The Value of Experimentation

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I've recently come to know and appreciate Brad
King's work, both as an innovative media professional, as well as a university
professor.



So I've been keeping an eye on a project that he and his talented students have launched: The
Invictus Writers.




There's a lot to say about it, but—in brief—for the first volume, each contributor
has written a personal essay about the moment in their lives when everything changed
as they moved into adulthood. Along the way, they've tinkered with a few elements
of publishing as well.



Here are some interesting stats:



To date, nearly
3,500 have read the essays on Scribd.



They launched a blog to discuss the process
of writing the book. To date, there have been about 3,600 page views on the blog,
which itself has 31 posts that were written by 7 authors.



They
put up a Facebook Page here.



They
created a 157-page print book that retails for $10. They also created a
PDF that retails for $2.99.




Soon they'll release an EPUB edition that will retail for $4.99.





Now I'd like to point out some things they did NOT do:



They did not wait for permission to collaborate.

They did not wait for someone to pay them to do or write what they cared about.



They did not query editors or agents asking for approval.

They did not look for a publisher to do what they could do very well on their own.

They did not wait to be discovered.

They did not angst over putting their work online.

They did not limit themselves to one format or channel.




They did not wait to learn everything first. They're experimenting and learning as
they go.

I hope you get my meaning.

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