I’m curious if you tracked how many people purchased the book through the link in the PDF. Do you know how many there were?

Either way, in a word of mouth world, if someone reads the book in a new format (one that seems to involve more effort than a book by my standards) then they’ve put in an extra effort. My bet is they’ll mention the book to someone else, talk about it, pass it, whatever.
Again, it can only help.

And I like the idea of podcasts. Anyone who reads this blog regularly knows I like to talk (grin). But I think fiction would have to be more the focus, or perhaps some kind of non-fiction focus (writing? who knows…)

No concrete ideas. Just lots to think about.

I’m certainly on board with new media, and I love the greater sense of connection that I can make with people through the blog, newsgroups, maybe podcasting down the road, yadda yadda. And yet…. there’s also a part of me that longs to pull up the drawbridge, stock the moat with alligators, and just do my work. There’s part of me that still wants that to be enough. That’s the personal seesaw I have to manage.

And of course the ivory tower model works well enough if the only point it to express oneself. But if the point is to make art (which to me implies audience, connection, feedback, response…), then it’s my belief that greater and greater degrees of connectivity will be required. People who can’t or won’t play that way will, I believe, get left behind.

And I regret that. I think there’s the potential for great loss because of the essential tension that often exists in artists — the solitude of the work in opposition to the demands of 21st-century distribution and the connective expectations of the audience.

Perhaps we will see communities of support develop around artists — the 21st-century version of what karina spoke of earlier in this conversation. Perhaps there will be people (like the folks that have come together to support Seth) who will be happy to handle the tech and the interface and smooth the path between the artist’s inner space and the great big world…

@ Anonymous and karina — I don’t know any other answer to the “why write” question except “because I must.” But you know, it hasn’t always been that way. I used to tell people that because it was the expected answer — it was the answer that marked one as a Real Writer in the cultural construct — but it wasn’t actually DNA-level true for me until much more recently. And yet during those non-totally-committed times, I wrote some damn good stuff. Just another example to me of the Real Artist paradigm that I for one am ready to shake up right now…

One of the most exciting parts of this story is that Seth is not alone. We’re starting to see more and more authors have success following a similar path.

It’s an extraordinary time to be an author. Especially a highly motivated, new media savvy author.

@ Seth — I’m glad you haven’t had problems with snobbery. It gives me hope that writers and other artists are starting to realize that we are stronger supporting each other, and actively reaching out to audiences, than spending our time jostling for space at that little table in the back corner where no one’s buying any books. But it’s my experience that plenty of writers feel desperate and competitive, and will spend their time together trying to see who can pee up the wall highest.

That’s the thing that I’m hoping one day goes away — that assumption that someone else’s success is taking away something from us, that there is only so much pie to go around and that means someone’s not getting any.

Because I don’t believe that. I think there are so many people in the world looking for images and words and music to connect with, to make a part of themselves.

And I think it’s not fundamentally hard to find the people who will connect with one’s work. But it takes time and labor, sometimes for years and years and years. I don’t know any way around that.

@ Everyone else — I want to respond to more comments, but it’s time for beer (priorities, priorities). I’ll be back later.

Galleries turn their noses up at these people, and it is, at some point, mutual – probably when the point of diminishing returns is reached for the artist with the gallery commissions, etc.

I think it is only a matter of time until these models become more accepted, but I also wonder about some types of art. I think sometimes a lot of people want to be told by critics what is good/bad.

As a reader, I can see the viability for all of the things you are talking about. And, although I am a big fan of podcasts in general, I dislike audio books; I want to read the words in printed form. So give me a pdf or something to whet my appetite; I’d pay for that.

I heard a blurb about Seth’s success on NPR recently, and thought it seemed right on track with where things are headed. It’s great to see.

Why do we write? I believe “have to” is the answer. I used to worry about what was practical occupation-wise, yet challenged by the notion of what I was passionate about. I went from two years of environmental engineering to the music conservatory, then I finally finished film school plus computer programming, and ended up working as a web developer. Throughout that long journey, I kept changing my mind, becoming interested in this and that, getting bored, changing fields… But the constants I kept coming back to were writing and translation. Have to.

Kelley, I had the same initial reaction to paid readings. But now I think it’s actually a good idea. Vancouver seems to foster an active reader/writer community. Big-name authors are the ones who offer free readings, because they no longer need the fees to help them pay the bills while they write their next novel. William Gibson often gives free talks and readings at UBC.

This summer I took a class called, “Using Canadian Children’s Literature in the Classroom”. I signed up basically out of curiosity. I noticed some YA books got well over a thousand reviews on Amazon. Most of them began, “I had to read this book for school and …” Teachers play a big part in promoting literature. I was the only person in that class who wasn’t a teacher or librarian. I found out that they are very eager to bring authors to their schools and consider fees of $200-$600 for a one-hour talk reasonable. They mentioned that David Bouchard charges $5,000 per visit!!! Holysmokes. But yeah, paid readings are just another way in which a community of readers can help support their writers.