Chris Anderson's Free and the future of writing: part one

July 3, 10:08 AMNY Writing Careers ExaminerTad Richards

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Illustration by Tad Richards

Plagiarism has made the headlines in regard to Chris Anderson's new book Free: The Future of a Radical Price, but it's hardly the only story of interest to a writer. Anderson's point -- that the future of information and intellectual property may be separated from everything we've always thought of as compensation -- may send shivers down the spine of anyone who's thinking of writing as a career.

In an interview with Christopher Corey, at Amazon's blog  Omnivoracious, Anderson explains that while "free" means more or less the same thing it always has, it has become a totally different concept in the 21st century than it was in the 20th:

Free in the 20th century was pretty much a trick: you know, buy one, get one free; free gift inside; razors and blades. One way or another, you are going to pay--now or later, one pocket or another. So, free is kind of a marketing device in the 20th century.

 

In the 21st century, as products become digital and digital goods get cheaper in cost every year, as opposed to physical goods which get more expensive in cost every year, you can then shift from a marketing trick to an actual economic model where things really can be free. It's not a gimmick. It's not a con. It's like Google, where Google doesn't show up on your credit card even though you use it every day.

Words are digital goods. No matter how much overhead goes into making them, the words themselves are unconnected from cost. Once they're digitized, they can be endlessly reproduced at what amounts to no additional cost.

Does that mean writers now -- or in the foreseeable future -- have to resign themselves to never getting paid for anything? Anderson has some discouraging news. Writing, as it moves more and more from print to digital, will become less and less the province of professionals, more and more of amateurs. Since space is no longer at a premium, there's not the same competition between highly skilled professionals for each page of space.

 About his own writing, Anderson says "my own general principle is to give away all my words. I give away my writing, and I sell other stuff. So the writing is the free in the freemium equation." 

Giving away his writing, his talent, his ideas, allows him "to market myself, which I will then sell in various ways. I'll sell by having brand equity accrued to Wired--we'll make money through advertising. I give speeches--we'll make money that way. I have other side projects. I can use whatever celebrity I build in one domain in another domain."

Does this help for all kinds of writers? Frankly, no. Someone like Anderson can turn his words -- endlessly reproducible, and so of no special value -- into personal celebrity. He's available as a speaker, as a business consultant, and there's only one of him, so his celebrity has value. As Anderson points out in the Amazon interview, the Rolling Stones make 95 percent of their income from touring. People want to see Mick and Keith in person, and they'll pay for it -- they'll pay lots, at the same time that they're going on Pirate Bay and downloading "Tumbling Dice" for free.

But a novelist may work for three years on a novel, and when she's finished with it, people want to curl up on the couch, or at the beach, or on an airplane, with the career girl who's in love with her exploitive married boss, or the young apprentice knight who has to slay the dragon who's been raised as his half-brother, or the puppy who's looking for a home. They don't want to go out and pay 40 bucks to listen to the author.

Hmmm...in this new economic model, a poet might have more of a shot at making a living than a novelist.

This isn't the present. Not quite yet. But it may be the future.