Cory Doctorow Joins The CwF+RtB Experimental Crew

from the good-for-him dept

Tue, Oct 20th 2009 2:53am — Mike Masnick

Writer Cory Doctorow has long been a leading thinker/experimenter when it comes to issues of copyright and content creation -- having long put his works under very permissive Creative Commons license, and making sure that his books were available in all sorts of different formats. However, for the most part, he kept using the same basic business model. However, it looks like he's jumping on board our favored "tiered" CwF+RtB model. Reader Russell sends in the news that Doctorow will not just be self-publishing his next book, but is also offering various "tiers" for support. The ebook and the audiobook will be free, but the physical book will cost money. On top of that, there will be a limit of 250 specially bound limited edition hardcover versions for $250. He also sold a $10,000 commissioned story, which was already sold before he announced this (he thinks he priced it too low). Finally, he may experiment with ads in the book as well. It will be interesting to see how well this works, though I think the tiers could include some more options/creativity, as most people don't have many options outside of the basic book. Still, it's great to see these tiered direct-to-fan CwF+RtB offerings getting closer and closer to being mainstream.

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Filed Under: connect with fans, cory doctorow, cwf, reason to buy, rtb, tiers

14 Comments

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Rose M. Welch (profile), 20 Oct 2009 @ 2:51am

Yes.
Doctorow is so fucking cool. :)
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chris (profile), 20 Oct 2009 @ 5:16am

WTF are the tshirts?
i want a "little brother" tshirt in the worst way (the UK hardcover artwork would be awesome).

i bought a "geek mafia" tshrit from rick dakan at notacon this year and i wear it with pride. sure would like a little brother T as well :-)
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Richard (profile), 20 Oct 2009 @ 5:56am

Research
Because of the free licenses his books are prime for use in AI research projects - so expect them to turn up in all kinds of unexpected places.
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emmet (profile), 20 Oct 2009 @ 6:04am

customised covers
"I'm also offering a custom-cover package for people running events or giveaways: for a setup fee (I'm thinking $300, but that's not fixed in stone), I'll sell you as many copies at Lulu's cost as you'd like with your own cover on it."

I think this is an excellent idea! He should offer it to everyone. I could certainly imagine myself stumping up some extra cash to get my favourite novels in a customised cover, even if I already own the original.
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Dark Helmet (profile), 20 Oct 2009 @ 6:27am

Wow...
I've been wondering for a while now how one translates FREE! into making a living writing fiction...and here is a possible answer.

Great starting point, though I've read tons of bad ink on Lulu....
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Parker Mason (profile), 20 Oct 2009 @ 6:50am

CwF
I think its also worth mentioning that Doctorow's plan wouldn't be successful if he didn't do such a good job with the CwF part of the equation: he frequently interacts with his fans on BoingBoing (for free!), and learns what THEY want to read about while getting them interested in in what he is writing about it.
I'm not a huge fan of his writing, but I certainly applaud this move by him.
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The Buzz Saw (profile), 20 Oct 2009 @ 9:19am

LOL @ ads in the book...
Mary was extremely frightened. Blood stained the walls. She took one step closer to the door, slowly pushing it open, when suddenly 60% OFF ALL GOLF CLUBS AT GOLF WORLD USA! PRESENT THIS COUPON TO RECEIVE A FREE BOX OF GOLF BALLS WITH ANY PURCHASE OF $100 OR MORE!
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Oct 2009 @ 9:39am

Here's a novel idea for a novel: for X dollars, you get as many copies at Cost with one of the (main) characters name changed to your own.
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Lucretious, 20 Oct 2009 @ 9:53am

always enjoyed Cory's short form sci-fi and his work at Boing Boing.

welcome sir!
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Oct 2009 @ 2:32pm

See now Mike, here is one of those disclosure moments we talk about in another thread.

http://techdirt.com/search.php?site=&cx=partner-pub-4050006937094082%3Acx0qff-dnm1&am p;cof=FORID%3A9&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=Cory+Doctorow

Basically, now any time you mention anything about Cory, you need to mention that he is part of your CwF project. Obviously he is now part of your marketing package, part of the team.

See how that works?
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Mike Masnick (profile), 20 Oct 2009 @ 5:20pm

Re:
Basically, now any time you mention anything about Cory, you need to mention that he is part of your CwF project. Obviously he is now part of your marketing package, part of the team.

Reading comprehension time. We have nothing to do with Cory's experiment. The point is he's the latest to do that type of experiment.

See how that works?

Nope. You're still wrong, it appears.
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Oct 2009 @ 6:58pm

Re: Re:
Sorry Mike, perhaps you can write a little bit more clearly next time?

"jumping on board our favored "tiered" CwF+RtB model."

Would suggest he is joining your model, not making his own.

FAIL!
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Mike Masnick (profile), 20 Oct 2009 @ 10:34pm

Re: Re: Re:
Sorry Mike, perhaps you can write a little bit more clearly next time?

Sorry, Alex, perhaps you can read a bit more carefully, next time?

1. The model we discuss, CwF+RtB has referred to plenty of things that had nothing to do with us directly. In fact, we first coined the phrase about Trent Reznor using it, and we have no working relationship with Reznor at all and had never spoken to him or anyone who works with him at the time.

2. In this post, we point out that a reader sent this in. How would a reader alert us to it if it was us working with Cory?

3. The rest of the post explains where I think he could have done a better job in setting his thing up.

You have to have a stupendous inability to read to get confused here. Might want to check on that.
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Dark Helmet (profile), 21 Oct 2009 @ 6:29am

Re: Re: Re: Re:
"Sorry, Alex, perhaps you can read a bit more carefully, next time?"

Ooooops!

Alex? Who is Alex and how do you know the AC's first name? And what's his last name? And who does he/she work for?

Freudian slip?
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