the site.

The big publishing houses are sharks and they love crushing the little guy who tries to do something modern rather than clinging to their outdated business model.

[selmiak]

amazon has kindle direct publishing but there is not much of a community around it (at least not on the kindle forums provided by amazon, I didn't investigate any further), but it reaches every amazon customer with a kindle. They pay pretty good royalties and there are some good writers that earn a lot of money with that, maybe build a community around this?

[Snarky]

I thought the typical price for a self-published e-book was around $1-2. If that's so, this wouldn't look like a very good deal to me.

(Also, personally I wouldn't be interested in buying Chapter 1 of a book that might never be finished, but that doesn't mean others might not want to.)

[Ghost]

I like the idea, a LOT.

In an ideal case, it could really become a "breeding ground" for (talented) hobby writers who won't make a living but some nice "side money". In such an environment I can easily see like-minded people eagerly pay a bit more than they would for a self-published eBook (see Snarky) just for the sake of offering support. I see that a lot on Steam- the early access model is basically the same (only for games) and it works. Mostly.

Then again, the minute you create a community with rules, these rules will be broken, and since money is concerned, there will be some just trying to troll or make a quick grab. One thing I guess will happen quickly is people padding out chapter with filler just to "meet a word count", holding "chapters hostage" or merely copying from other works. That always happens.

[Andail]

Thanks for some feedback!
Darth: Yes, some kind of credits system was definitely something I had in mind, allowing users to spend very small amounts of money here and there.

Snarky: You're obviously right in a way, but I have some great counter arguments
* There's a distinct crowd funding element involved, where people may support someone simply because they appreciate their work. On any given crowd funding site, you'll find people giving much more money to a certain project than they would spend on simply buying the finished product.
* Self published books are dirt cheap because they're generally really bad, and people aren't inclined to spend money on something untested. But in this system, you'll only pay for what you've already read. There's no real reason to spend less money on an indie title than on something from a big publishing house if you like it.

And regarding your other point, that's obviously a problem, but only for books that aren't already finished - there'll always be plenty of books that are completed if you don't want to risk being disappointed. But hopefully some people will want to encourage a writer to complete something they find fascinating by supporting their project.

Ghost: Yes, those risks need to be addressed, but hopefully the low figures (every support click will only yield some half a dollar) means it won't attract the worst types of sharks! There isn't any easy, quick money to be made here, just a continuous low flow of donations.

Also, padding out a chapter won't work since readers will always get to read it before they donate, and if they sense the writer has stopped caring the word will probably spread.

If anything, I anticipate an emphasis on strongly episodic stories with plenty of cliff hangers between the chapters...

[Baron]

So... Is there some place where I can go to sign up, or should I just post my credit card info here?

[Nikolas]

Andail, this is an interesting subject, so here's my take on it, given that I am a publisher (even if I'm a music publisher).

1. First of all, as far as I know, generally speaking, copyrights remain with the author. At least in most cases (not talking about Roaling, or anyone HUGE here). But since there's so many books and so little chances to actually make something big, it's difficult to retain exclusivity as a publisher (of any sort).

In fact for EMF, which is a music publishing business and copyrights are traditionally with the publisher, I'm haggling to keep 5 years exclusivity...

2. Having someone pay per chapter will always feel like an endless kickstarter project, more or less: Give your tiny cent and check out the rest of the chapters WHEN out. It's difficult to persuade anyone to place their trust on a product that may never get done. And an unfinished novel is rubbish by default. What's even more difficult is to have an author dedicate to a project that doesn't seem to gave any life. I mean do you expect an author to write 300 (for example) pages of a novel, when he's got next to 0 buys on the early chapters? It simply won't happen! And it's A LOT OF work, as you very well know.

3. Books, regardless of stats, still sell as physical copies. Find a chance to offer a printed version of the finished products as well.

4. You need to find a way to secure your novels from piracy. Otherwise I don't know if it's worth it. Perhaps Dave or Vince can come in with some hard on facts about piracy. I know, for a fact, that I game I worked on (and had asked %, in addition to a fixed fee), had more than 100,000 illegal downloads, which, well... would mean almost $50,000 for me! The game didn't work, the company closed down and that was it! :-/

5. Here's my experience on the publishing side of things:

Reason people are actually approaching me now, is because of the quality that I can offer. Which spreads on any field I can think of.
* My website works and I think looks good (open to suggestions now and I should ditch that kickstarter image, but anyhow).
* There's quite a few pair of eyes checking every score that comes out. And the editing part (usually done by me, or supervised by me) is superb by any standard, even in terms of the old dinosaur music publishing houses that are counting 200 years... (!)
* I (now) have access to distributors in Europe, USA and soon UK (which for some reason I can't place in Europe! ).
* I'm placing quite a bit of trust in THEIR music, by taking care of ALL the (reasonable) expenses. I won't print a 500 page score, that has to be copied to the computer from an awful manuscript obviously (because this would be a year long project and one costing TONS), but for other scores, I'm very open to taking in stuff. And this IS the norm in the music publishing business.
* This way I can the quality control I want to my own personal liking, limits, etc. Everything that's been published in EMF, has gone through my approval. Without any money being involved in any way. The composers are not my customers, and generally speaking the customer is always right, right?
* What is of huge importance is that with the above "rules", I can also testify to the quality of the company. I have the nerve to ask any huge name to join me, because I have great composers on board. And have locked out any "non great" ones.
* Because there's a physical product involved, I'm very happy to report that there's been 0% complaints thus far and only praise, from paying customers. Reason I'm mentioning the physical qualities of the products (music scores) is because it actually plays a vital role in the success or failure of a rehearsal, performance, etc. So...

I hope that my comments will help.

It IS an interesting idea, but needs quite some clearing up I think...