A host of Irish writers are protesting the termination of funding to the Irish Writers’ Centre. As the Guardian writes, closure of the centre would mean the loss of a focal point for events, discussions, conferences and holding archives.
The Irish Writers’ Centre, which [Irish author] Seamus Heaney has called “a part of the literary culture” and [Costa prize winner John] Boyne “a part of the fabric of literature in Ireland”, works to develop and foster new Irish writing, providing a space for literary events, festivals and courses, as well as a home for a host of writers’ groups. [T]he decision to terminate its funding meant that access to these resources would be lost, “leaving the next generation of Irish authors in a vacuum and having to look elsewhere for guidance and development”.
The Guardian wrote a nice article, but of course you should read the summary of events by the man himself.
If used wisely, free can pay. That must have been what Ken Wohlrob, Bantam Dell’s director of internet marketing, was thinking.
Last year, the publishing house executive decided to support the release of Faefever – the third installment of Karen Marie Moning’s paranormal thriller series – by using a new media approach. In close succession, the publishing house released a free serialised podiobook version of first installment Darkfever, a mass-market paperback of second installment Bloodfever and a sneak preview of the newly to be released book.
From Book Business Magazine;
“Since we were doing the first book in the series, we didn’t see [the free podiobook] having any negative impact on the new book coming out. (…) The hardcover [of "Faefever"] debuted at No. 3. That’s the highest this author has gotten on The New York Times Best-seller List. The obvious benefit is that we had 60,000 podcast downloads. You can keep it up as long as you want. We had 155,000 of the excerpts [of “Faefever”] downloaded. That’s something else that is still [online]. We’re still generating fans. That’s the benefits of doing these online promotions. They can take off on their own. We did see a really, really nice climb in book sales. It did exactly what it was supposed to do. We took an author that had been established pretty well, brought in new fans, and increased sales above the previous hardcover [in the series]. What we saw was that sales were great for the book and still are.”
This is a very good example of how free content can aid established authors in the release of a new book. But even for authors who are not so established in print yet it can work wonders. With years of hard work, Scott Sigler has built himself a loyal fan base for his free serialised science fiction. And with help of this community, Sigler managed to debut his podiobook-turned-print novel Contagious on number 33 of the New York Times best seller list.
How’s that for free ?
It has been over a year since Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, called for the ‘Big 3′ to stop attaching Digital Rights Management, or DRM, limitation to music. A new contract between Sony BMG, Universal, Warner Music and iTunes might just do the trick.
In a move to limit the influence of iTunes on the sales numbers, over the years the big three supplied iTunes with DRM limited music while supplying open rights to other outlets. But the time has come for the unabated and ever growing influence of Apple’s iTunes in the music marketplace to show its strength.
The BBC reports that at the Macworld conference in San Francisco Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide product marketing, Phil Schiller, said in his keynote address that after contract renegotiations ‘[s]tarting today, 8 million songs will be DRM free and by the end of this quarter, all 10 million songs will be DRM free.’
However as we all know, music is not the only thing iTunes exploits. Videos are still rights protected and so are audiobooks purchased via iTunes, thanks to supplier Audible, making access to files on other machines than the one that downloaded the file impossible. Unfortunately, the wishes of Apple CEO Steve Jobs for a DRM free iTunes store will have to wait to be granted as Apple just renewed their exclusive audiobook contract with DRM-holist Audible. The rights protection is mandatory for files to be sold on Audible and by extension iTunes, even if it goes against the wishes of the publisher and author of the work.
As Cory Doctorow rightly questions; ‘if DRM is so foul that it can’t be borne when it comes to music sales, why is it acceptable for other kinds of media in the iTunes store?’
Luckily, there are ways around DRM, even if they are somewhat elaborate and might be on the more shady side of the sun. Let me just say that any audio that is relayed from memory to speakers can be recorded in the process. And if one does not have the patience for this, there are always the New Media heroes such as Mr. Doctorow and the good people over at Podiobooks and the heroes of Old Media over at LibriVox, who will supply you with DRM-free audiobooks to your heart’s desire.
Luna’s reading list update
Have just finished;
- Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book
Currently reading;
- Patricia Brigg’s Moon Called from the Mercy Thompson series
- Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book
Prospective reads;
- Mur Lafferty’s Playing for Keeps
- Nathan Lowell’s Cape Grace