People You Should Watch

This blog is about emerging models in the publishing industry. I’d like to showcase a few people who are actually using some of these models. If you are interested in using some of these models in your own writing career, you probably should know about these folks.

Cory Doctorow

If there is a far end of the openness model, Cory Doctorow resides there. From the beginning, Cory has given away his books for free. You can download any of his books, DRM-free from his website. How does he possibly make any money? We’ll talk about that in a future post, but for now, here is what he says on his blog:

“[My] novels are published by Tor Books and HarperCollins UK and simultaneously released on the Internet under Creative Commons licenses that encourage their re-use and sharing, a move that increases sales by enlisting readers to help promote [my] work.”

Chris Anderson

Chris Anderson is another writer who has embraced the open model of publishing. His ground breaking article, Free! Why $0.00 is the Future of Business, is a great introduction to the model of open publishing, and you should follow that up with his book, Free: The Future of a Radical Price. You can either buy it on Amazon, or you can download the audio book for free on iTunes.

Scott and Seth

Speaking of podcasting, there are two authors that made their way to the traditional model of publishing by podcasting their books first. Seth Harwood and Scott Sigler both found publishers after they gave away their books online. Both continue to give away their books, even after they’ve signed with traditional publishers.

J. A. Konrath

Finally, Joe Konrath has a slightly different strategy. Instead of giving away his books, he sells his ebooks for dirt cheap through Amazon, usually around $1.99. It’s a very compelling alternative to the completely open model, and you really need to follow his blog.

So, there is your homework. Check out those folks, and I’ll try to post more about the specific models that they are creating.