J.L. Duncan wrote:My thoughts are…
Setting wise, even as a (hardly published writer) I’m having a hard time coming up with something I’d write through kindle and set beneath Palladium’s IPs.
A good majority of the stories I work on, are irrelevant to being set in the Palladium Megaverse. The settings could easily be similar (but not the same) in theme, without handcuffing the story to another private entity…
A zombie story doesn’t need to be set in Dead Reign to be a zombie story… That said, would I write zombie story? Not likely. And especially not likely without introducing some new concept or theme (again something interesting and independent of the original concepts of Dead Reign) in which to tell a story that hopefully people hadn’t read before.
I have respect for what Josh has done with self-publishing, but it’s not for me. And this idea of handcuffing your writing to an IP and to Kindle is not the same as just self-publishing.
I don’t think those that take their writing seriously should be handing it over in this format, except that maybe it might give the writer some exposure and experience; but if they can write and have a good story-they’d be an idiot to publish it in this manner-(such is my opinion).
The only positive I see out of this possible venture is… Maybe some talent may be discovered.
Still, the subject makes for good conversation-
Good thoughts.
Here are mine:
I take my writing seriously. Like Josh Hilden, I've done the self-publishing thing (and I'm still doing it).
But I lack Josh's marketing ability, I have no funding, and I don't have his level of product output (i.e., he puts out a lot more words, a lot faster than I do).
What I've discovered with self-publishing for the Kindle is that you can't just put a good product out there and expect people to instantly hear about it. You have to spend massive amounts of time and/or money making people aware of the product. Details like cover art are also crucial.
I'm a writer, and I'm a good one.
I'm not an artist, though, nor a promoter, and I don't have any money to pay for advertising.
In my position, it would be completely worth my while to write a Rifts story, giving up any rights to the characters or concepts and such, in exchange for a slice of the pie.
It would be worth it for the advertising alone, and for the word-of-mouth.
Any time any of my 99-cent Kindle short stories sells, I get about 30 cents of the cut.
But because my stories are just sitting in the massive slushpile that is the Kindle ebook catalogue, they're not selling like hotcakes. Very few people are even aware that they exist.
Just by having my name attached to the Palladium brand, I would be making my name known to thousands (potentially tens of thousands) of Rifts fans, which would drastically increase the chances of them buying my work, if only that one story.
That would significantly increase the income that I get from my writing, just from that one story.
And if people liked THAT story, they might well look to see what other work I've done, and might well purchase that stuff as well.
Story ideas are easy, and characters are easy. I don't currently have any characters or concepts so priceless that I wouldn't be willing to let Palladium/Amazon have the IP for them.
I can always make more, IF I can start making enough money with my writing to quit one or all of my day jobs.