[extropy-chat] finding old (and new) sf

[MB]

On Sat, 2 Jul 2005, The Avantguardian wrote:


> How about selling by chapters with the first one free and
> incrementing the price of each chapter progressively? Just set the
> increments so that by the time they buy the chapter containing the
> "climax" they get the rest of the novel for free but they have
> actually paid what they would have normally paid for the book in
> paperback. Or whatever you feel it's worth. It would work great for
> mystery novels where everything is revealed in the last chapter.


Matter of fact, the cartoonist, Bill Holbrook, of Kevin&Kell did
something similar to that a year or so ago. For free you could get the
first chapter or two or three (don't now recall), and then to get the
rest I think it was $10. Not sure how well he did, don't remember
seeing a report.

He sent the subsequent chapters in email, plaintext, I think, one
every month. My only problem with it was that the chapters came in so
far apart that I misrembered the story line between readings.

For sure he didn't email out any 20,000 copies of a chapter every
month! Then again, IIUC, he's not an established writer, but a
cartoonist.

Looking at it now, it might have been better to put the first few
teaser chapters on the web, receive a minimal payment, and then either
post a zip file or send one.

Regards,
MB