If you’re a fan of Barnes & Noble, or just like to save a buck or two, Starving the Artist is currently on sale there for 10% off at just $8.95.

And of course you can also get it on Kindle for the everyday low price of just $4.95.

The full title of the book is Starving the Artist: How the Internet Culture of “Free” Threatens to Exterminate the Creative Class and What Can Be Done to Save It.  It’s not a book about copyright law or an argument that “free is evil” – instead it’s a discussion of our current state of how we value other people’s work and creations, and how it should not be up to us as consumers to decide whether or not we want to pay what the creator is asking (if they are asking for anything at all). In some ways it’s a response to Chris Anderson’s Free: The Future of a Radical Price and tangential to Andrew Keen’s The Cult of the Amateur.

With the massive amount of creations available to us through the new distribution channel of the Internet, as well as the greatly reduced costs of creation, we are at a point where we can very easily find enough media to fill our time, made available free of charge by their creators.  The fact remains, however, that many creators would like to be compensated for their work – whether monetarily or in other ways.  But above all, creators deserve our respect for what they’ve done. If you want something, but aren’t willing to pay for it (in whatever manner and at whatever price it is offered), then there are plenty of other alternative options instead of that specific product.

The fact that a creator has made something that you want means it has value to you.  Otherwise you wouldn’t want it.  To take something that’s not yours, without permission, however, is stealing – and is a blatant act of self-serving narcissism in which the one taking feels they are entitled to something that they, in fact, are not. If one wants to steal, that is up to that individual – but in my moral framework, stealing is wrong …

Here’s the full description of the book:

For a lot of people, creation is their livelihood. For others, it’s where their livelihood ought to be. As Richard Florida wrote in his 2004 book, The Rise of the Creative Class, “Stimulating and glamorous as it may sometimes be, creativity is in fact work…The creative ethos is built on discipline and focus, sweat and blood.” All music, art, movies, writings and games were brought into being by their creators – and for these creators to have created them, there was some underlying motivation to do so. Without their creators and their motivations, creative works simply would not be.

Why then, in today’s Internet culture, is all creative work expected to be free?
Why is it that some individuals feel it is their right to take things that do not belong to them, without receiving any permission to do so?
Why, in the Internet culture of “free,” are those creations we enjoy and value most the ones that we are most likely to simply take?

This is not a book about copyright, nor is it a book about the evils of free.

This is a book about right and wrong.
This is a book about respect.
This is a book about the value of creative work.

This is a book for the creators. May you keep on creating.

If you’d like to read more on this topic, I’d love it if you picked up a copy of my book or read it on Kindle.

Here’s a snippet of the current work-in-progress.

For a lot of people, creation is their livelihood. For others, it’s where their livelihood should be. I may be modest at times, but I know I’m no Picasso. For people like him, there obviously was a motivation to create – but there was also a cost. In his lifetime, Picasso created an estimated 50,000 individual works. If nothing else, that’s a lot of paint, paper and time.

Still, the obvious question here is “What if Picasso had not been able to create as his profession?” Of course there is no way he’d have created 50,000 works – there simply isn’t enough time in one’s life to do something like that as a hobby. Or, if somehow he could have still produced as many works, it is highly unlikely he would have had the drive to do so, much less perfect his craft to the level which he did.

In the time before creators were easily able to share their works directly with the public (before the printing press, the phonograph or the Internet), much of the work was commissioned by church of government. Works of art we consider core elements of our culture would not have existed had it not been for these commissions. Some works took years to complete, such as Michelangelo’s painting of The Creation of Adam on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel which took four full years of Michelangelo’s time.

What is even more telling with this example, however, is that Michelangelo himself resented the commission for this work, believing it only served the Pope’s need for grandeur. So, in actuality, had it not been for the commission and promise of payment, The Creation of Adam would never have existed in the first place.

Of course, not all creators benefit financially from their work. In fact, many never expect to. This does not mean, however, they never desire to. With today’s technology it is much easier to acquire the tools to create, and much easier to distribute the creation once complete. The larger issue, and one that is oftentimes forgotten, is that these only make up the material costs of creation. As I’ve already mentioned, to create requires some sort of incentive to do so – and this is true for the most part because creating a work does not come without cost to the creator.

