Scott Sigler on a possible future of publishing
You know that Scott hit the NY Times Best Seller list a few weeks back. Recently, he was interviewed by fellow podiobook author Travis Heermann. The text of the interview covers a wide range of topics, from author-branding, writing horror & biological sci-fi, plus a glimpse of where Scott sees the publishing industry heading:
My vision is that you have a flagship product, say my novel THE ROOKIE. You make that flagship available in all possible formats, both paid (such as hardcovers) and free (such as podcasts). From there, you offer side stories, back stories, character sketches, meta-fiction, anime, machinima, all kinds of work that is not necessary for enjoying the main product. The main product stands alone, you never hold that hostage. This extra content is what you sell, for a very low price. So it follows the old razor model — you give the razor away for free, you sell the blades. If people really like THE ROOKIE’s main story, they will be happy to pay 99 cents for short fiction, $5.00 for a digital sourcebook with timelines and indexes, maybe $9.99 for a novel- length work of a secondary character, etc. You give the customer the main story, then they choose if its worth their money to read associated content.
Travis’ book is Heart of the Ronin, an in-progress serialized free audiobook. Scott’s books are all here, too.
January 30th, 2009 at 12:24 pm
Well said, Scott, as always.