The Crazy Plan: In which I experimentally shoot off my toes one by one

I originally posted Beyond the Darkening here in installments before there was really an option to sell it anywhere as an indie.

I originally posted The Nights Before Christmas here in installments as a Christmas present for blog visitors (which didn’t get finished until March, but hey, screw 12 days of Christmas—I gave you THREE WHOLE MONTHS!) before I made it available for sale.

The Heroine Academy and Pirpires have always been intended to be free blog content.

I know that a number of people who found the first two here for free bought them anyway for the convenience of having them in ebook form (one book instead of fragmented into chapters, stuck in their ereaders for portability, easier on the eyes than blog formatting, etc.).

And I know that a number of people who read the serials have asked for them in ebook form (same reasons as above) and have even expressed willingness to pay for such a thing despite the same content being available for free. (This will happen as I get to good stopping points, but it’s not in the spirit of the thing to charge for them.)

And I know that amongst the horde of writers screaming “OMG U CHEAP HAX R DEVALUING ALL WRITERS EVERYWHERE SO I CANT CHARGE $50 FOR MY WORK OF JEENYUS,” a handful of writers are giving it away free and watching sales of the price-tagged stuff climb anyway, contrary to the business principles the naysayers insist we’re supposed to believe in.

So I was thinking, while visiting my Crazy Place (actually, I’m spending so much time there lately, I’m thinking of having my mail forwarded) and twitching from the effects of one too many Pepsi Maxes, that I’d put the installments of BTD and NBC back up, put up BTBM when it’s finished, and see what happens to sales when whole stories can be read for free.

(Drown? No. Leaving a whole novel up doesn’t feel kosher, but maybe a month of a chapter a day, get it while it’s hot or go buy it if you want to read it right now? That sounds just crazy enough to suit me.)

Can I foresee all kinds of bad things happening as a result? Hey, nobody comes up with doom scenarios like I can. (Handy in writing, alternately self-defensive and crippling in real life.) I’ve been thinking on this for a couple of months now and have a list as long as my arm of reasons why this is a bad idea.

But it’s been my philosophy from the beginning of this self-publishing venture that I have nothing to lose, so it’s stupid to let fear of unpleasant outcomes that might occur stop me from trying things that might turn out positive (or even just break-even). I’m not going to learn anything by locking myself into one way of doing things.

Worst-case scenario, I’ll be able to state with authority it was a terrible idea, take it down before any more damage is done, and not repeat that particular mistake in the future.

Pursuant to the aforementioned, the Serial Index tab has been converted to the Stories & Serials Index (same URL as before, so no worries if you’ve bookmarked it), where you’ll find links to everything available to read on-site. At the bottom of every chapter, there will be an “Isn’t this hard to read online? Wouldn’t you rather buy it for your ereader?” link and a “10 Minutes to Write” button for the ereaderless or anyone else who may be inclined to throw me a buck in exchange for my services.

Or not. That’s the experiment. We’ll see how it goes.