I have a thought, and I am curious about getting input from other writers (and readers) here. Let's say as an author that I write a Christian-themed fantasy novel. After a lot of effort, and a lot of editing (with the help of others), what most people would consider to be the next step would be to either trying to find a publisher, or self-publishing through one of the many outlets.

However, consider this option. What if I were to publish the work in such a way so that it is available freely online. I make a website that hosts the work, and also freely make it available in pdf, epub, ereader, etc. formats for people to download. I charge nothing. I also make it available for print through some medium like CreateSpace, but price it so that I receive zero royalties (for those who prefer to have a print version). Also, the website that I host it on will receive no advertising revenue.

The only thing that I would do is give people the option to donate money freely through PayPal (or something like it) if they feel that the book held any value to them. They are under no obligation, and no matter what they choose, the novel will always be freely available to them.

In this way, I would be totally reliant on God for any monetary gifts I receive from readers. I would be getting my work out there, and I would likely do a lot of self-promoting on the Internet and via other means, but beyond that I would rely on Him. Of course, I would still have my day job so it's not like I would be relying on gifts to feed my family.

Thoughts/comments?

Sounds to me like it'd work fine! It's actually something I've looked at in the past. Eric Flint and Baen Books have a similar idea going on...might want to check that out =) It would be cool to assemble some sort of website that pulled together various freely available books into one place =)

Andrew

I had forgotten about that site. I remember reading the "Honor Harrington" series by David Weber many years ago and that several of the books at the time were available for free online. I recall thinking it was odd at the time.

After a brief look at their site, I don't know if it is what I would want (or if it would just be better to do it myself and focus on a Christian theme), but I will certainly keep it in mind. Thanks!

If anyone else has any thoughts/comments, I would love to hear them.

Hmm... this is a very interesting idea. I quite like it, actually. I think though, that if one were to do this, their writing and/or story would have to be exceptional for their readers to be willing to donate. That way it would prove to the readers a story this good would generally be one they would have to pay for.

But yes, definitely a cool idea! I think I might give it some more thought.

An idea like this definitely has merit. Technically it's the same as self-publishing, except that you're not selling your work. You would still need to do the same marketing and promotional stuff you'd do if you were selling it if you want to gain the attention and respect of your readership. You'd need to make it clear that you're giving it away for other reasons than just trying to get people to read it because it's not good enough to publish. You need to be at the point where you could sell it, but chose not to.

Making one of their books available for free is something a lot of professional writers do, so it's a proven marketing tactic. It is a good way to get people to read your book, if you present yourself well and spread the word sufficiently.

As for relying on the Lord for donations... That, to me, seems like a personal and spiritual issue. I have my first novella available for free as an audio book, but I do it for promotion. I want people to be able to try a book of mine for free, to encourage them to buy future novels. I don't have a way to donate set up, because that's not my goal. As such, the way I present the free book is different.

To me, it sounds like you would be setting a different tone, by emphasizing that you're making this available for free because you want the profits to be donation-driven. I think such an approach has potential amongst the Christian market, but ultimately it's a decision that needs to be made between you and the Lord.

The Baen Free Library is Baen Books' "putting its money where its mouth is" on the question of whether letting people read some of your work for free is inherently bad for business. (The introduction/manifesto is fascinating reading.) But the rest of their model---sell eARCs (electronic advance reader's copies) at a premium, then ebooks (in a variety of non-DRMed formats) at a price proportional to the cover price of the cheapest edition it sells (i.e. the hardcover, then later the paperback), then in a ($6, I think) bundle with a bunch of other novels from the backlog---is quite interesting, and I wonder if a Christian publisher could make it work.

Like my dad always says: "If it's free, it's for me!"
I love free stuff, free books especially. I would be about one hundred times more willing to read a book if it didn't cost me anything.

So publishing this way would be a wonderful way to promote your work. If it were really good, readers would eagerly tell their friends about it, and their friends would eagerly read it because it was free. You could gather a large readership in no time.

Good idea!

Just playing devil's advocate here, but we're all totally reliant on God for monetary gifts, so don't feel like it is more righteous to give your stuff away for free than to sell it. If God has led you to do that, then fine, but nobody is going to look at you funny for trying to sell your work.

It is in the extreme rare cases when self-published authors can reach large amounts of readers. You don't have to be greedy to want this, but isn't that the goal of writing, to show as many people as we can what we feel should be read? More so, if this book illustrates Christian themes to a genre dominated in secular and anti-Christian viewpoints, then shouldn't you want it to reach the masses? I say all this to ask, if this book and series takes off, and a Christian publisher wants to buy it, will your model still work? I doubt they would be willing to advertise, shelf, etc for free, or by promise of you giving the donations to them. What's your end goal here? Starting out with free content is good advertising, but I believe more people will read it if they have to invest in some way at least down the road with book two, three, etc.

Just my thoughts. Take them as you will. I am not trying to discourage you from following God's will as he's impressed upon your spirit.

@Kingjon: Their entire model isn't exactly standard fare from publishing - maybe HW Publishing could work something out with this sort of model as well.

Andrew

Right. Baen seems to run counter to the way the rest of the industry works; their model makes a lot of sense to me (treat your readers like reasonable people, make it easy for them to buy your books in a format they can read, accomodate them if they want to pay a premium to read a book even before it's been through the last edits, and so on), and so is one I'd certainly recommend looking at if HW sprouted a publishing arm. The Baen Free Library is a related, orthogonal, but separate matter, and is along the lines of a "loss leader" (for the most part they deliberately only offer the first volume or two of a series in the Library, and only at least a few years after it came out, and most of the books offered are by authors who wouldn't suffer too badly even if all sales of those titles dried up completely) but again is something I'd like to see be considered by other publishers.

Another example (not from book publishing ...) that's perhaps more relevant to the question that started this thread is the musician Keith Green, who (if I remember the story correctly) eventually started his own label and (as a matter of conscience) offered to refund the price of an album to any purchaser who couldn't really afford it. (But this was after he had become very successful; in the biographical movie I saw---years ago---his producer at his former label said that when he asked to be let out of his contract, he was their most popular artist at the time.)

Anyway ...