Bait and Switch Authors

[Brayon]

So, I posted a status last night about a story I was recommended. A brief recap:

 

I'm developing a LitRPG story, that is gay-themed, and was told to check out this story on Nifty. I'll refrain from naming and shaming the Author, but he is prolific on that site and has his own website as well. The story in question on Nifty has 15 chapters, has no clear ending, and hasn't been updated in years on that site. There is a link at the bottom of each .html page to the Author's website. Well, I go to said website and lo' and behold, there is a chapter 16 for this story. I click on chapter 16, and WHAM!!!! Paywall. I click on Chapter 15 and look there's content. Checking other stories that the author has on his site, all of them has chapters hidden behind the paywall, and most of those stories, you can read the majority on "free sites."

 

That my friends is the definition of a Dick Move.

 

I get authors and websites having Premium content and normally would support such moves. If the whole story was behind the Paywall; like how GA does with its premium content. What I don't agree with is an Author that publishes for free 99% of a story, and locks the last 1% behind a paywall, to where you can not read the remainder of the story.

 

Bottom lining:

The whole Story behind Paywall = Fine, go for it.

Partial Story behind Paywall = Dick move, and you lost me as a reader.

 

What say you all?

[FormerMember4]

On a site like that... whole story should be posted. Author can provide mention that they have paid stories on their own website. They can also say they’re part of Patreon. I would cross author off list if I saw that.

I like the GA premium model. Provides monetary support for site. Exclusives for members. Ad free site. A platform for authors to highlight their skills.

[CassieQ]

I was reading a story somewhere, I think it was on AFF.net, that had all of the chapters up except the last one.  To get to the final chapter, which was the climax of the story, you had to have left a comment or a review on one of the previous chapters.  If you had, you got added to a mailing list where the last chapter got sent out.  

 

I had left a comment, so I got the last chapter, but MAN, people were hacked off about it.  

 

I have also seen where someone would post the first chapter of a story, and if you wanted the rest of it, it directed you to the author's ebook page on Amazon.  Where you also had to pay.  (I thought this was kind of okay.  I do the same thing in bookstores, read the first few pages to see if I'm into it.  If I am, I buy the book, if not, I put it back on the shelf).  

 

I have no problem with writers wanting to get paid for their work, but I think it matters a lot as to how you go about it.  Getting someone invested in your story only to cut them off at the last minute is not the way to do it.  

[Myr]

Well, this is why we have the solicitation rules that we have.  You have no idea how many people get the idea, "I'll post a few chapters on Gay Authors and then link to me eBook on Kindle for the rest."

On a similar vein to this is posting the story for free and then unpublishing it to sell it as an eBook.  We always get alerted to these because people make posts or support requests telling us a story went missing.  This drives me up a wall.  We've taken to actively telling people, if you are just going to post here and then remove it, don't post it.  People that do it, get added to the "No Promotion" list. People that do it a lot get added to the "Thanks for playing, the exit is over there" list.  We compromised a few times with authors and added their stories to Premium to be able to keep them on the site.  Some Publishers allow this option when someone subs a story out.  But if you are going to sub a story out, don't friggin post it publicly to begin with!

 

I've yet to come up with the best solution for all this.   In the meantime, the staff works to protect members and authors. 

 

 

 

[Timothy M.]

What if you write a story here which turns out to be a huge success, and then later someone suggests it should be published as an eBook? I'm not asking for me, because 1) it won't happen, and 2) even if it did, the reply would be No Thanks.  

 

But I can see how it could be a temptation to say yes. So, how would you like GA authors to react ? Should they contact you and Cia for the best way to go about it ? E.g. make it a condition for publishing that the story can stay as a GA Premium story. Or perhaps do the eBook on GA, so you have to be a (normal) member to see it, if the author would like to make a book, but selling for money is not important. Or are there no viable options ?

Edited May 19, 2018 by Timothy M.

[Myr]

You are able to make a post an eBook here for free.  If you self-publish directly, you can have free and pay versions. If you do Kindle Unlimited, they are exclusive.  If you go with a publisher, they are exclusive, usually.  Sometimes they allow for premium content exception.

 

If you are looking to make money with writing, I'd suggest you create a work for that purpose and not make it public.  How this could work with GA... well... If you have a body of work and are active on the site, you write and post stories A,B, and C and people like your work.  So you write Story D as an eBook and sell it.  If you then post another story E on site for free, you have lots of opportunities to keep writing and of course, mention Story D when people contact you or in your blog (According to the rules).   What happens though is that people get dollar signs in their eyes and run off to Amazon expecting to make a living.  Some can do this!  Most can't.  In their excitement to go off and do this, they set fire to the bridges that got them to where they are.  

