Seth Godin has a great post
on how free is no longer a loss leader
for similar for-pay products,
and how some customers expect
certain products
(like music and books)
to be free.
“As the free-only cohort grows,
people start to feel foolish
when they pay for something
when the free substitute is easily available
and perhaps more convenient.
Think about that
–buying things now makes
some people feel foolish.
Few felt foolish buying
a Creedence album in the 1970s.
They felt good about it,
not stupid.
This new default to free
means that people with something to sell
are going to have to push ever harder
to invent things that can’t possibly
have a free substitute.
Patronage, live events,
membership, the benefits of connection
–all of these things are outside the scope
we used to associate with
the creative business model,
but that’s changing, fast.”
In the novel-writing world,
we haven’t yet figured out
what that invention is.
It could be advertising.
It could be clubs.
It could be… I don’t know.
If your product has
no incremental costs of production,
you should be thinking about this.
Hard.