In Chris Anderson’s book, Free he says, “But some others have simply accepted that, for them, music is not a moneymaking business. It’s something they do for other reasons, from fun to creative expression. Which, of course, has always been true for most musicians anyway.”

Assumptions like this are at the core of what has been happening to reduce the value of music and other creations, which in turn has reduced the perception that being a creator of any sort is a viable career path. Having worked in the music industry for over a decade now, I can without a doubt say that the majority of musicians do so for some sort of future payment in mind. For many musicians, obviously this desire to be paid for their work does not come to fruition. There is only room for so many hits in the world. The fact remains, however, that the act of creation is not a selfless one. Whether it be for the hope of playing a gig, getting recognition from fans, getting signed to a label, being heard on the radio, or simply the hopes of using your music chops as a way to get “closer” to the opposite sex, very few musicians who go beyond school band or playing in the comfort of their own home do so for “fun” or “creative expression” – for them to succeed at their craft requires time, and time, as we all know, is not free.

Now you can get The Trouble With Being God, my debut philosophical / psychological thriller, for just $3.50 on the Kindle. (Or download the free sample to take a peek first).

Also, if you have an iPhone, don’t forget you can also download Kindle books to it with the Kindle iPhone app.

As you probably know, I’m working on my next book – albeit a bit slowly (we just had our second son, so I am obliged to take a break). This second book is definitely superior to my first – and is a rather marked departure from the contents of my first (there are no murders – so far). But the biggest difference with the new book is that I am probably not going to publish it myself.

Obviously I don’t have anything against indie publishing. After all, I’ve been waving the indie flag for quite a while now. But the thing is, indie publishing has a specific purpose and that purpose was to let books like The Trouble With Being God exist. It wasn’t a regular book – and I definitely took some big risks in the way I wrote it. I never expected it to be a huge success (and so far it hasn’t been) but the goal with that book was to write the story I wanted to tell – even though it wasn’t likely to be a hit with any sort of mainstream audience (in fact, I expected the ending to probably piss a lot of people off. It did – and for those of you who felt cheated, I’m sorry). Still, indie publishing is made for that kind of thing – trying something new to put it out there when traditional channels just aren’t ready to take that kind of financial risk.

The new book (which I’m currently calling ‘The Unfortunate Expiration of Mr. David S. Sparks’) is still something a bit out of the ordinary. It’s a futuristic kind of sci-fi tale – kind of a Philip K. Dick meets Aldous Huxley thing – but it’s something that I believe can hit a pretty major chord with a lot of people – and I’m planning on pitching it to publishers and agents.

With TTWBG I didn’t really bother with that. I did send out one agent query, but I published the book myself before I even received my rejection letter (it was the same agent that Dan Brown uses, by the way). The point was that I wanted to skip the back and forth and just get this first story out there. With TUEomDSS that’s not really the case.

This new work is something that I think has a chance for major success. It speaks to fairly widespread ideals, and is a mirror of our own place and time. It’s being told in a way that I think fits the storyline, and it’s something that I actually get excited when I read.

If you’ve been following me, you might think I’m some sort of speaker for the indie movement. I might be, but chances are I’m probably not. Here’s what I really think:

Self-publishing (indie publishing) is a decision you make. It’s not a last resort for those who can’t be published – and it’s also not a solution for those too scared to be rejected. The decision to self-publish is one you need to take absolutely seriously, and do so for the right reasons. There are a lot of reasons to do so – many of which are valid (less control over your artistic vision, to put out a work that might not have a mainstream outlet, to ensure a higher royalty per unit sold) but there are a lot of reasons not to.

The Unfortunate Expiration of Mr. David S. Sparks is a little over halfway done – and I already know I’m going to be sending this one out. It’s a damn good book (although it could definitely use some caressing), and it’s something that I believe a lot of people will like. It deserves, and hopefully will receive, the backing of the traditional press and to be in every major bookstore out there.

