The creative commons licensing has opened up many new possible business models for publishing. In this paper, I will suggest two ways of those authors and publishers can make a living in today’s landscape without selling their content directly. Using Wattpad as an example of a platform for authors as well as YouTube’s model allows authors to be able to expand their audience. In addition to different platforms, the authors can create themselves as a brand and promote themselves in a marketing framework. Using YouTube or Wattpad offers a different business model than the traditional publisher and allows the author to connect more with the readers to create a loyal fan base. Loyalty leads to buyers.
An author is a writer, not a company or a product, but to provide an effective author brand may be able to increase the audience for the author’s books. The brand that the author puts out is a guarantee to the audience. The author has the ability to show how they write better or what makes them different from the other competitors or authors. “Your brand stems from who you are, how you want to be known and who people perceive you to be” (Grabas, 2013). By revealing who you are as a person, your work will be enhanced and you will shine through your work. Making yourself known in the publishing industry as an author can be a long and hard journey. A platform for independent musicians is YouTube. It is a way for musicians to get their music out to the world and grow their fan base. YouTubers, much like authors, should be able to have their own brand and have your authenticity shine through the things you produce.
I love to sit at home and indulge in YouTube binges and follow YouTube stars like Zoella and Tyler Oakley. These are stars that have developed their own brand and have a massive audience. These stars create content geared toward that demographic. These stars are also coming out with books they’ve written. Zoella’s book “Girl Online” became the fastest-selling debut in history, selling 78,000 copies in its first week and is scheduled to make as much money as J.K. Rowling (Lindsay, 2014, Forrest, 2014). I say these facts about YouTube to finish off with the idea of having an author become a YouTuber. Part of the reason I watch these YouTube stars is because I can relate to them. Authors can use YouTube as a tool to reach out to new readers and have the readers see another side of the author. When vlogging (video logging – diary of life via camera) you should have a personality or a set brand that you show to the world. While the authors may not be able to get millions of subscribers, they will get a good number of dedicated and loyal fan-base. YouTube and ads are just one way that the author can connect to the readers and also make a bit of revenue off of. The author John Green, author of the book “The Fault in Our Stars” started his YouTube channel VlogBrothers and have gained international success from it and while starting out as an author, he used YouTube to reach out to more audiences has also created events such as VidCon to further connect to fans of YouTubers.
The Minimum viable publishing model would work well with the publishing industry. This model uses the Wattpad platform that lets users and authors share their stories for free in a format that works on all devices. The Wattpad platform is highly social and readers can add comments and “like” stories much like Facebook to give authors feedback and build relationships with their readers. 90% of the members on Wattpad are readers and the content on Wattpad is free. Many professional authors are attracted to Wattpad because of the readers who offer active feedback and cling to their words. Wattpad uses the long tail by benefiting both authors and readers. Authors are able to publish their own work and have access to their dedicated niche markets (McKenzie 2013). Readers have increasing amounts of specialized information. They have to navigate through a lot of books to find what they are looking for. Glen says that in the minimum viable publishing model, “stories are written in episodes and published in an unfinished format to see how readers respond” (2012). When writing stories in episodes, this will be similar to the way that many YouTube videos are being put out. YouTube clips by stars are often only three to five minutes long and are sometimes clipped into episodes to increase their view count on videos and also increase the advertisement revenue. I remember a Canadian YouTuber Gunarolla did something similar a couple years ago when he would put out clips of video and have the audience comment what they think should happen next and shape the ending out of the comments. Wattpad often does the same thing in having writers from different parts of the world come together and collaborate on stories.
There seems to be a reason that many big publishers are publishing the YouTube stars’ books. The publishers know that there are many fans that will buy the book no matter what. With the creative commons licensing opening up new possible business models, YouTube can be a very viable model for authors to do if they have the personality for it. YouTube stars always have a brand, and this is how they promote themselves. Authors should also create a brand for themselves. The brand exists when the author writes in whatever genre they specialize in. Stephen King has mastered his brand in horror and science fiction and the audience knows what they’re getting themselves into when they pick up a Stephen King novel. With a brand, you are promising a writing style and an experience to the reader.
I work at a company known as Mosaic Marketing. Every now and then, I get a call to work for a brand and spend that contract of the time knowing the brand inside and out, and then promoting that product face to face in what is known as experiential marketing. If people connect a positive experience with a friendly and personal smile, they will think more positive thoughts about that product. As the traditional model of publishing has been dying. Print circulation is dying, advertising in print is dying and content is expensive. The traditional publishing model focuses on monetizing from the content they produce. Rather I believe they should focus on monetizing from the audience and putting the spotlight on them, as they are the ones buying it. By focusing on the audience, and producing books as a brand, one is able to target and engage the audience and the audience will be connected to the book. Apart from having authors to make a living by selling their content directly, authors can also sell or just make free a smartphone app that users can download and keep up to date with what the author is doing. Running events, meetups and panels for the audience is also another great way that audiences would love.
I have worked for Coca-Cola, Microsoft, Rogers and RBC. While they are all different big corporations, the jobs all had one thing in common: for the length of the contract, we set up shop somewhere to increase the sales and to create more brand awareness. Digital media has opened up new streams for publishing to go and it is easier to put your work online, but getting recognized in the hard part. Publishers can set up shop somewhere to increase brand awareness as well. The New York Times Store set up a retail operation just two years ago and expanded into other, non-Times-branded items like art, collectibles and houseware (Moses, 2015). The Times has had major success with products such as the Birthday Book, a book priced at $180 that contains the newspaper’s front page from each birthday of the recipient’s life. The Times has put up this retail operation more to just connect with the readers. By selling products related to the books or related to the publishing brand, it can lead to an extra revenue stream while also creating a lasting impression on the readers.
