Buy The Novel, Get A Lot More -- Including True Reasons To Buy

from the now-this-is-unique dept

When we talk about the various business models and economics surrounding "infinite goods" people always want to insist that there's some area where there are no scarcities or are no ancillary goods that can be sold. One example that's commonly cited is novels. Sure, with business books, the writer can go on a speaking tour, but with novels, what else will people want to buy? But, of course, that misses the point. There are always creative ways to get people to buy, and it's rather insulting to suggest that people are so uncreative that they can't come up with other unique ways to either sell other things or to convince people that the physical book itself is worth buying.

That's why I was excited to hear from JC Hutchins, who was telling us about the way he's selling his new novel, Personal Effects: Dark Art. First, if you buy the book itself, it comes with a lot more than just the book. In the book are various "artifacts" that are talked about in the book and are a part of the story -- such as credit cards, business cards, IDs, photos and legal documents -- all of which look and feel totally authentic (yes, including the credit card). But, even more interesting is that the story goes beyond the book itself. We've seen various video games, movies and even albums have certain "Alternative Reality Games" associated with them -- and this book does, too. If you Google the names of certain characters, you can find their webpages and blogs (and accounts on certain social networking sites). The phone numbers on the business card work. You can email characters in the story, hear voicemails and hack into different websites and emails, as well.

Oh, and on top of that, in order to help people get more interested in the story, Hutchins offers up a free audio prequel to the book designed to introduce you to the story, the characters and the "world" the full story inhabits. He also has a huge 50 page PDF file you can download, with details and info on how to host your own party around the themes in the book, with the idea obviously being to allow fans of the book to evangelize it to other friends.

And, of course, Hutchins works to come up with interesting ways to "connect with fans," including the ability for fans to "commit themselves" as patients to the psychiatric hospital at the center of the story. The story in the book revolves around a therapist at the hospital who uses an individual's "personal effects" to help treat them -- so this part lets you submit your own backstory and whatever "personal effects" you want, in order to "become a patient." It may be a little gimmicky, but it's a lot more immersive than just about any other novel.

All in all, it looks like a really fun world around the book. It helps the author better connect with fans and gives them a reason to buy the actual book -- no ebook is going to replace the overall impact here.

Now, I can probably already write exactly what the critics will say in the comments here: that (1) this seems like a ton of extra work and what if the author just wants to write and (2) this only works this one time, with this one author, in this particular genre. In response to the first point, that's true, but Hutchins actually teamed up with an alternative reality game creator, Jordan Weisman, and there's no reason other authors can't find partners, too. Second (and this is important, even though it will no doubt be ignored by the critics here): no one is saying that this is "the model" for selling novels in the future. The point is simple: there are a nearly unlimited number of ways in which authors can be creative and unique in providing people true reasons to buy books and/or other scarcities. Hutchins is just demonstrating one (or, actually, a few) that he figured out. In this case, Hutchins recognized (correctly) that such an ARG would fit with this particular novel, and that's great. I'm sure other creative writers in totally different genres can come up with creative other "reasons to buy" and other scarcities around the types of things they do, as well.

Filed Under: alternative reality game, books, business models, jc hutchins, personal effects, reason to buy

Amanda Palmer Connects With Fans, Gives 'Em A Reason To Buy... And Makes $19k In 10 Hours

from the that's-the-way-to-do-it dept

We keep talking about artists who are connecting with fans, and giving them a reason to buy, and it seems like every day we hear of more and more new and creative ways that artists are doing this -- even as the naysayers stop by daily to insist it's impossible for such things to scale. It's a blast to see it scale more and more every day and prove them wrong. The latest example comes from Amanda Palmer -- who we've written about a few times before. She's the singer who has been fighting with her major record label (Warner Music's Roadrunner) for not just being a pain to deal with, but for making it harder for her to both connect with fans and give them reasons to buy. For example, she got caught in Warner's stubborn decision to fight YouTube over payments, and had all her videos taken down from YouTube against her wishes. So, at a concert, she told fans to upload the video to YouTube as she sang a song begging her label to drop her.

But, even as she's stuck on the major label, she's shown that by connecting with fans and giving them a reason to buy, they absolutely will support her. Back in April, we wrote about how she got her fans to help support the backup dancers on the tour, since they had no money to pay them, but the fans came through with money/food/lodging.

However, now she's going much further, much of it using Twitter to closely connect with fans. She recently explained three separate experiments, all done on a whim this month, which allowed her to bring in $19,000, and all of which show those same basic characteristics: connect with fans and give them a reason to buy. The story is so good that I ended up including the whole thing, because it's too good not to read -- but check out Amanda's site directly.

this story has just been blowing people’s minds so i figures i should write it down.