The Trouble With Being God was a good book and I’m proud of it … but it wasn’t right for traditional publishing.

This one is, and it’s where it’s going. (I hope.)

To be honest, at first I really wasn’t very interested in reading his book. The cover art definitely screamed indie, and the premise seemed a bit cliche (man’s life sucks, is presented with chance to change), and I am also usually pretty wary of author’s soliciting their works to me to read.  (I already have quite a few books on my to-read list.)  But Rogers and I emailed back and forth a few times (full disclosure here) and I told him that if he put it up on Kindle I’d maybe read it.  He did, he emailed me, and I went ahead and read it.

The thing is, this really isn’t my kind of book.  From some of the reviews out there he supposedly has some similarities to Bukowski, who I’ve never really cared enough about to read (and therefore can’t comment as to if he really is like Bukowski).  I will say this though: Celluloid Cowboy is really damn weird.

I hated the main character. I would absolutely never want to know someone like him (actually I have known people somewhat like him, and make it a point to avoid knowing them now). He has no purpose to life, he gets caught up in violence and murder and sex and disgustingness far too often – and yet somehow he’s supposed to have some resonance with the reader as someone who really does have a chance at redemption. He’s a bad person and pretty much everyone he comes into contact with in this book is a bad person… but I kept on reading.  Something here pulled me in, and Rogers made me really want to see how everything would play out in the end.

The thing with Celluloid Cowboy is that I could really never see this being published by any respectable publisher. It’s just too plain whacked out to fall into anything I could see a publisher feeling safe distributing – which is why I give a lot of credit to Rogers for putting it out on his own imprint, Black Coffee Press. This is exactly what independent publishing is for: to take chances and write something daring and original – avoiding that attempt to appeal to a specific target demographic that some major publisher is trying to sell to.

Celluloid Cowboy is destined to find an audience, so long as those who read it share the word – and that’s what I’m doing. It’s not going to change your world, but if you’re down for a quick gritty read, I absolutely recommend it.

By the way, if you own a Kindle you can get your copy for just $1.59 (at least that’s the price right now).  Go get it.

Of course, there also some “officially” published books that also suck.  But they are much fewer and far between – and generally don’t ever come from the major print houses.  Yes, there may be some bad storytelling here and there, but for the most part they’ve been groomed pretty heavily by quite a lot of very talented people – and this is one of the biggest things the major houses have going for them.

But here’s the thing – where a book is published really is not what determines its quality.  What matters most is that any author planning on releasing their work take it completely seriously. If one plans on going the indie route and publishing on their own, then he or she needs to also realize that they are at a disadvantage.  There is no big team of people working on your project – although all the functions of those teams at major publishing houses serve very important purposes.  So, it’s up to the self-published author to make sure those jobs are still taken care of.

This is where the sucky self-published books start to appear.  A lot of the time these books have not had a trained eye edit them and will often only have been looked over by the writer (if the writer even bothered to look at it after writing). Even then, is the writer any good in the first place?  Should he really be putting this work out there?

It’s one thing to publish something because you want it in print, but when sucky self-published books get out there in front of potential readers they just make more muck for potential readers to muddle through.  If you’re going to self-publish, make sure to do everything in your power (including asking other people for help) to ensure that your finished product is not a waste of people’s time.  Otherwise you’re doing a disservice to readers and the rest of the self-published authors who take the indie movement seriously.

This brings us to what I’m doing now. As you may recall, back in November I mentioned that I was working on a book called The Grabbing Hands as a project for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). Well, that project has grown a lot from where it originally started, and has since morphed into something I am extremely excited about: The Unfortunate Expiration of Mr. David S. Sparks. This new book is definitely a departure from the dark gore that spattered the pages of TTWBG, but it still very much feels like a “me” kind of story – heavy with philosophical questions (in particular environmental and biological ethics, as well as my usual themes of questions of self, soul and purpose), and in its current state falls quite firmly in the realm of cyberpunk fiction.