YouTubers and authors are similar because they write up scripts for their audience. Tyler Oakley is an example of a very popular YouTuber that has reached “best seller” status by simply being himself and having his brand on his channel. You can go to his channel and know what to expect as a fan. This can work for some authors but not all. By having a channel on YouTube, the author will not only have an extra revenue stream through the ad dollars but also gain a loyal fan base even if he does not reach millions of subscribers. Having a face to look at and a real person to connect to while reading the books will be a viable model for authors and readers as it enhances the reader experience. When using platforms like Wattpad, the authors and readers connect and the readers have a chance to connect even further by adding to the story. This engagement promotes the creative industry and publishing as a whole. Readers can add to the story, and authors can receive feedback for what the readers think and improve along writing. Merchandising and shows with readings typically do not work for authors as an alternative way stream of revenue, but it works very well for many YouTubers. Not only do YouTubers get sent fan mail, but also spend money to buy their shirts and whatever else they put out. This is because of the engagement and connection they have to their favourite creators.
The digital marketplace has changed significantly over the years for readers and writers. With the landscape change, it leads to the innovations for Wattpad as a social platform for so many users to connect with the authors. Wattpad stems more as a social platform rather than the typical publishing model. When authors put out episodes of their work, authors can engage with their readers. Having this engagement is key to build further the fan base. I would think that most humans like having a connection to other people and when using applications like Wattpad, and connecting and engaging with the audience, it creates more of a bond and creates loyalty to the brand. Connecting with fans gives them a reason to buy. If there is no connection, publishers risk losing sales to piracy or just becoming irrelevant.
Bibliography
Forrest, A (2014) How are YouTubers going to Change the Publishing Industry. Vice. http://www.vice.com/en_ca/read/how-are-youtubers-going-to-change-the-publishing-industry-042
Glenn, D (2012) How Wattpad Plans to Turn its Publishing Platform into YouTube for Writers. SocialTimes http://www.adweek.com/socialtimes/how-wattpad-plans-to-turn-its-publishing-platform-into-youtube-for-writers/113323
Lindsay, K (2014) UNPOPULAR OPINION: These YouTube Authors are Ruining the Publishing Industry. XOJane http://www.xojane.com/issues/zoella-girl-online-youtube-authors
McKenzie, K (2013) What is the Long Tail of Publishing. Publishing Trendsetter. http://publishingtrendsetter.com/industryinsight/long-tail-publishing/
Moses, L (2015) Publishers set up retail operations to diversify revenue. Digiday. http://digiday.com/publishers/publisher-stores-drive-commerce-preserving-reader-trust/
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This essay mainly focuses on how to brand the writers using the platforms, Wattpad and YouTube. In the beginning, the author thoroughly explains why they should promote themselves into the market. I like this idea of using other existing online sources or websites to help create writer’s popularity. Especially when the author drew a connection between an YouTuber and an author using the example of Zoella’s book, Girl Online, it really let me as a reader to understand the notion of “loyalty leads to buyers” and how some authors can also be the YouTube stars and become successful in the publishing market. However, as I continue to read up to the first half of the page, I realized the author spent quite a bit time explaining and reinforcing the strategy of putting authors and loyal fans as the first priority for publishers to market the books. I think it would have been much more persuasive if the author can expand in details, on how they would actually make some profits by providing episodes of stories or chapters on Wattpad. Rather than briefly mentioning that the authors can build free app and set up fans meetings, I believe the author could talk a little more and push further with the idea of referencing YouTube advertising as a way for writers to generate income on Wattpad.
Additionally, I like the fact that the author is giving personal experiences to support some of his points. Definitely, they are interesting and relevant to the context. Yet, I think there might be quite a few of the repetitive examples of YouTubers and personal experiences about the same idea. Perhaps, the author could reduce some of them or even replace one experience of his with some creditable sources from the experts about the viability of this plan. Also, it might have been better if the author could write about the description of the model for the first half of the paper and then move on to evaluate the effects of the implication. Even though the impacts are only being discussed in the last two paragraphs, I can still get the general idea of the author’s claims on how publishing industry will be like, which is about the enhancement of the readers’ reading experience. Yet, a reference or evidence can be added to strengthen this point. Here are some reflective questions and suggestions that the author could possibly include in his arguments. What would happen to the publishers if this model becomes prevalent? Would they have to change and eventually have less book sales or contracted authors? Would there be more freelance authors? And based on this business model, would all writers have to become YouTubers in order to successfully brand themselves? Perhaps, the author could also consider if this plan will only work for some individual authors not for those who are not willing to be in front of the camera and be directly engaged with the audience. Nonetheless, the flow and structure can be slightly improved to allow a smoother analysis of how authors can make a living without selling the content directly, but the overall language and the ideas are clear and logical.
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This essay seems to want to argue that Wattpad and Youtube offer authors the opportunity for the type of personal branding that will lead to loyal fans and, as a consequence, for commercial success. The essay does a reasonable job of introducing this notion, although it later muddles the idea by offering seemingly conflicting notions of branding. More problematic, however, is the lack of detail around how or who might be successful with such an approach. Does it only work for serialized content? Will it fail shy individuals who write well? How much resources will authors need to divert to marketing themselves to build their “brand”, etc.? All these, and many more questions, remain unanswered, leaving the essay at a superficial account of the model.
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