1.
FRIDAY NIGHT LOSERS T-SHIRT, $11,000

about a month ago, i was at home on a friday night (loser that i often am when i’m not touring, i almost never go out) and was, of course, on my mac, shifting between emails, links and occasionally doing some dishes and packing for a trip the next day. just a usual friday-night-rock-star-multi-tasking extravaganza.

i twitter whenever i’m online, i love the way it gives me a direct line of communication with my fans and friends.

i had already seen the power of twitter while touring…using twitter i’d gathered crowds of sometimes 200 fans with a DAY’S notice to come out and meet me in public spaces (parks, mostly) where i would play ukulele, sign, hug, take pictures, eat cake, and generally hang out and connect. this was especially helpful in the cities where we’d been unable to book all-ages gigs and there were crushed teenagers who were really grateful to have a shot at connecting with me & the community of amanda/dolls fans.

i’d also been using twitter to organize ACTUAL last-minute gigs…i twittered a secret gig in LA one morning and about 350 folks showed up 5 hours later at a warehouse space….i played piano, filmed by current.tv, and then (different camera crew) did an interview with afterellen.com.
the important thing to undertsand here is that the fans were never part of the plan..,i basically just INVITED my fans to a press day, the press didnt’ plan it…i did.
i was going to be playing in an empty room and doing q&a with afterellen on a coach with only the camera watching.
it was like….why not tell people and do this in a warehouse instead of a hotel lobby or a blank studio? so i did.

it cost me almost nothing. the fans were psyched.

but back to the bigger, cooler story….

so there i am, alone on friday night and i make a joke on twitter (which goes out to whichever of my 30,000 followers are online):

“i hereby call THE LOSERS OF FRIDAY NIGHT ON THEIR COMPUTERS to ORDER, motherfucker.”
9:15 PM May 15th from web

one thing led to another, and the next thing you know there were thousands of us and we’d become the #1 topic trend on twitter.
zoe keating described it as a “virtual flash mob”.

the way twitter works (if you don’t have it) is that certain topics can include a hashtag (#) and if a gazillion people start making posts that include that hashtag, the topic will zoom up the charts of what people are currently discussing. it’s a cool feature.

so anyway, there we were, virtually hanging out on twitter on a friday night. very pleased with ourselves for being such a large group, and cracking jokes.

how do you “hang out” on the internet? well, we collectively came up with a list of things that the government should do for us (free government-issued sweatpants, pizza and ponies, no tax on coffee), AND created a t-shirt.
thank god my web guy sean was awake and being a loser with me on friday night because he throw up the webpage WHILE we were having our twitter party and people started ordering the shirts - that i designed in SHARPIE in realtime) and a slogan that someone suggested: “DON’T STAND UP FOR WHAT’S RIGHT, STAY IN FOR WHAT’S WRONG”. neil gaiman and wil wheaton joined our party. the fdnas felt super-special.

by the end of the night, we’d sold 200 shirts off the quickie site (paypal only) that sean had set up.
i blogged the whole story the next day and in total, in the matter of a few days, we sold over 400 shirts, for $25/ea.

we ended up grossing OVER $11,000 on the shirts.
my assistant beth had the shirts printed up ASAP and mailed them from her apartment.

total made on twitter in two hours = $11,000.
total made from my huge-ass ben-folds produced-major-label solo album this year = $0

2.
WEBCAST AUCTION, $6000

a few nights after that, i blogged and twittered, announcing a “webcast auction” from my apartment.
it went from 6 pm - 9 pm, my assitant beth sat at my side and kept her eyes on incoming bids and twitter feed.
while we hocked weird goods, i sang songs and answered questions from fans. we wore kimonos and drank wine. it was a blast.

people on twitter who were tuned in re-tweeted to other fans. the word spread that it was a fun place to be and watch.
we had, at peak, about 2000 people watching the webcast.