The book itself is planned to be the first of several in a series (very likely a trilogy), and is roughly halfway-to-two-thirds complete. The last few weeks have been spent restructuring the story, and while it’s too early for me to release any details of the way it’s being told, it is absolutely unlike anything I’ve personally seen before (I won’t claim to have invented something new though, since I definitely have not seen everything under the sun).

Anyway, here’s a sample. This excerpt is specifically chosen to not give away too much of the story, as well as to more closely fit conventional story-telling. In the context of the greater work it will likely make much more sense.

Session ID: PDSSX1024_2090_B_TRANSCRIPT

DATESTAMP_TIMESTAMP: A.D. 2090 + October 24 ⁺ 9:30-15:46

David felt light-headed and disoriented, that same feeling one gets after standing on his head too long as a kid – upside down and hunched over at the same time. The feeling of wet cloth kept brushing against his face. Opening his eyes, he was greeted with a view of a man’s posterior in a wet tailored suit. Looking up, a green sky rushed by above. He attempted to straighten his body, and heard a voice.

“Finally awake, eh boy?”

Calvin dropped David’s body and he hit the ground face-first with a thud. David pushed himself upright and stood, rubbing his nose where it had banged the ground, now sun-baked and hard as rock. Yet, although the ground was dry, he felt wetness on his face. He looked down at his hands and noticed they were covered with blood.

“Looks like you broke your nose.”

“I think it’s just bleeding, it doesn’t feel broken.” Why am I even speaking to this man? Is he kidnapping me or is he saving my life? “Where are you taking me?”

“I’m not taking you anywhere. You’re on your own now. Just didn’t want to leave you at the side of that lake. You never know what’s lurking in there – almost got yourself killed last night, you know.”

In his mind David searched for an answer as to what this stranger was talking about and a memory surfaced of Calvin’s demented face lunging at him, chainsaw raised. His first thought was that Calvin had tried to kill him, but he then recalled that Calvin had aimed for the space behind him.

“You said something about an anaconda?”

“Yes, last night. Not really an anaconda though, just one of the field serpents,” Calvin answered. “They made them, you know,” he added, nodding his head toward the East.

“They?”

“You know, the progressives. The ones in the plastic city.”

A look of suspicion crept over Calvin’s face when it appeared David had no idea what Calvin was talking about. Deciding it better to trust this stranger than to be left on his own, however, he feigned understanding.

“Is that where you’re headed? To the plastic city?”

“Yes sir. I have business there. I assumed that’s where you were headed as well, since God knows there’s nothing but death out here. You’re welcome to travel with me, if you’d like.”

And so they traveled onward, Calvin in his dirty suit, chainsaw in hand, and David empty-handed with no shoes. It wasn’t until several hours later, when David remembered the chainsaw’s sputtering death in the previous night’s rain, that he broke their silent amble.

“Thanks, by the way.”

“Of course,” Calvin replied. “What for?”

“For helping me out back, with, what did you call it… the field snake?”

“… field serpent. And I think you’d do well to ask yourself if you should be thanking me or fearing me.”

“Trust me, I’ve asked myself that. The trouble is, I don’t have much of a choice here. It’s either trust you or wander aimlessly. At least this way I’m wandering aimlessly with someone.”

“It’s not aimless if you’ve got somewhere to be. Do you have somewhere to be, David?”

“I… I’m not sure yet,” David couldn’t remember sharing his name with the man. Then again, there was a lot he couldn’t remember lately.

They both fell silent and kept walking. The field seemed to stretch on forever, although the air had begun to feel a bit more moist again over the last hour. The dampness brought a chill, and a steady breeze had picked up against them, coming in from the East. David started to feel hungry.

“The field serpent,” David asked, “what exactly was that thing? You called it an anaconda at first.”

Calvin stopped and stared at David with a look of surprise. “You honestly don’t know? I wonder what happened to you, what happened to get you out into the middle of the green zone in the first place. They must have done something to you. That’s what they do,” Calvin’s voice trailed off as if he was speaking to himself. “They do things...”

“So that thing was really going to kill me?”

