image106[1] As I mentioned back in July, I’ve posted a couple of stories to Scribd just by way of trying out the service to see how well it worked. I’ve since ended up with a number of Scribd subscribers (including Slate writer Farhad Manjoo; I’m not sure entirely why), and my stories have been read a little over 70 times each.

Now I’m wondering whether I should try writing another story—the idea for which came to me in a dream the night before last—and posting it there, for sale for $1. Would anybody buy it? How effective would promotion of it be through social networking and blogging? Would anybody care enough to check it out?

It would be an interesting experiment. And to be honest, the idea of making money from it is probably the only way the story would actually end up getting written. At the moment, I have so many demands on my time it is hard to find any excuse for leisure—and certainly writing a story would feel like a leisure activity otherwise.

And if Greg Stolze was able to get away with charging $1 for a 3,000 word story, perhaps I could get away with charging that much for one that will almost certainly be longer. (Perhaps I could get fancy and do a Storyteller’s Bowl/Ransom Model sort of thing, and say that if I sold 100 copies I’d make it free to everyone. If only 70-some people read my free stories, it doesn’t seem likely I would make that many sales.)

Maybe this weekend I’ll write it down and give it a shot.

5 COMMENTS

  1. You might want to publish it at Smashwords as well as Scribd.

    As a reader, I don’t have any use for Scribd. I do have a number of publications from Smashwords.

    If you do a proper job at Smashwords you can have them publish it to the major e-book stores. Amazon is one of those outlets, but Smashwords currently notes “our shipment to them is behind schedule, ETA TBD.” If they’re still behind on Amazon when you’re ready to publish, you can self-publish directly at Amazon.

  2. AFAIK, only publishers can charge for content on Scribd (at least when I’ve posted there, I’ve been unable to find an option to charge). If anyone knows differently, or how that works, a post would be welcome.

    I second publishing on Smashwords.

  3. I think you’ll find that the difference between free and paying, even if it’s only a dollar, is larger than you think. People are a little irrational that way.

    The ransom model is very similar to the way we do things (click my name for website), but not quite. We help authors sell things related to the content, or made more valuable by the content, rather than focusing on the content itself. When the target amount (the ransom, sort of) is reached, the ebook is available for free to everyone.

    We’d love to publish your story. Feel free to contact me through the website or by email at jon@manfredmacx.com.

  4. We use Scribd for posting sample chapters with links to our various eBooks at the end. Its proven a worthy endeavor and drives traffic to our main website, not to mention the feedback received via the easy-to-use comment box. We have not tried the paid part of Scribd yet, but are considering it. From what we’ve seen most folks go to Scribd for free material only. Try Smashwords to upload pay items.

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