at the suggestion of a fan early in the webcastm anyone could, on demand, send us $20 via paypal and we would chew,
sign and mail them a postcard. we sold about 70, and we read all those names at the end of the webcast and thanked those
people for supporting us. here’s how the sales broke down:

all the items were signed by moi and hand-packed by beth and kayla._ the items and highest bidders were as follows:_ hilary, ukulele used on the european tour: $640 _jake, “guitar hero” plastic guitar controller used in album promo shoot: $250_ lary b, copy neo2 magazine, plus two post-war trade slap-bracelets & a crime-photo set: $230_ devi, glass dildo, with subtley-sordid backstory: $560 _liz b., “hipsters ruin everything” t-shirt, made by blake (get your very own here!!!!): $155.55_shannon m., my bill bryson book, a short history of neary everything: $280_ nikki, huge metal “the establishment” sign, used at rothbury festival for the circus tent i curated: $450 _j.r., purple velvet “A” dress used in the dresden dolls coin-operated boy video shoot: $400_ jessie & alan: who killed amanda palmer vinyl: $100_ nikki: wine bottle, auctioned BY REQUEST!!! $320 _shannon w., torn-to-shit vintage stockings used in the who killed amanda palmer/ michael pope video series: $200 _jodi,
school-note-book break-up letter, written to amanda from jonas woolverton in 7th grade (i still haven’t emailed him about that….): $250_ daryl, ANOTHER wine bottle, by request, that we had LYING AROUND: $320
and…………..
reto emailed, having barely missed the wine bottle, and asked us to send him “something funny” for $129.99. we sent a heath ledger statuette.

total made on twitter in 3 hours, including the postcards, was over $6000.
again, total made on my major-label solo album this year: $0

3.
TWITTER DONATION-ONLY GIG, $1800

a few days later, i twittered a guest-list only event in a recording studio in boston, to take place a week later.
the gig lasted about 5 hours, all told, with soundcheck and signing. i took mostly requests and we had a grand old time.
first come, first served. the first 200 people to ask got in, for free. i asked for donations and made about $2200 in cash.
i gave $400 back to the studio for the space and the help. we sold some weird merch. i think we should call it an even 2k.

total made at last-minute secret twitter gig, in about 5 hours = $2000
major-label record blah blah blah = $0

…..and for fun, and to thank my fans for being awesome, i’ve been doing some twitter perfomance art, including answering their questions by magic-markering my body until it’s covered, and displaying time-lapse make-up application advice….but that’s another story.

TOTAL MADE THIS MONTH USING TWITTER = $19,000
TOTAL MADE FROM 30,000 RECORD SALES = ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.

turn on, tune in, get dropped!!!!!

love,
amanda fucking palmer
http://www.amandapalmer.net
http://www.dresdendolls.com

There are so many different examples buried in there of both connecting with fans and giving them a reason to buy, it's worth reading multiple times. So, go on, naysayers in the comments. Point out, yet again, why this is the exception, and explain why other artists can never do their own creative means of connecting with fans and giving them a reason to buy. We'll chuckle, and watch as more and more figure it out.

Filed Under: amanda palmer, connect with fans, reason to buy

Magazines Giving Readers A Real Reason To Buy

from the very-cool dept

While most of the coverage of the old school paper media industry struggling to update their business models has focused on newspapers, there are lots of questions around the magazine industry as well. Magazines are losing ad revenue and trying to reinvent themselves to retain readers. Some are giving up and shutting down completely. However, I've seen a few stories lately pointing to smaller, less well known magazines that are really doing some unique things to give readers a real reason to buy, rather than trying to force them to buy. The first comes courtesy of Surinder, who points us to a story about Monocle magazine, who has focused on a strategy of giving readers a real reason to buy:

There are, on this type of thinking, two kinds of reader: fans and the indifferent. Monocle's strategy is to find fans and then, boy, make money out of them. So, if you missed an issue, back issues cost double - because in the end it is only completists, eyeing an irritating lacuna on the bathroom shelf, who will want to buy. And they might as well pay up.

There are Monocle accessories - bags, pens and Lord knows what else - to buy and of course it is the fans that do, as they rather like being some sort of trans-national club, who fancy flying for a holiday in Costa Rica/Brunei/South Africa. And if you missed them in the magazine, you can head down to a Monocle shop. There is one off Marylebone High Street in London, with others in Los Angeles, or in Mallorca this summer, on the off chance that you happen to be in those locations at the crucial time.

Now, some readers may snort with derision at this point. After all, it would not be hard for more demotic types to describe Monocle as pretentious, although this is in fact unfair. But it does not matter; if there are enough fans you can make good money from them, a strategy that never did Madonna much harm. The snorters - a majority for any publication if you think about it - are irrelevant.

Then, the Wall Street Journal covered five different magazines that are all coming up with creative ways to add value and give fans a reason to buy. Some of them are incredibly creative, often turning the "magazine" into a piece of artwork itself (i.e., something you want to posses and own, not something you read and toss out). For example, there's T-Post -- a magazine built into a t-shirt:

It's the magazine you can wear.

