The math of serial fiction, and the quest for new patrons
Hopefully by now you've had time to adjust to the shock of me moving to a pay system, because today I'm going to present you with some math, and make my case for why I NEED your help with a new reader drive.
First, I want to explain to new readers why I work at home, and give a pleasant reminder to regular readers of why I need their support. If you don't already know, I have MS, or multiple sclerosis. MS is not cheap to treat. I need money for this, and for the same sorts of things that you like to enjoy, like music, book video games, junk food, and adult beverages. Writing is supposed to be my job, and currently, my pay sucks. I'm forced to take the matter up with my bosses, and guess what? That's you! Also, I haven't been getting enough performance reviews on recent work either. Those reviews are what convince new reader to take a risk on my stuff, so they are still just as important to my success in 2011 as they were in 2010.
Okay, so I can put away the violin and take out the calculator. My web stats have shown around 180 regular readers per chapter for my free serials. There are some other readers flirting by reading short stories. I expect moving to a pay structure means many of you will be leaving. So, for a conservative guess, let's say I have 100 regular readers willing to stick around for the new stuff, if the price is right. (And by the way, I'd love to be proved wrong and discover that I have almost 200 regular readers. I'm just not convinced the audience is all down for paid subscriptions.)
Let's say that I have an average chapter size of 4,000 words. If I want to earn a pro rate for my writing, I'd want minimum sales per chapter to be $50 per 1000 words, or $200 per 4K chapter. But, if I only have 100 readers, that makes the cost of individual chapters way too high. I'd like to charge between 0.25 and 0.50 cents. But 100 (or 200) regular readers isn't enough to fund projects or support myself. To make the next serial financially viable, I need to charge 0.50 to a minimum of 400 readers. (So the bonus level would be 800.) I'm willing to drop to a semi-pro rate, in theory, but that would still make my minimum reader level 250-300. You might say "Geez Zoe, those minimum limits are unreasonable!" Well, if I set the minimum buyer limit at 50 readers, I have to charge $2 for the same chapters. That's ways too expensive in my opinion. (You can chime in with yay or nay in the comments on this point.)
Buying the individual chapters means readers pay more than they would for the final book. This model is similar to comic books, where you pay more for individual issues than you do for the trade paperback collections that come out at the end of a story arc. So there is a precedent for the model. I'm hoping readers can appreciate the value of serial fiction as an episodic product. It's not too much to bog you down. It leaves you free to read chapters from your other favorite authors, and it's not so expensive that you can't buy other stuff from other authors.
No matter what price or buyer limit I set for chapters, there are currently not enough readers without making the price too high. This is why I must appeal to you to help me with a new reader drive. I need folks who have read my free stories to post reviews, good, bad, or indifferent. Maybe you don't have a blog, but you're on Facebook. If so, you can leave a review as a note, or you can share the first page of a free story with your friends and add a mini review in your status to explain why you think they should read it. Or you can direct your friends to my fan page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Zoe-E-Whitten/179554912059420
If you're on Tumblr, Digg, Stumble, Goodreads, or any other social network, you could post a link to my story archive, to the first page of a free story, or to my blog, or you can write a review of my site or blog in general instead of focusing on any one story. Every little bit of promotion helps, and to keep myself afloat next year, I will need a lot more help. Or else in 2012, there might not be a site or a blog left to support. (;_;)
