Another Sky Press Driving Neo-Patronage

avidreader writes "Another Sky Press is making a serious go of the neo-patronage / tip jar model — their tagline is 'Welcome to Another Sky Press. We want people to read our books even if they read them for free — though we'd love it if you bought a copy!' Not only are they putting the entire text of their releases online, but they're selling the dead tree versions at cost plus optional contribution. Their first release is garnering some great reviews - 'Intelligent fiction for the mentally unhinged.' According to their website, there are more projects in the works — everything from a short story anthology to a coloring book by artist Jesse Reno. They've also got interesting essays on why they're doing this and neo-patronage. They're even getting neo-patronage some mainstream attention — the Metro Times calls them '...more punk than the punks at Dischord Records.'"

Meh

Haven't you heard? Punk's dead.

Images of the text?

Er, it's nice that it's free, but can't we have a standard format available like HTML or PDF? It's a nuisance to read a book as fixed images.

Re:Images of the text?

Click a bit further then the homepage and you'll see: "A PDF version of Click will be available within a few days (for free)."

Re:Images of the text?

No worries, it is fixed in CVS.

Update the tagline

Should be 'Welcome to Another...awww cr*p...the server's been slashdotted again'

This will be as good as shareware.

I think I sent someone $5 in 1994...no wait, I didn't.

Wow!

Their first release is garnering some great reviews - 'Intelligent fiction for the mentally unhinged.'

Wow! That's pretty much what I got on my last employee evaluation, so you know it must be a hell of a book.

Hope it flys

I can always use more good reading material and would certainly donate if I felt the work was good.

Fiction authors deserve an "Open Source" solution of their own :D

Repudiate Copyright

I'm the founder of No Copyright Studios [nocopyrightstudios.com], a production company that repudiates legal copyright and everything that goes with the use of force.

We're currently in the process of signing bands, podcasters and other free market pro-freedom content creators to our "movement" which is nothing more than a new way to find ways to profit without using the law. We believe that the law creates cartels and monopoly markets that are nearly impossible to penetrate -- copyright is one of those legal manipulations that only helps the big boys and hurts the little guy.

I have created content for nearly 18 years and have NEVER used copyright to protect my work. I've written songs, books, blogs and newsletters and I openly advocate the copying of them (or what I call "Free Marketing" for me). I even let people drop my name if they wish, but I warn them that if I catch them I'll publicly embarass them for putting their own name on it.

Once you create something that is easily mimiced or duplicated, there is NOTHING you can do to protect yourself. Copyright laws? How will you fight in civil court? With what money? Why even embrace copyright when there are already ways to make money without it. I make money on my sites, on my music that I produce, and on the books (e- and printed) that I've created, and I openly admit that I don't use any protection on the content other than a moral obligation for my reader not to copy it.

I can't enforce the morals of others, other than public embarassment and humiliation. That is the best way to protect your content -- and it also opens up a huge audience of people who don't realize how much copyright frustrates them, once they realize that copyright doesn't protect anyone but the largest content distribution cartels.

Coral Cache

http://www.anothersky.org.nyud.net:8090/ [nyud.net]

the book is the thing of value to the reader

but the text is the thing of value to the author. Brave authors and publishers realise this, and allow access to the text of the book as a means of promoting the paper book (which people will readily pay for). My site http://www.astoryforbedtime.com/ [astoryforbedtime.com] works on this principal for books aimed at the pre-school audience, where the book with the pictures (and holes to poke fingers through etc.) is an essential part of the value of the book. I have permission from the publishers to allow anyone (yes that includes you . . .) to contribute an audio reading of the book, which I can distribute from the site for free. If folk want to see the pictures then they can click through to Amazon etc. and buy it (sales to date=$0.00, but it is more about sharing and promoting reading to kids than making money). Publishers of childrens picture books are very nice people, and very willing to accept innovative ways to promote reading, I was very surprised at how positively my site was viewed by the publishers.

Incomprehensible article titles, part XIX

"Another Sky Press Driving Neo-Patronage" -- yet another in the time-honored tradition of new-economy names colliding with old-school English grammar.