Every six weeks, T-Post sends its 2,500 subscribers a new T-shirt: It has a true story printed on the inside, chosen to make readers think, while on the outside an artist interprets the story to create a stylishly unique piece of graphic clothing. The idea behind the magazine is that each design will provoke onlookers to comment -- and give the owner of the T-shirt the opportunity to spread the story printed on the inside.

Other magazines include one where every issue is round and comes inside a designer frisbee, another where the magazine is made of unique and unusual materials (the latest one is "a book of black-and-white photographs that turn to color when exposed to the sun." Then there are magazines that blur the lines between magazines and objects, such as La Mas Bella and La Lata, which comes in a can you have to pry open.

While a lot of these are (not surprisingly) art magazines, that doesn't mean non-art magazines can't take a lesson from this: provide something worth keeping that creates a real reason to buy.

Filed Under: business models, magazines, reason to buy

Giving People A Reason To Buy: Make Buying Fun

from the what-a-concept dept

One of the key points in talking about giving people a real reason to buy is to make it an experience where people want to pay the prices that you're offering. In fact, one of the best to do this has been Josh Freese -- who set up a variety of hilarious options on what people could pay him for additional value beyond his latest album, causing the $250 option to sell out quickly -- and the $20,000 option to sell out as well (there was only one, but still... someone paid $20,000 for it). $20,000 is a lot, even for getting the following:

• Signed CD/DVD and digital download.
• T-shirt
• A signed DW Snare from the 2008 Nine Inch Nails tour.
• Maynard James Keenan, Mark Mothersbaugh from DEVO and I take you miniature golfing and then drop you off on the side of the freeway (all filmed and posted on youtube of course).
• I give you a tour of Long Beach. I'll show ya my first apartment, the coffee shop on 2nd St where my buddy paid Dave Grohl $40 to rip up some tile just weeks before he joined "Nirvana". I'll show you all my old stomping grounds....the Vandals old rehearsal spot, the house Quackenbush and I use to rent, where to go for the best tacos, Snoop Dogg's high school, etc.... for an extra 50 bucks I'll show you where Adrian and Tom from "No Doubt" live. For another $25 I'll throw in Brooks from Bad Religion and Eric from NOFX's houses too! We then spend the night at the Queen Mary and take the "Ghost Tour" (seperate rooms of course.....no spooning).
• I write 2 songs about you (or if you want 1 can be about you and the other one can be about whatever or whomever you'd like) and it goes on my next record (you can sing back up on them, clap, play the drums, triangle solo...whatever you want).
• Drum lesson OR foot and back massage (once again.....couples welcome).
• Pick any 3 items out of my closet.

But, still, the whole thing is fun, and that's a big part of the reason why people find it worth buying. There have even been rumors that some bands are looking at buying the $75,000 option, which would get them lots of attention, and include options like Freese playing on tour with them for a month and recording an entire EP about whatever they want.

But, of course, it's not just in the music business where this works. Reader William Jackson writes in to point to an interesting article of a guy noting that making buying fun works in a range of industries, from software to t-shirts. He describes the process of buying a t-shirt at the T-Shirt Deli, a t-shirt shop that is set up just like a deli, and makes the process of buying a t-shirt like the process of buying a sandwich -- including handing you the final product wrapped up in wax paper with stickers... and including a bag of chips as well.

So, if you're looking for ways to give people a reason to buy -- a good place to start is to make buying your product fun.

Filed Under: fun, josh freese, reason to buy, t-shirts
Companies: t-shirt deli

Shaking, Rumbling Movie Chair Puts You In The Driver's Seat

from the zero-to-sixty dept

With 2009 showing very strong ticket sales, the movie industry seems to be doing a good job of giving people, who are perhaps looking for a bit of escapism, a reason to get out of their houses. Furthermore, IMAX and 3D continue to boost ticket sales and draw huge lines for movies like Monsters vs. Aliens. Fast & Furious rumbled onto the big screen this past weekend, generating $72.5 million in ticket sales in three days, already earning more than the previous installment of the series, The Fast & the Furious: Tokyo Drift. At Mann's Chinese Theater in Hollywood, movie-goers have yet another reason to check out the film on the big screen. The theater is equipped with 15 computerized movie seats that move, shake, tilt, and rumble to match the action on-screen. As a result, viewers are immersed more fully in the film, an experience not easily reproduced at home for which the Chinese (and one other theater in Arizona) are charging an extra $5 per ticket. We've said this many times before, but maybe the movie theaters are finally starting to understand the concept that it's the experience, not just the content, that gives people a reason to go out to see movies at the theaters.

