"Premium" Content -- How to do it, and should you do it?
Disclaimer: I believe this is my first time making a thread here on Weblit.Us, so I fear I may have posted this in the wrong place. Nevertheless, this site seemed more appropriate to pose my questions to than WFG. If there was a previous post on the subject that I missed, I apologize.
So...
"Premium" Content. How to go about it, and is it even worth it? What would merit a reader coughing up a buck or two to see it? Not that I have any delusions of making alot of money. At most, I can earn enough to pay for a value meal at Burger King or something. But I want to discuss this because I think it's a possibility down the line, and I'd like to hear from some weblit authors who may have tried it in some form.
What really gave me the idea was Terrel Campbell, author of the webcomic "Penny and Aggie". I'm currently subscribed to his comic's premium content, paying 2.99 a month for things that range from artwork, special short stories, and high-res wallpapers. He doesn't update it all the time, in which case he does not charge unfairly, which is nice. I'm just not sure how to set something like that up. How do you manage it? How do you password protect the premium content to keep those non-subscribers out?
Those are general questions. I know Paypal has a subscription feature, and Wordpress (which I use) probably has a plugin that password protects certain areas of a site--but what about you Drupal users? Wordpress users, what plugins worked best for you?
As for possible bonus content, here were my ideas for my weblit, Eikasia:
1) Detailed setting information including: high-res world, continent, and city maps; glossary of common terms; common legends and folklore of the world; full description of the species, races, and sub-races in the world.
2) Early access to story updates (hardest for me, as I usually don't finish till the day I need to update!)
3) Forum access, where readers get to discuss Eikasia and general topics. Provides an opportunity to converse with me in a more casual and free flowing environment versus just email. Also: my pipe dream is to start a Forum roleplay based in my story's world. The real incentive is that, particularly exceptional events or characters (with the poster's permission) could be weaved into the official storyline. This turns Eikasia into a shared universe.
4) Access to high-res five or ten page comic of Eikasia.
5) Exclusive bonus stories.
6) Wallpapers.
7) Another pipe dream of mine--create a flash cartoon of Eikasia. I thought about doing a silent short with the main characters, cute and humorous. Or a music video styled like it were the opening of a television show. Very expensive, but IMO very worth it.
Those were some of my "premium" content ideas. My other question is--Do these things serve a better purpose when offered for free? Idea #7 has clear potential to lure in readers through Newgrounds and Youtube. Idea #1 sounds like a nice incentive, but is that unfair to my loyal readers, who have been around since the beginning? Would it be better to offer the maps and glossary to everyone? Can I offer some of this information for free, but not others? (i.e., keep the maps and folklore as premium content, but offer everything else for free) Would making Idea #3 by subscription-only discourage user interaction? My offer of free bonus points hardly seems to get my readers more active, but would putting fees in place just kill things outright?
I'd like to hear all your thoughts on the subject. The weblit is still free, the cool bonus stuff is not. Bad idea? Good idea? Have you tried it?
Thanks!
Unfortunately, you're probably not going to know if it works until you try it. But it sounds like a nifty idea. If I were a hardcore fan of an author, I'd consider throwing three bucks a month at them for a "backstage pass" into their world.
Have you run the idea by your readers yet? What are their thoughts?
Hello, Valerie!
Yes I thought about running this by my readers--but Eikasia entered into a sudden indefinite hiatus, and I suspect at this point they would much rather hear of my return then "possible" premium content! Heh...truth be told, they aren't a talkative bunch, so I don't expect any real feedback I could use. At the least, I'll do a simple poll once I've returned to writing regularly. By then, I hope to have a more solid plan/idea of what I would do. This is all just speculative curiosity. I was really wishing to hear what the weblit community had to say about premium content.
(it was easier typing on my Nintendo DSi than I thought! Given that statement, I hope this illustrates the lack of computer access I have, and why my responses may take a while in the future... 
)
I've made the most money from serial+-es, wherein I run the novel as a serial and offer the whole thing for sale. With this, I've made more money from e-books than print even though my print book offered "extras," which would be comparable to premium content.
Since I switched from running serial fiction, I've made less money, but my new business model isn't something that I really feel will start working until I've got more product to sell and until I build up a bigger audience. Like, my new model is to get lots and lots and lots of people to read my free books and want to buy my non-free books, whereas before, I only needed to get a few people hooked on a book I was offering in installments.
I think it's pretty tough to make any money self-publishing fiction. But I'd love to see what happens with your experiment, so keep us updated!!
Can you explain your model a little more? I'm not clear on what you're doing. Thanks!
Me?
I'm just putting up half a book on line and trying to sell it on the strength of the first ten chapters or so. That way I don't have to update the site biweekly, and I'm a little less stressed. It's not a new concept by any means.
At this point, I only have five books on my site. Three are free and two are extended previews. I feel like once I can have more free content, I'll be able to sell more books, because people will have more of a taste of my writing. Of course, maybe it won't work at all and I'll go back to serials.
(If you meant Illise's model, then just disregard whatever I said here.)
Nope, I meant yours. Thanks!
Illise I think this is the perfect place to post this. I sweat the same questions. More later when I don't have a post to write by midnight...
I used to think my writing was horribly perverse, and now I worry that it's not perverse enough for the Internet.
www.chevenga.com