However, many fans still prefer to get this content from the internet because the content itself was only one part of what they enjoyed. When something was new, it was more fun to have it online where they could share and discuss it with other fans, but once it was no longer new they preferred to buy the material from the traditional publishers.

The point is Internet publishing is not going to supplant traditional publishing because internet publishing is good at handling fresh new content and real time discussion but not so good at archiving that content. As you said, for that people will always prefer having a real book to peruse at their leisure, put down, dogear, whatever. But then, going back to my original example, movies have not supplanted the theater either. There will be some cross over (blogs that become books, books that are released as web serials) just as there are some cross overs between theater and movies, but it’s a different medium and when it’s used to its advantages instead of as a replacement for traditional publishing I think it will prove quite profitable.

In a couple months I hope to be able to come back here and use my own company (http://www.fluffy-seme.net) as an example to prove my point, but as it is we’ve only been out of private beta for two months … and the jury is still out :)

Personally, I believe journalists, who write books for a living, are messianic figures. I think they have a messiah complex, but that’s another story.

God I love that line.

Like you, I wonder if Anderson is basing his projections on opinion or data – he was once a scientist, if I’m not mistaken, and I’d like to think that he values empirical data over choice observation. But I’ll save my judgment till I finish the book (which is going to take some time, I bet, considering that it’s not even out in bookstores over here. Only digital copy I’ve got on my computer is an audiobook).

BTW, Seth Godin’s got a response to the Gladwell article – he argues that it’s obvious, and it’s already happening anyway … so why bother arguing about it?

I’m afraid, however, that I’m skeptical of selling experience over content on the Internet – it might be possible, certainly – but we’ve yet to find a good alternative to the experiential joy of reading a proper dead-tree book, with a warm cup of coffee, in bed. I understand that the experience you’re referring to here is the interaction between readers (or between readers and writers) – and indeed that’s something the Internet does exceedingly well … but it begs the question: will your readers be coming back for the fiction, or for the interaction? I’ve yet to see an example that balances both attractions and remains compelling to users. (Novelr – as with other blogs – does have a good balance between reading and interacting, but it’s nonfiction … which is both easier and less compelling than epistolary fiction).

I hope you find that balance, though, and I’d like to suggest that what you’re looking for is going to be in a format that is radically different from everything we’ve seen before.

@Jan: thank you for the link. I’ve just finished it, and I’m pleased to have read that. It’s one of the old ticks I have, I suppose, with online fiction: 1 year on and we still need better filters.

(Incidentally, I’ve been thinking a lot lately of my role as an ‘attention editor’, if you will, on Novelr – what should I link to? What shouldn’t I link to? I’m still working out the kinks, I guess, but rest assured I’m fully aware of the responsibility I have in directing the online writer’s attention to other sites)

@MCM: I just googled Mark Cuban and read his piece on ‘Free’, and my God he argues the idea a hundred times better than I did! Thanks for pointing me in that direction.

On your site experience, would you be interested in writing a guest post for Novelr? I’ll email you in a bit.

I was just reading in the New York Times Book Review a review of Anderson’s book and it was lukewarm at best, the review not Anderson’s book.

Then I read Gladwell’s critique of Anderson’s book and I began curious. Gladwell felt passionately against Anderson’s ideas.

Ultimately I think about my own costs as a developer. If I have to maintain a $500 monthly budget or a $1500 monthly budget. All websites are different. When my monthly costs go down, then I’ll start to believe the “Free” theories. These days, the economy is as inconsistent and unpredictable as the human attention span.

Personally, I believe journalists, who write books for a living, are messianic figures. I think they have a messiah complex, but that’s another story.

Storytellers get the most traction. A brand will even become a storyteller. What is the “story” Disney is telling; or Pixar; or Paramount?

PR used to be spin. The new media relations is person to person. This means that Anderson has trust in his influence among large numbers. Think of it like a candidate running for office all the time.

Anderson already is coming from a reputable magazine. He’s the chief editor of Wired, which everyone knows.

He’s basically playing the role of speculator–which is fun but dangerous. Because to a certain extent, the “economy” is also a story. Journalism plays a huge role in how the economy, or the economy’s health is represented.

He says he plans to make money and raise a family on being a paid public speaker. Essentially he’s betting on his personality, his social influence, to get him by.

OUr age is dominated by the attention economy. Anderson knows this and most people are beginning to get it. The attention economy is based on a person in the public light, a storyteller in a sense.

Anderson is telling his own point of view/experience. But he’s only one person. What he’s doing is projecting his own past experience into the future.

That’s not the future.

The future is unpredictable. Always.

Interestingly, since I switched from a “free PDF download” model to a “read on my site” model, my overall site traffic has increased over 500%, mainly from people reading one story and then trying out another. For the last three years, I’d been attracting readers with the promise of Free, and then losing them just as fast. Under the new system, I stand a chance of holding onto some of them. Tying the reading experience to my brand was a simple one, but it’s made a huge difference. I’ve already had good pre-sales of my next title, even though I don’t exactly know it is yet!

The problem with content providing on the internet is that the internet is a NEW medium and the content providers are still trying to paste content formatted for old mediums onto the internet. It’s very much the same thing that happened when the technology to make movies was developed. At first all that came out were stage theater productions that were filmed exactly like the camera was an audience member, but eventually people realized that oh hey! you can take this technology and do close ups, you can shoot three minutes of film from one angle and the next six minutes from a completely different angle. In short you have the ability to give the audience an experience unique to the medium.

Content providers on the internet are only just beginning to get that, and that I think is the secret of making money off of internet content. The internet allows you to create an EXPERIENCE around a work, a community, a social network, and a level of interaction not possible in traditional printing. Here’s an example: there’s a project going on now called Comment Press where books can be annotated and footnoted and commented on line by line by the readers– Zing has a similar format– you can highlight a bit of text you like in what you’re reading and post a comment directly to that. Sort of like writing a note in the margins. Other readers can read these comments and reply to them, cultivating a whole interactive experience from the work.

I think content should be free, content should always be free on the internet, but accessing and contributing to the EXPERIENCE will require people to sign up for accounts which can easily be subscription. So there is money to be made here once people stop trying to sell the content and focus on selling the experience.