Calvin shrugged his shoulders. “Maybe. You never can tell. They spend most of their time beneath the soil, you know. In the summer heat like this they’re lucky if they get to move at all – at least when they come up to the surface. That’s why it’s usually safe to move this time of year; no one can see you. Well, at least not that deep in the green zone at least. Their ground patrols are useless.”

“I’m afraid you’ve lost me. I thought you said it was a snake,” David hesitated, then added, “although I’m not quite sure what an anaconda would be doing this far north.”

“It wasn’t actually an anaconda,” Calvin was becoming agitated, his right index finger twitching against the trigger of the dead chainsaw. “That’s just what we call ‘em. Anacondas, field serpents, whatever you call them it makes no matter. They’re all you’re going to find out here, other than travelers of course. You just hope the serpents don’t find you first.”

“Well, lucky for me you were there to help,” David replied cautiously.

“Lucky for you I suppose. You weren’t dispatched, but regardless, they still know you’re here; they’ll be ready for you. And with what I did, taking out a sentry like that, so up close, they’ll know I’m coming too. Lucky for me they still don’t know when.”

“What are you saying? These snakes are some sort of security system? Whatever you killed last night sure looked alive to me – especially from the blood that flew off the blade of your friend there.” David pointed to the dangling chainsaw. “… and it most certainly didn’t look like some sort of camera or machine.”

“Serpents are SBS,” said Calvin. When David shrugged his shoulders unknowingly he added, “Symbiotic Biological Surveillance?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Expect more updates on this as it progresses, but the plan is to complete the initial writing by late April. Publication is yet to be determined, as I am unsure if I want to self-publish this book or if it would make more sense to be released via traditional publishing channels.  What do you think?

]]> http://www.williamaicher.com/2009/02/19/next-book-the-unfortunate-expiration-of-mr-david-s-sparks/feed/ 2 http://www.williamaicher.com/2008/12/15/debut-novel-on-amazoncom-switching-from-freemium-to-premium/ http://www.williamaicher.com/2008/12/15/debut-novel-on-amazoncom-switching-from-freemium-to-premium/#comments Tue, 16 Dec 2008 04:07:09 +0000 William Aicher http://www.williamaicher.com/?p=76 As already stated on the official book site, my debut novel, The Trouble With Being God, is now available for purchase at amazon.com.

Due to this wider availability of the book, the book is no longer available as a free download.  Previously I suggested that content creators offer their material as free to build up a fan base, and I still stand by this suggestion.  One thing I failed to mention, however, is that once you’ve achieved that base, if your goal is to sell a product, then you need to switch gears.

Obviously I have switched gears.  There are literally hundreds of individuals who have already read The Trouble With Being God, and I still am giving out free copies here and there – especially to those individuals who I’ve determined are likely to be influencers and have the potential to spread the word about the book most effectively.

So yes, I originally stated that my main goal with this book was to build up a base of readers and to then sell my next book.  I’ve changed my mind.  After much thought, I came to the decision that The Trouble With Being God does have value, and that by simply offering it for free I was also risking instilling in readers that the book does not (some people still tend to think of free as “poor quality”) – and the likelihood of an upsell to a physical copy was slim.

So, will all of this early stage of promotion pay off?  Will word-of-mouth from the early adopters actually sell copies of the book?  I’ll keep you all updated on the status of this ongoing experiment in the world of self-publishing and marketing as it continues to unfold.

In the meantime, you can always join in the experiment by buying a copy of The Trouble With Being God: A Philosophical Thriller

So, what am I working on?  The Grabbing Hands (A Ghost Story).

Originally conceived as an idea for a short story, I am instead tackling it as a short novel.  A classic ghost /  monsters-in-the-shadows kind of story, the entire tale takes place in a timeframe of only about a half an hour.  Needless to say, it will be an interesting exercise to see how well it plays out in an extended form, while staying suspenseful even amidst a large amount of backstory, character development and description.

I’m currently done with the first two chapters of the book – about 1500 words. So far I’m quite happy with it – and I expect it to turn out to be a fairly suspenseful story.  It will definitely be much more in the horror vein than TTWBG was, but should also be a fairly accessible story for people of all ages.