Kristine Kathryn Rusch doesn't think the sky is falling (brava!) despite some (check the comments) who do in Signals 18 , an article in the current IROSF.
Aaaannd the comments collapse instantly into "Nobody will pay for content on the Internet!"
As if the cover price of magazines or newspapers has been what "paid for" the content at any point in the US since the mid-1950s. Behold, a strange new wireless technology that provides free content twenty-four hours a day, and from highly paid personnel:
Dare SF publishing enter the brave new world of...the early twentieth century!
Aw, c'mon Nick, you know how averse science fiction people are to change. All those new ideas, they are so scary! They are bound to lead to doom and disaster.
Cheryl, Don't know if you recall how hard it was to get sf writers online for live chats/discussions about ten years ago--at Event Horizon we sometimes had to have the author phone us while we typed his/her responses onto the computer. But some DO change--Silverberg's online now and emails regularly. For chrissake, my mom, who is 82 emails me regularly. It just takes a little kick start sometimes ;-)
Yes indeed. You're right about radio but I've been trying to make the point for years that the internet is similar to television--I don't know how long it actually took for advertising to pay for tv (and I'm too lazy to research it--you do it Nick ;-) ) but there's no reason why internet content can't pay for itself. It....will....happen. It's still early in the technology's life.
But Lois has always been doom and gloom, as long as I've been on the web. I'd prefer some positive suggestions and insights.
Short story markets are expanding. I've been selling and continue to sell original anthologies to publishers, despite the economic downturn. That means publishers believe short stories do sell.
Right away, or once modern TV (not the old mechanical models) came on. Of course, the soaps transitioned from radio to television dramas, sponsors intact as did prime-time shows such as Texaco Star Theater (can you find the sponsor cleverly in the title ;)).
With the Internet, the first wave of ads were done by nobodies: are you going to click on a banner with slogans like "Is There A Serial Killer In Your Neighborhood? Click Here to Find Out" or one that offers "Low-Interest Visa's" (to name two I remember from the 1990s)? Then portaling was the big deal for a while; people wanted consumers to use only one website ever.
Now we're back on track, but honestly a lot of magazines just have no idea how to get ads. They either bury their Google ads (which have finally been cleaned up of scams and such) or are not devoted to making sure they are clickable, or they try to half-ass it by selling tiny ads directly.
It's bad ad time right now, so we'll continue to see a local contraction, but between webcomics and specialty bulletin boards (a martial arts message board I am on essentially funds the owner's life and family; he gets ads from video games, UFC, diet supplements etc.) the age of the ad is here.
People just need content that advertisers want to be associated with! Boring stories and breathless articles about how movies are always ruined by Hollywood ain't gonna cut it.
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As if the cover price of magazines or newspapers has been what "paid for" the content at any point in the US since the mid-1950s. Behold, a strange new wireless technology that provides free content twenty-four hours a day, and from highly paid personnel:
Dare SF publishing enter the brave new world of...the early twentieth century!
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
Don't know if you recall how hard it was to get sf writers online for live chats/discussions about ten years ago--at Event Horizon we sometimes had to have the author phone us while we typed his/her responses onto the computer. But some DO change--Silverberg's online now and emails regularly. For chrissake, my mom, who is 82 emails me regularly. It just takes a little kick start sometimes ;-)
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
But Lois has always been doom and gloom, as long as I've been on the web. I'd prefer some positive suggestions and insights.
Short story markets are expanding. I've been selling and continue to sell original anthologies to publishers, despite the economic downturn. That means publishers believe short stories do sell.
From:
no subject
With the Internet, the first wave of ads were done by nobodies: are you going to click on a banner with slogans like "Is There A Serial Killer In Your Neighborhood? Click Here to Find Out" or one that offers "Low-Interest Visa's" (to name two I remember from the 1990s)? Then portaling was the big deal for a while; people wanted consumers to use only one website ever.
Now we're back on track, but honestly a lot of magazines just have no idea how to get ads. They either bury their Google ads (which have finally been cleaned up of scams and such) or are not devoted to making sure they are clickable, or they try to half-ass it by selling tiny ads directly.
It's bad ad time right now, so we'll continue to see a local contraction, but between webcomics and specialty bulletin boards (a martial arts message board I am on essentially funds the owner's life and family; he gets ads from video games, UFC, diet supplements etc.) the age of the ad is here.
People just need content that advertisers want to be associated with! Boring stories and breathless articles about how movies are always ruined by Hollywood ain't gonna cut it.