Fortunately I’m not one to listen to them. Piracy is a problem, however it’s not one that can ever be solved. Theft has been a problem in all of recorded history, and only the most draconian protective measures can prevent it. However when it comes to ebooks the harder you make the product to use, the more likely your audience will pass by in favor of something that is easy to use. In my opinion it’s simply a waste of time and money to try to defeat pirates when what you really accomplish is alienation of your customers. I think more money could be made selling products for prices the market will bare. However that’s a whole separate discussion.

A recently posted story at Kuro5hin.org concerning the Tip Jar Revenue Model has rekindled some ideas about how artists can make money in a digital age.

The gist of the article states that while revenue was generated, it wasn’t anywhere near enough to live on. To be honest I expected that conclusion. For a while I participated in Free-ePress.com and that has pretty much come to the same conclusion. The important thing is trying to understand why and what can be done to make it a viable alternative to the traditional publishing industry.

Now there are many factors that go into the success or failure of a venture like this, but I’m concerned with what I think are the most important. First of which is marketing; how many people are exposed to the work? Second is quality; is the product actually worth paying for? Third is the cash register; how do people pay for your work?

One of the huge benefits of the internet is access to the entire world. Anything that gets posted can be read by anyone with a connection to the network, anywhere, anytime. How do people find your recently posted ebook? You still have to market it, particularly if you are a nobody without the loyal fan base of say, Stephen King. This means shamelessly plugging your book in as many relevant venues as possible. Put a signature in all of your email containing a plug for your ebook. Participate in on-line forums where your potential customers hang out. Get some name recognition and start building a reputation.

The next problem is the quality of your work. I freely admit that most of my stories are amateur, and not something I would pay for myself. At least not on a per story basis. There’s a lot of work out there that is just plain bad. If you can’t be bothered to polish your work, don’t expect anyone to pay for it. There are organizations out there that can help an aspiring writer to polish their work. Grammar and spelling may have been annoying in school, but when your art is written communication they really are important. To the untrained eye an uncut, unpolished gemstone looks like a rock. If you edit your work carefully you can raise the quality and hopefully get to the point where people think it’s worth paying for.

The final problem is how do customers pay? I’ve debated the merits of micro-payments with my local writing support group, including Jeff Kirvin who has been self publishing his own work using a shareware model for quite some time. The problem is that payments less than $3 US aren’t very economical to process using credit card processors. Fortunately systems such as PayPal have come into existence, making true micro-payments more of a reality. The ideal solution would encompass traditional and new technologies for payment. Whatever the solution, it must be easy and you must remind customers how they can pay. In the case of ebooks there should be a reminder at the beginning of the text and again at the end.

In order for authors to survive they have to earn a wage, just like everyone else. In the print industry, every copy sold is income. In the ebook industry not every copy downloaded is a copy sold. Some customers will download multiple times. Some customer may make a copy for a friend. While the entertainment industry would have you believe this is a bad thing, for the aspiring artist it’s a good thing. You will have no better sales-force than the people who enjoy your work. Let them make copies to give away. This underscores the importance of having an easy payment method and stating it clearly in your work. Give the people who receive these residual copies a chance to thank you for the effort. This ties back in with marketing your work. Every copy you release should have a link for users to get back to your site for more.

Naturally there is a concern that people will read copies of your work and never pay. This is definitely a valid concern. Artists have to live somewhere and eat something just like the rest of us. So I found it interesting to read about Street Performer Protocol. The concept being, a work is not released until a pre-determined amount of money has been generated. Consumers would essentially pay a ransom to see the finished work.

Such an idea might actually work. The largest problem would be finding out what price the market will bare for your work. That’s part of a market driven economy and will no doubt require a bit of trial and error to determine where to set the ransom. The encouraging part is if your reputation grows you should be able to raise the ransom in accordance with the demand. Just don’t forget that you have to have a good reputation to do this.

So can a self published ebook author make money? I think so, but not over night and not without a lot of work. It will be interesting to see if the next generation of authors can make self publishing a viable route to success.