 

I consider removing content from Gay Authors as setting fire to a bridge.  Nifty's policy is even more strict.  They won't remove a story unless you provide them with a promotion or a donation of like value.  I completely agree with the thought behind that.  Posting it online is meant to be for as long as the site stays up. 

 

That said, I'm always looking for ways to help authors.  We've made arrangements with plenty of authors using a lot of different methods.  At least when it's not a surprise.  When it is a surprise because of multiple Support Requests saying "Story B" is missing.  That has the effect of whacking a large hornets' nest with a bat.  And you'll reap what you sow.

 

At the end of the day, I want everyone to be successful.  I can't tell you the number of ebooks and even paperbacks I have bought from authors on this site to support them over the years.

[VampireMystic]

Free samples are ok. Excerpts are ok. 

( you can download the portion of the beginning of every Kindle book as a sample. It's usually the first chapter. I think I remember one that went part way through chapter 3. Kinda funny. Kept thinking it would stop.)

 

I would prefer to know ahead of time that I'm reading a sample. 

 

After a couple years of sorting out the artist parts of my life and finding ways to be successful at consistency...

 

(I am sorry I disappeared as a one-chapter wonder. Some day I'll talk about why.)

 

I want to go the "here's 3 years of work on GA with more coming, here's a complete original/free-standing novel on sale too" road

 

and "here's a re-edit of a complete novel length serial (Looking at 2011's Predators once it's actually done. *sigh*) expanded with new research, and extra chapters told from <lesser popular character>'s pov. Or bonus short or novella. 

 

Or something. 

 

Make it worth it for the reader.

 

I once read on Twitter Gabriel 1089 by C.C. Briggs was being made in a new edition. I own an older one. I messaged the author (cool) to ask how much was different. 

 

They (even cooler) answered. And didn't try to upsell the new version. I felt like I got an honest answer and I chose not to buy it. It's good though.

 

The Dresden Files audiobooks have almost exclusively been read by James Marsters. (Spyke on Buffy) The one exception was Ghost Story read by John Glover (Lex's dad on Smallville. Rich guy in Gremlins 2)

 

Names changed pronunciations, okay. But one character gained an Irish accent out of nowhere. James Marsters aside it's not in the books. 

 

Years later, when they remastered it with Marsters, I didn't even hear about it until I got an email from Audible. Jim Butcher and giving it to everyone who bought the John Glover version. 

 

I guess I'm saying there's a classy way to handle adding redos and such. 

 

When I put out something for pay I'll be doing it for the "hey! I'm published and someone bought it!" And maybe...

 

"Sweet! 56 dollars made from my book. I can afford X hours off work to write." Or "hey! Pizza the next couple writing binges so I don't have to stop. Yay!"

 

The thing with paid books is you pay once and know what you're getting. 

 

The thing that bugs me about Patreon is it's a commitment/investment with no guarantees. Sure, artists pledge monthly rewards but idk...

 

That said... if there was such a thing for writing. I'd invest in someone with 20+ years of  churning out content. *cough* @Comicality *cough*

 

Once hours are up at work and credit cards and loans are down. *ahem*

 

Which reminds me... I should put a reminder on my calendar about picking up gayauthors premium when the schedule changes.

 

And maybe I'll order pizza tonight anyway. There's writing to do. 

 

Hmm. TMI?

 

[Hudson Bartholomew]

I'm definitely not a fan of posting most of a story online and then asking readers to pay for the ending. it's disingenuous.

 

One of my parent's friends has a long history of working in direct marketing (also called multi-layer marketing or pyramid schemes, you know, when people try to sell their friends a bunch of stuff that usually doesn't work?). Anyway, this "friend" only comes calling when she has something new to sell. Then she'll be super friendly and nice. And because she's a friend, we all feel like we need to support her and spend tons of money buying stuff we don't need. Once she's made a sale, she disappears. 

 

Authors who use sites like GA solely for advertising purposes feels like this family friend. GA is not an advertising platform, it's a place for people to share stories, talk about stories, and form a community. To take advantage of that is wrong. And I say that as someone who has posted free stories on GA, and who is now also publishing ebooks. Yeah, I would love it if my GA readers bought my books, but I'm not going to hound them around the site until they do. If people want to buy my books, they'll reach out to me for the info themselves.