There are lots of interesting new business models for musicians in our new digital world, because music is a performance art – if you can’t sell the sounds, you can potentially sell the experience of seeing (and hearing) the sounds being made. Writers – acolytes of that traditionally most solitary of arts – don’t really have that opportunity.
Well, perhaps they have… Booknewser mentions one Matt Bell, who is guesting at the Everyday Genius blog for a week, where he will write and edit a story in full view of the public…
… or at least in the view of those members of the public who are actually interested in the creation of fiction rather than just the consumption of it, or who fancy a shot at the novelty of being allowed to contribute to the writing and editing process. And I suspect that, much as with many genre fiction short story venues, most of the interested parties will themselves be writers (aspiring or otherwise).
So don’t give up the ukelele lessons just yet, eh?
One of my favorite books I wrote was on a forum, where I posted a chapter and everyone got to give feedback. It was great because the crowds encouraged me to move and gave suggestions which I integrated. It is hard though, because it becomes non-publishable by traditional methods, but still… I loved writing that way.