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Grasping at straw polls.
Jun. 23rd, 2009 05:25 pmJust saw a beautiful Twitter post from Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself), that went like this:
Sadly, I'm afraid my Twit-Fu is still too weak for me to know how to link to an individual post. To explain the context of it, though, Neil was himself filmed while reading aloud from his novel The Graveyard Book as he went around the country promoting it. Those recordings are already available online for free. Neil put the question to the internet: would teachers rather have a DVD available than have to rely on the website to play the readings for their classes? He asked them to reply using the tag "#TGBDVD" (The Graveyard Book DVD) so that the answers could be tracked.
I know more people than teachers would be interested in that DVD, but that's apparently the primary market it would be aimed at.
So, five hours after he put the question to the internet, he announces that not only have people overwhelmingly asked for a DVD, but that the publishers have "changed their minds" about putting one together.
I don't know all the backstory here, but reading between the lines it's pretty obvious that the Harper Childrens didn't think the demand would justify it. It's anybody's guess why. If I had someone giving me odds, I'd lay money that the old chestnut "We can't expect anyone to turn around and buy it when you just got done giving it away for free!" to have reared its head, though I'd also lay odds that the existence of a free recording of the book in its entirety have not hurt sales of the printed book or any audiobook edition. The fact that an author reading a novel aloud in its entirety as a video is kind of a novelty also might have played into it.
Then Neil asks the internet if they want the DVD and the internet says, "YES! PLEASE!"
This is evidence of a couple of things.
One, it's an obvious refutation of the "people won't pay money for what they can get for free" canard that causes so much distraction for media companies trying to figure out how to use the internet... or even coexist with it.
Two, it's a further erosion of the idea of "gatekeeping" as a necessary function of the publishing companies. This is actually a good thing for everyone involved, companies and consumers and creators. The companies don't have to guess as much about these sorts of things any more. Creators don't have to depend on those guesses, don't have to see their own choices second-guessed by corporate prognosticators when they go right to the source. Customers get what they want.
Of course, any companies that are far too invested in their positions as the great golden guardians of culture, the arbiters of What People Really Want, are going to fall behind as they miss out on opportunities like the one that Neil's Twitter poll revealed, while those that are responsive will make out like bandits.
As I've said before, it will be interesting to see what kind of interest Cat Valente's Fairyland novel attracts from publishers. It's going to come with its own hype, it's going to be coming to the market with a bigger "test audience" than most books... it'll be interesting to see who recognizes the potential on their own and who needs something like a Twitter test.
Thanks for all the #TGBDVD replies. Looks like97% of teachers would like DVDs and Harper Childrens just changed their mind on not doing it.
Sadly, I'm afraid my Twit-Fu is still too weak for me to know how to link to an individual post. To explain the context of it, though, Neil was himself filmed while reading aloud from his novel The Graveyard Book as he went around the country promoting it. Those recordings are already available online for free. Neil put the question to the internet: would teachers rather have a DVD available than have to rely on the website to play the readings for their classes? He asked them to reply using the tag "#TGBDVD" (The Graveyard Book DVD) so that the answers could be tracked.
I know more people than teachers would be interested in that DVD, but that's apparently the primary market it would be aimed at.
So, five hours after he put the question to the internet, he announces that not only have people overwhelmingly asked for a DVD, but that the publishers have "changed their minds" about putting one together.
I don't know all the backstory here, but reading between the lines it's pretty obvious that the Harper Childrens didn't think the demand would justify it. It's anybody's guess why. If I had someone giving me odds, I'd lay money that the old chestnut "We can't expect anyone to turn around and buy it when you just got done giving it away for free!" to have reared its head, though I'd also lay odds that the existence of a free recording of the book in its entirety have not hurt sales of the printed book or any audiobook edition. The fact that an author reading a novel aloud in its entirety as a video is kind of a novelty also might have played into it.
Then Neil asks the internet if they want the DVD and the internet says, "YES! PLEASE!"
This is evidence of a couple of things.
One, it's an obvious refutation of the "people won't pay money for what they can get for free" canard that causes so much distraction for media companies trying to figure out how to use the internet... or even coexist with it.
Two, it's a further erosion of the idea of "gatekeeping" as a necessary function of the publishing companies. This is actually a good thing for everyone involved, companies and consumers and creators. The companies don't have to guess as much about these sorts of things any more. Creators don't have to depend on those guesses, don't have to see their own choices second-guessed by corporate prognosticators when they go right to the source. Customers get what they want.
Of course, any companies that are far too invested in their positions as the great golden guardians of culture, the arbiters of What People Really Want, are going to fall behind as they miss out on opportunities like the one that Neil's Twitter poll revealed, while those that are responsive will make out like bandits.
As I've said before, it will be interesting to see what kind of interest Cat Valente's Fairyland novel attracts from publishers. It's going to come with its own hype, it's going to be coming to the market with a bigger "test audience" than most books... it'll be interesting to see who recognizes the potential on their own and who needs something like a Twitter test.