I first read it as "[Another Sky] [Press-Driving] [Neo-Patronage]", and wondered what "Press-Driving" meant -- would it be something similar to Astroturfing [wikipedia.org]?

Then I read it again, as "[(yet) Another] [Sky Press] [Driving Neo-Patronage]". A little closer to the true intent, but I wondered what a "Sky Press" is, and how many others are out there if this is just yet another one?

So I read the article -- crazy and dangerous, I know -- and found out that it's "[Another Sky Press] [Driving Neo-Patronage]". Ok, I get it now. Thanks.

Maybe they should charge just a penny more

And get someone that knows what fonts are hard to read.

Chilling.

The term "Neo-Patronage" is perhaps the most unintentionally revealing phrase since "Politically Correct." Just reading "Neo-Patronage" sends shivers up my spine.

I believe Miriam-Webster is instructive on this point:


One entry found for patronize.
Main Entry: patronize
Pronunciation: 'pA-tr&-"nIz, 'pa-
Function: transitive verb
Inflected Form(s): -ized; -izing
1 : to act as patron of : provide aid or support for
2 : to adopt an air of condescension toward : treat haughtily or coolly
3 : to be a frequent or regular customer or client of

If an artist CHOOSES to contribute his work under this "system," then fine.

But it boggles my mind why anyone would want to put himself in the position of a feudal serf. I would rather give my work away freely or to sell it at a fair price.

a similar idea, for those who want guaranteed $

Writer obtains a following through free distribution. Writer wants to make money with future works. Having written a new work, writer freely distributes samples of this work. Writer then sets a contribution bounty, for fair compensation of his time and effort. Once the set amount is reached, the work is then released for free distribution.

The only way to control the flow of copyrighted information (intrusive law enforcement and DRM notwithstanding) is to not distribute in the first place.

One Book?

Is it my imagination or is there a grand total of one book on the entire website?

hope it works

I hope this works out well for them. Free books are going like gangbusters in nonfiction, especially math, science, and computers (see my sig for a catalog), but they haven't really come into their own in the world of fiction. It's true that Baen makes some of their science fiction titles available online for free, and so does Cory Doctorow, but that's about it, as far as I know. I think the real problem is that when people are looking for some fiction to read, they either look for something they can get for free at the public library, or they walk into Barnes and Noble. It doesn't occur to them to look online. If you're trying to learn linear algebra, a google search or an external link in a Wikipedia article may actually lead you to a book that's free online, but that isn't going to work the same way with fiction.

I'm skeptical about their business model. I've sold my own free-as-in-speech physics books by mail order, handling my own orders myself, and it was a lot of work, and hard to do efficiently. They could just set up the book for sale on lulu, set their royalty rate to zero, and get almost the same price, and then lulu would handle all the mechanics of charging the customer and filling the orders. Of course, it's possible that a lot of people will choose to donate significantly more than $0, but the utter failure of the shareware scene doesn't make me very optimistic about that. I'd love it if they could prove me wrong, though.

wow -- good filters, I've got

so the nice big picture on tipjar.com these days really doesn't
symbolize a grand re-opening and powering up the vault server again
but that day will come, hopefully this year.

I look at slashdot every few months and hey presto "Neo-Patronage"
is the new buzzword for what we called "Online Busking" a decade ago.

I look forward to attempting to integrate this publisher into the
tipjar empire. Got to get the empire's tendrils a little farther
than the entrepreneur's own kitchen first.

Thanks for your support.

ANOTHER one?

What happened to the previous Sky Press(es)?

Neo-Patronage - too nice for the real world

Sky Press defines Neo-Patronage as, "an honor/trust based system of financial support for an artist that comes from the artist's collective audience, rather than a single individual or organization. The sum of all patron contributions becomes the means and incentive for the artist to continue his or her work."

I think they have the same problem that the MAFIAA has (love that name for the copyright cartels, which I just recently saw here on ./) - they are both denying fundamental aspects of human nature.

