I run a small press (books). My strong feeling is that free content absolutely, almost always, undermines paid content. And that this trend increases as time goes on and readers are more and more trained to expect publications free.

But, my experience is that many if not most readers don’t admit that getting freebies does not make them buy more publications, at times and places when they think publishers are keeping tabs. They do not want publishers to stop posting free content on the grounds that it is not working as marketing. It is easy for readers to claim that free content makes them pay for more fiction, but publishers have to see whether their numbers are actually working that way.

Most readers who have no connection with publishing, are clueless about all the editorial and production stages that take place between submission by the author and the printing of the publication. They see publishers as unncessary middlemen, and even as greedy profit takers. They have no idea of the necessity of distributors and wholesalers and if they even understand these exist, definitely see them as greedy profit takers. Their model is that publications should flow straight from the author to readers–at practically no cost because they think hardly any work is being done. They think fiction authors especially are writing primarily for fun and so can do perfectly well without being paid.

I think publishers need to reverse this trend and reset expectations. By not giving away so many freebies, and by explaining to readers what goes into editing and producing publications and how readers benefit from those steps.

When I was still in my teens I had very limited funding to spend on things like magazine subscriptions no matter how much I liked the material. No, make that no matter how much I loved the material. Whenever I could find something free online that was of quality, I would eat it up –almost literally devouring those few precious tidbits of prose. Sure, I would have loved it if I could buy it, but it wasn’t even a possibility for me back then. I was very grateful. It helped to keep me hooked on certain websites/Authors. But I couldn’t pay for it. Not then.

Now however I have a steady job with a good income. My situation has changed drastically, and I think there is no doubt that I would subscribe to a magazine based on one good story that I was able to read online for free. Of course my continuation of that subscription would depend entirely on the rest of the content I found there once I made my initial investment.

This isn’t only true of free content online however. If I am at Borders browsing through magazines and happen to read an intriguing story in one of them while waiting for my coffee, I am very likely to bring that magazine home with me.

On a similar line, I hate to buy books and magazines online if I cannot read something of what is inside. I have no idea if I am wasting money on something I am not interested in.

This reluctance to buy unknown material is something that has obviously come to the attention of Amazon and other locations (ie: Audible). Consider the Kindle (Electronic Reader). When creating their online bookstore for the Kindle they made sure that everyone could download and read one full chapter of the book they wanted before they actually made the purchase. This is also a method used on their main website where you can “preview” books. I am not sure of the exact statistics, but I am guessing that more of the pre-viewable books are sold on average.

As for whether or not I would pay the full price of an issue for a single online story….the answer is no. Not for just one story that was originally part of a collection selling for the same price.

I have been a subscriber since 1957 and am now a lifetime subscriber. I have read every issue cover to cover including the 1949 first issue that I located in a dusty used book store in Cincinnati.

I unconditionally approve of your print publishing style and enjoy the tactile experience. I like to move from one room to another or outdoors without lugging some apparatus.

Only one recommenddation, The reprint of the Robert Block story, The Hell-Bound Train, was wonderful. I would like to see in each issue a classic story that you choose, Nebula winner or not, in each issue. Select from some of the great names like Kuttner, Blish, Vance, Zelazny. The list goes on.

Thank you for making my life richer.

Sort of.
I always click on the ads, because I read that this is a way for an online publisher to get revenue.

Have you ever subscribed to a print magazine on account of a story you read on their site?

Again, sort of.
The reason for subscribing to F&SF for me was that I discovered how the editor’s selection of stories was much to my taste. I discovered that by following the TOC’s published on the website, reading free online stories and stories selected in anthologies.

Most magazine publishers post their Hugo- and Nebula-nominated stories online for free. If F&SF started charging the cost of an issue to read these stories, would you do so?

No.

Do you think the prevalence of free short fiction online has made you less inclined to pay for short fiction?

No.
I would like to see F&SF go online and like it even more with a print-on-demand option. I would like to be able to pay for individual stories.
I would like to see a nice, serious online magazine that uses the medium at it’s best, not like the e-zines of today which only try to copy the looks of the print mags.

And, Gordon, to point to Scalzi that those who read the story on his site are not paying costumers is a little unfair in my opinion.
They are paying costumers. My Internet sub is more expensive then the sub to F&SF. And by clicking pages and ads on websites, I redirect some of those money MYSELF to the authors/publishers I want.

I think that the Internet Free Fiction lacks in quality, generally speaking. And I think some of it it’s your fault, actually. You are a good editor, a serious publisher and the owner of one of the most valued and respected magazines of the genre. If you would start publishing online more, with the same respect for quality and literature that you show to the print magazine, it would set a quality benchmark that is sorely needed.
I think tor.com tries for that, and you can see how important that site had become.

2. Have you ever subscribed to a print magazine on account of a story you read on their site? Absolutely I have. I find most of the free content I read online to be inferior, and even some published work in my opinion is not great. If I read something I think is amazing, I would definately subscribe to the magazine in hopes of reading more fine work.

3. Most magazine publishers post their Hugo- and Nebula-nominated stories online for free. If F&SF started charging the cost of an issue to read these stories, would you do so? Depends on the price. I wouldn’t pay the cost of the entire issue to read just one story.

4. Do you think the prevalence of free short fiction online has made you less inclined to pay for short fiction? I do a lot more searching, reading free stuff online trying desperately trying to find something worth my time. But, I am more likely to find something great which then motivates me to pay. Without the option of looking, I have become reluctant to pay because I am most often disappointed.

I like to keep books I like and short fiction as well. I read them again and again. I will admit I get all my news online, and don’t subscribe to a newspaper. I have different feelings towards my fiction. I like to have it. I like to lend it to others. I find the story often changes with each reading and I take away something new. .

Oh, and I’m 30.

2. Yes.

3. No. However, a PDF/ebook anthology of the year’s award nominated from F&SF, like John Klima suggested, would be interesting.

4. Absolutely, most emphatically not. The opposite, definitely!

Absolutely – yes. Its always better to read a real magazine (i.e print) or a real book.
Of course this raises the issue about what makes a ‘real’ magazine. Basically for
me a magazine has an engaged community – not just a monthly collection of
short stories. The editors ; publishes; writers; columnists, readers presence is what
matters and what makes the difference – of course original stories help too. It has been
said by our esteemed editor that stories are generally only read once. Well thats
certainly not true of Analog SF – they have been publishing the same story for 75 years.

* Have you ever subscribed to a print magazine on account of a story
you read on their site?

yes – to be honest only political magazines. there are relatively few online
sf magazines – i would buy interzone if i could get it delivered here (online is
the only way i can keep in touch with the magazine). generally it can be
harder than it should be to subscribe to sf magazines and get them delivered.

* Most magazine publishers post their Hugo- and Nebula-nominated stories online for free. If F&SF started charging the cost of an issue to read these stories, would you do so?

I think F & SF would do better to have tiered subscriptions (mag only; mag + full web content) – so that long term subscribers get some reward.

* Do you think the prevalence of free short fiction online has made you less inclined to
pay for short fiction?

No- i think sf and f and sf has to address underlying topics that matter. Readers
– well… human beings like to belong to something. F & SF needs to be more of a
magazine and less of a monthly erudite collection of stories.

Thanks for inviting comments Gordon – Ive done my best to be constructive (hoever it reads! )

David

Game publisher Midway has recently made several back catalogue games available for free download. Each of the file names begins with “midway”, which made sure I didn’t forget. After the third such game was made available, I looked at the publisher’s site.

Before that, I was not aware of Midway. They’re a small publisher, and though they published Unreal Tournament 3, a high profile game, I never even knew that. So giving away these games definitely increased my awareness of Midway, plus it engendered some good vibes towards it. No immediate financial reward in it, but considering they’re selling on their site old arcade games like Gauntlet II in packs of 3 for $5, they might get some money from me.

Perhaps I’d better address free stuff in general, novels in particular, since I have more of what to base my observation compared to just short stories.

First of all, when it comes to reading, I don’t like reading fiction online, but if the story or book is downloadable, I’d read it. I have several devices which can let me read e-books. I buy e-books (have done so at Fictionwise and Baen), and get them for free when I can.

To me, getting books for free increases my awareness of the author and the store, and to a much lesser extent the publisher. If the publisher has an online store (Baen for example), that’s a win for the publisher.

Making available free books doesn’t really hurt, the way I see it, but limiting what is available is a good idea. Baen has allowed making most (all?) of the Honor Harrington series available online. Had only the first book or two been made available, I might have bought the next ones. Since I got tired of the series around book 4, I didn’t buy any of these books, which IMO is a loss to Baen.

I’m not sure whether the large number of free products results in a loss of sales. A lot of free stuff isn’t high quality enough to become a replacement source for content. I will make do with free stuff only in fields I’m unlikely to buy products (such as roleplaying games, in which I have only superficial interest right now). For novels, I’ve shifted somewhat from buying in stores to buying online, but except for cases like the above, I’d say that free books haven’t greatly changed how much I buy. (Though reduction in free time has had an effect.)

I also don’t distinguish that much between free and low cost. There’s a difference, of course, in that I’ll take whatever is given to me for free, and won’t buy all that’s cheap, but if I’m offered something I perceive as good value, I’d buy it. I typically expect e-books to cost considerably less than print books for me to consider them good value.

Considering this, regarding the Hugo and Nebula nominations, I think that I would consider buying them if they were offered as a downloadable collection for a low price (I wouldn’t pay for an online-only version). However, for me they fall into the same category as roleplaying material, so that’d have to seem particularly good value.