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Another Sky Press Driving Neo-Patronage 92

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the can't-escape-the-please-donate-buttons dept.
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.'"
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Another Sky Press Driving Neo-Patronage More

Another Sky Press Driving Neo-Patronage

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  • Meh (Score:2)

    by daniil ( 775990 )
    Haven't you heard? Punk's dead.

  • Images of the text? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by courtarro ( 786894 ) on Wednesday June 14, 2006 @04:57PM (#15535132) Homepage
    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.

  • Update the tagline (Score:3, Funny)

    by mac123 ( 25118 ) on Wednesday June 14, 2006 @05:03PM (#15535162)
    Should be 'Welcome to Another...awww cr*p...the server's been slashdotted again'

  • This will be as good as shareware. (Score:5, Funny)

    by Neil Blender ( 555885 ) <neilblender@gmail.com> on Wednesday June 14, 2006 @05:05PM (#15535178)
    I think I sent someone $5 in 1994...no wait, I didn't.
    • Winzip's revenues in 2005 declined to a mere 22.7 million dollars. (http://www.forbes.com/strategies/2006/04/20/ipo- o utlook-corel-cx_sr_0421ipooutlook.html) This is from a program that has been freely available in uncrippled form for, um, forever. (I just got around to finally buying a copy this year -- I figured "I've been using it for like a decade now, its time I was honest about it"). There's a handful of shareware authors with six figure incomes (www.goodsol.com) and more than a few who made a ful

  • Wow! (Score:2)

    by Otter ( 3800 )
    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.

  • 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 (Score:5, Interesting)

    by dada21 ( 163177 ) * <adam.dada@gmail.com> on Wednesday June 14, 2006 @05:11PM (#15535210) Homepage Journal
    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.
    • After looking around on your site I found nothing that would be worth paying for, it just seems like a blog. Can you point me to some of your efforts that would usually be the sort that would need protecting such as the music/books etc. that you speak? I just can't find them to see whether the content that you've produced is the sort that people would generally want to copy. (if you get my meaning?)
    • Out of curiousity, have you ever had problems with things that other people have done with your work being erroneously attributed to you?
  • 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

  • Incomprehensible article titles, part XIX (Score:4, Interesting)

    by RobertB-DC ( 622190 ) * on Wednesday June 14, 2006 @05:22PM (#15535265) Homepage Journal
    "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.
  • And get someone that knows what fonts are hard to read.
  • 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 regu

    • Re:Chilling. (Score:2, Informative)

      by bitt3n ( 941736 )
      so would you refuse to read a paper that calls itself The Daily Dispatch because dispatch can mean homicide as well as message?
  • 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.
  • Is it my imagination or is there a grand total of one book on the entire website?
  • 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 fo

  • 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.

  • What happened to the previous Sky Press(es)?
  • 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 M
    • 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.

      Ahhh, human
  • 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.
  • 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...

  • 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.
  • 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.

  • 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

    • Funny addition to that: Henry Rollins says that the man most responsible for Straight Edge was actually Ted Nugent. Back before Henry, Ian, and their friends knew about punk, they would go to arena rock shows, and the Nuge was apparently the craziest rocker around at the time. To top it off, he swore that he didn't do drugs or drink, so the boys figure that if he could rock that hard without booze or drugs, then they didn't need to do them either.

      Tell me it's not at least a little funny to think of Ian Mac
      • Yeah, I remember reading a paragraph about that in Dance of Days. I think it's a great thing, really, because it means that Straight Edge is not a progressive or conservative thing.

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