Yesterday, quite by chance, I came across a blog article that someone had posted about me, or more specfically about "I want a word".
That somebody was a Texan by the name of Mark, also an aspiring author and also with his own community writing project designed to further his career. His project is called Plotastic! and he is looking for people to take a survey that he's set up, in which you get the chance to vote on various aspects of his novel-to-be. It's definitely a good idea and, from the sounds of Mark's blog, it has been generally well received. In fact, he has now had over 100 responses (he's aiming for 1,000).
Mark also gave his own opinions on "I want a word", which I'm pleased to report were generally supportive. However, he did also raise his concerns about the project. Now, that might not be something you would expect me to be happy about, but in fact I am. It's good to see these things from an outside perspective, and if Mark's got some concerns, then it follows that my potential contributors might share those concerns, and this gives me a chance to address them. So, here's what Mark had to say:
- "Pay-to-play: Chris asks each contributor to pay one pound (nearly two American dollars) just to make their contribution. His reasoning for this is that he needs to support himself while writing. Well, I need to support myself, too...plus my wife and two kids. So I have a full-time job. That means I'll write in my spare time. I don't like the idea of asking your contributors to pay for your time. And I don't think a lot of possible contributors care to pay, either. We'll see."
Personally, I think that every time you buy a novel you are paying the author for their time. Admittedly, in that case you already know that the novel is of a high enough standard to have made it into a shop, so it is perhaps a bit less of a gamble. However, the price is considerably higher (amazon seems to suggest that the standard RRP for a paperback novel is around £7.99) and you don't get the chance to contribute to the novel yourself.
I should also add that supporting myself is only part of the reason that I am charging a fee for word submission. The other is that I think it will encourage people to think harder about their choice of word. If people didn't have to pay there would be much more of a temptation to just stick in the first word that you thought of. By charging £1 per word, I hope that I will encourage people to think carefully about the word they submit. In the long run I hope that will lead to a better, more interesting book. - "Inviting trouble: If you take a look at the words so far you will see that Chris is inviting a lot of trouble. By making the contributors' submissions entirely open-ended, he is just asking for it. I prefer to set the parameters myself, and then let others choose their favorite result."
This is definitely a valid point: some of the words that are coming in are very obscure, which is going to make life difficult. However, I think it also makes the project more exciting: at this stage I genuinely have no idea what I will write about. And it gives contirbutors more freedom to express themselves in the way that they want. My aim is "one book, ten thousand authors" and I think if I'm to achieve that goal, I have to let contributors have as much freedom as possible. - "A daunting goal: I thought 1,000 contributors was going to be tough. I can't imagine how difficult it will be to attract 10,000 contributors. And at two dollars a pop!"
Again, a fair comment; it is going to be difficult to get 10,000 people to contribute to the project. However, I'm optimistic that there are people out there who will see this as a genuine chance to part of something new and orignal, something worthwhile and to which they can make a real and lasting contribution.
Ok, so that's what I have to say in response to Mark's concerns. I'd love to know what anyone things about those concerns and/or my responses, so feel free to leave a comment.
In the meantime, I'd like to wish Mark all the best with Plotastic!: I hope that it's a big success, and that we'll meet someday as published authors.
Take care, and I hope you're thinking of your word!
Chris
http://www.iwantaword.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment