Classes of Property

 

What does a writer like me have to sell besides licenses to the big publishers? Here are some of the possible classes of literary property:

 

1. Licenses

Just because I don't think I'll be doing business with the big publishers any longer doesn't mean that I don't have rights to sell. Publishers of educational materials, small presses, magazines, overseas publishers, and film makers are among the licensees I regularly sell to now and expect to continue to sell to even in the changing environment for publishing.

 

2. Direct Sales

Rather than licensing the rights to my work to publishers, I can be a publisher myself, paying the costs of converting my manuscripts into books or ebooks and selling directly to readers or for-fee distributors.

 

3. Unique Artifacts

The hand-written manuscripts that I wrote about in my very first entry are an example of unique artifacts. In some art forms, such an artifact is the artist's primary product. A painter can sell his painting while retaining the right to license the image. A writer can sell a hand-written draft while retaining the rights to the text. A painting is obviously more desirable as an object than a manuscript, but there are ways to make a manuscript more interesting as an object to own.

 

4. Novelty

"Novelty" can mean many different things. What I mean here is "be the first kid on your block" novelty, the status of receiving something before others get it. If my stories are eventually offered far and wide in unauthorized editions, I can still offer at least a window of exclusivity right after I create something. When I first write a story, no one else has it. For a while, anyway, I'm the only source.

 

5. The Pleasures of Patronage

We know that some segments of the economy operate not on a material quid-pro-quo, but on the basis of generosity and charity. The ballet company can't survive on ticket sales alone, so they ask for patronage. The program distributed to the audience will list patrons by name, and this public recognition is the only material compensation for the donation. There is, of course, a non-material compensation, too: satisfaction and a variety of participation. If the art could not exist without patronage, then every patron is a co-creator.

 

6. Sponsorship

In addition to a list of patrons, that ballet program will likely feature ads. Any artist whose work attracts an audience has the option of selling advertising, whether that advertising is an actual ad or is a paid product placement in the art itself. (Of all the classes of property, this one may be the riskiest to sell. We're all saturated with advertising already. In some cases, potential patrons will give money to an artist to keep advertising out of the art.)

 

7. Affiliation 

Artists may be admired for their mastery, and their admirers may be willing to pay something to be affiliated with those admired qualities. To be affiliated with the artist, some fans might buy membership in a fan club, a t-shirt featuring the artist, or the right to collaborate with the artist on a new work of art.

 

8. Performances

I have already noted the changing market model for musicians. Recorded music is a de facto free or nearly-free commodity now. For musicians, recorded music is essentially a publicity tool that recruits audiences for their live concerts. The concert income is what enables musicians to keep making music. Writers can also charge for attendance at readings and lectures. Mostly, we don't. Usually an author has to have a substantial following already to have any hope of selling tickets. Most of us have trouble drawing an audience for even a free performance. But it's also true that an audience places more value on what they pay for than what they get for free, so paid performances might actually be a bigger draw than free ones, particularly if they were seen as highly rehearsed and well produced.

 

There may be other classes of literary goods that I haven't thought to mention here. The important point is that there is a lot more that the writer might sell than the license to reproduce a text in a book or magazine.

 

In future entries, I'll detail some of my own experiences so far with different models for living by writing, and I'll outline my future plans.

 

Here at the beginning of this blog, I've written daily entries. I'm unlikely to be able to maintain this pace, so I'm aiming for two entries a week from here on. I absolutely welcome comments and questions.