The MAFIAA want to deny the fundamental urge of people to "share cool stuff" - and that the internet makes sharing so easy and so ridiculously cheap that everyone can share.

Sky Press are denying both the fundamental urge of people to "get stuff for free" and to "get good value for their money."

Sky Press appears to believe that art, or ultimately content of any sort, should be a charitable action. The artist gives away the fruits of his labor with no strings attached and the audience gives money to the artist with no strings attached.

I just don't see that working beyond very small, fairly insular, niches. I believe that ultimately such a model will result in a "neo-tragedy-of-the-commons" where lots of people take copies of the artist's work, but all, or almost all, will rely on "the other guy" to give money in support of the artists further work. Ultimately there won't be enough "other guys" to make the effort worthwhile - that's simply human nature - people don't like to pay for something they've already received for free.

Sky Press criticizes the original system of patronage for exercising too much control over the artist's work. If you believe that art has no measurable value, then Sky Press would be right. But as long as an artist expects to be able to support himself through his works, then they need to have value to someone who is willing to pay him for the creation of those works.

That is not to say that an artist must fully obey the wishes of his audience - but he must at least take direction from the audience as to what projects he should undertake if he wants a reasonable expectation of getting paid. That's human nature -- few people can afford, and even less can accept the concept of simply giving away money to someone because he might or might not create something that might or might not be reasonably entertaining.

In what way isn't this article just an ad?

Yes, I know this will get modded into trollsville, but I can see no reason whatsoever for this posting. It is simply an ad, complete with blurbs.

More 'neo patronage'

Well, okay. Here's my contribution to 'neo patronage'/'online busking':

http://www.ixenfor.com/ [ixenfor.com]

Axiom - a free, experimental fantasy novel set within a unique Bronze Age world.

PDF and HTML formats available. Low bandwidth site...

Damn, everything reads like spam these days...

Tipping gets reinvented yet again...

I've been doing this for years on one of my sites, with great success. Here's an article I wrote back in Y2K on how
it works..

http://tipping.selfpromotion.com/ [selfpromotion.com]

Their twist for dead-tree pricing, cost+the tip, is a nice refinement. It'll be interesting to see how it works out.

Baen Books have a better plan

Have you tried their Free Library [baen.com] or one of their copyable book CDs yet?

HTML and a variety of other common document formats, and the right to copy sans only the right to sell your copies. Oh, yes, an addiction warning: great authors and many great stories are provided.

Friendly footnote

Dischord Records [dischord.com] is the label started by Ian MacKaye [wikipedia.org] in Washington DC. Ian MacKaye was/is the central figure in three DC hardcore bands: The Teen Idles [wikipedia.org], Minor Threat [wikipedia.org], and Fugazi [wikipedia.org]. Bad Brains [wikipedia.org] and Minor Threat essentially created the DC hardcore punk scene in the mid-eighties. MacKaye is also the creator of the Straight Edge philosophy [wikipedia.org], which he developed in several Minor Threat songs: "Straight Edge", "Bottled Violence", "In My Eyes", and "Out of Step (with the world)", for example. Dischord Records was started so that punk bands could release albums at a very low cost and not have to deal with big corporate labels.

Anyone interested in the DC punk scene ought to check out Dance of Days [akashicbooks.com] which chronicles the development of DC punk.

Re:Distribution....

Not only might they not have enough money to distribute, but I can't see them doing decent typsetting either. The new publishing firms like iUniverse, essentially vanity press, will print your book, but don't spend any time actually making it look professional since that threatens profit. As an example, I recently picked up Solar Labyrinth [amazon.com] , Robert Borski's kookish commentary on the writings of Gene Wolfe, and the book was so obviously done in a second-rate word-processor without even the slightest effort to emulate the standards of real typesetting engines. From what I've seen, Another Sky Press doesn't even have things like hyphenation.

It really sucks that in the era of TeX [tex.ac.uk], when the finest typesetting of the pre-computer golden age can be had again, publishing houses are getting even worse in making their products readable and easy on the eye.

Re:Distribution....

It's the eBay model: the book is (nearly) free, but the shipping and handling costs $24.95.