Filed Under: fast & furious, movies, reason to buy, theaters

Topspin Shows That Premium Offerings Get Sales: People Will Pay For Value Beyond The Music

from the a-reason-to-buy dept

It's really been great over the past year or so to see more and more bands adopting business models that involve tiered "premium" options that add real value for fans -- the key to creating a real reason to buy, as discussed in my MidemNet presentation a couple months ago. We've seen all different variations on the tiered theme from Trent Reznor to Kristin Hersh to Jill Sobule to John Wesley Harding and many others. Personally, I still think that the most creative of the bunch is Josh Freese's tiers that go from just fun to ridiculous (one option lets you keep his car -- after you drop him off at home).

One of the companies that's doing a good job helping some musicians make this model work is TopSpin, who we've discussed before. In fact, TopSpin has helped Reznor and Freese with their offerings (as well as the Beastie Boys, who recently launched something similar, as well). With TopSpin's platform coming out of beta this week, the company has released some data on its success so far, and it's impressive -- especially for those of you who keep insisting that fans these days just want music for free and are unwilling to pay for anything.

• Its campaigns have certainly helped bands grow their audience and improved ways to connect with fans. One of its first major projects was the release of David Byrne's latest album, and it increased his email list by 3000%. (Update: Originally we said 37%, but that was wrong. It's actually 30x, or 3000% as per Topspin).
• The various projects have shown that people are quite willing to pay if they're provided with real value and given a real (rather than artificial) reason to buy. The average transaction price is $22 -- significantly more than what people are paying for "just the music" and even more than what an average CD costs.
• Perhaps the most appealing stat: on a recent project 84% of the orders were premium offers above the lowest tier. People will pay more for being given real value, rather than just being forced to pay for the music.

This is great news. Unfortunately, TopSpin is still rather limited right now to bigger name artists (they pick and choose who they work with). I think the world is open for another player to come in and disrupt the market by making such systems available for anyone. Also, in the various projects that TopSpin has run so far, I still think the pricing is a little off (Reznor's was the exception, and he only used TopSpin's backend, rather than its whole program). Also, it seems pretty rare for artists using TopSpin to offer a free option, which limits opportunity greatly (and drives folks to file sharing, rather than opening up a better relationship with those fans, and maybe gaining an email contact and the ability to create sales later). This is (I hope?) an issue from the musicians' side, rather than TopSpin's.

It's also worth noting that the company has also announced a program with Berklee College of Music to teach courses to musicians in how to leverage TopSpin for better business models. Hopefully at least some of that class will include an explanation of how using free as a part of your business model can extend it even further.

Filed Under: business models, music, platforms, premiums, reason to buy
Companies: topspin

Dr. Horrible Gives People A Reason To Buy The DVD

from the such-a-concept dept

One of the issues we regularly discuss around here when it comes to business models is the fact that anyone producing content needs to give consumers a real reason to actually buy something scarce. If it's just the same thing they can get elsewhere for free, there's not much incentive. It looks like Joss Whedon has taken at least some of that to heart. Earlier this year, Whedon got a lot of attention for the release of Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, an online three-part video musical. While it seemed like some of the attention paid to it was overblown (oh my! TV people can make videos on the internet just like regular people!), that shouldn't take away from the fact that the video, itself was really, really good.

From the beginning, the plan was always to then sell a DVD of the video, but some questioned if that would make sense, since the video was available for free online. Originally, the announced plan had been to only show the video online for free for a few short weeks, and then make people pay to see it -- but it looks like Whedon changed his mind on that one, as the video has stayed available. However, as Tom writes in to point out, it looks like Whedon and the others involved in the production have realized how to give people a reason to buy the DVD: by providing a ton of useful extras that even those who watched the original obsessively will find worthwhile to pay for. It includes behind the scenes stuff, and apparently a commentary track that is as amusing as the original video itself (and, apparently, includes new musical numbers). It's good to see folks realizing that to get people to buy stuff it helps to add value, not try to diminish it.

Filed Under: dr. horrible, dvd, joss whedon, reason to buy

Record Label Gives Fans A Reason To Buy

from the targeting-the-collectors dept

Yet another example of a small indie record label that actually understands the importance of giving fans a reason to buy, rather than just assuming that if they put out music, people should just buy. This example, sent in by reader Fitte Prins, involves a small heavy metal record label in Chicago that puts out a variety of limited edition vinyl records in beautiful packaging, with the idea of attracting collectors who like the vinyl artwork almost as much as the music itself. It certainly wouldn't work for all record labels, but it's a recognition that there's a lot more to offer than just the songs.

Filed Under: fans, music, reason to buy, record label, vinyl