Giving it away and selling it

Things have changed. How do you know? Listen.
The future is already here - it’s just not very evenly distributed^*.
Mark Siegel is giving away his work and selling it. He is an illustrator and he has been working on his book for seven years and he is giving it away one page at a time every Monday, Wednesday and Friday; there aren’t even adverts.
Cory Doctorow is an author, when he talks he asks his audience
‘Who has a favourite author?’ All the room will indicate that they do indeed have a favourite author. He then asks
‘The first time you read your favourite author, did you pass cold hard cash over the counter at a book store for that first book?’ Not many, if any found their favourite author under those circumstances. The third and final question he asks
‘Since finding your favourite author have you since paid cold hard cash for a book of theirs?’ Everybody agrees and Cory’s point is made, that’s why Cory gives away and sells his books.

The true enemy is obscurity. Mark’s work Sailor Twain is getting known before it comes out as a book, his fans are in partnership with him, they want him to succeed. It was his fans that suggested he raise money to let more people know about his 19th century tale of a stream boat, a mermaid and the Hudson river. And it is his fans that are chipping in.
Ironically technology is making creative business more human than ever before. With very little cost Mark builds a fan base before his art is complete. With a web site called kickstarter.com his fans are raising money to help Sailor Twain be successful.
Publishing houses are suffering. Traditional business are generally not adapting to seismic changes the Internet age is ushering in.
Smart creative people are reading the winds and experimenting. There is much to learn and it seems the place to learn is from people like yourself.
^{* William Gibson author}