Buy my Plot (Social Experiment)

[loopy777]

So, today I came up with an idea for a novel. The idea itself isn't important or relevant; I come up with an idea everyday for a book, including one notable departure from fiction for a tabletop picture-heavy hardcover about potato chip culture in America. However, what I did with the idea (the one from today, not the potato chip book) is what's interesting.

I did nothing with it. I'm not going to write it.

But it occurred to me that it's a good idea, and maybe someone would want to buy it from me.

But how would I sell it?

So, this is my experiment with selling an idea. I don't really expect anyone to want to buy it, but I was curious if the model I came up for the salesmanship would work. I invite you to pretend that you're an interested buyer, and tell me whether my pitch works, or if there's more information you would want to know before you make a decision and/or offer.

I'm not going to be sharing the idea for the novel itself, as that would be giving away my product for free, but I'm going to use it for this experiment so that we have a solid foundation. Ideally, we'll develop a model we can all use to sell ideas online, maybe even create an Idea Industry, and then we can all sit around on our computers all day touting our mystery "pleasure food" idea and then reveal "pizza wrapped in ham" after we've been paid by some dumb patsy. (Naturally, we'd have to worry about inflation and brand devaluation.) It's not that I dislike my day job, otherwise I might actually try writing this novel, but trading a real job for a not-real job without loss of income is the Great American Dream. (And all foreigners love American stuff, so I'm sure everyone else digs it, too.)


The Pitch

Characters: Main characters are one man and one woman. Both will be reusable at the end of the novel. An extended supporting cast can fit into the story easily, including rivals for both the man the woman, although the final adversary must arrive from outside the main setting. As many of the supporting characters as desired can be reused, and they all have spin-off potential.

Setting(s): Single location, of an age-old type that can work in any genre or world. It can be fitted to various cultures and geographic locations, and can scale to accommodate casts of widely varying sizes. It should be reusable at the end of the novel, and can serve as the common element in a series of otherwise unrelated novels.

Genre(s): A mix of Romance, Social Examination, and Western. Depending on the preference of the writer, each of these can be maximized or minimized to suit any taste. I, for example, would play up the Western aspect, but plenty of great stories could be told without it.

Length: This story can be told in one novel, but is too long for a short story. It could be broken up into a series of short stories, but is mainly designed for a single narrative. Sequels are a possibility for the main characters and world, but not in the same setting. Alternatively, a sequel could be told in the same setting with a new cast.

Themes: Prejudices, racial and/or cultural; Fish out of water; Learning to love; Strength from friendship; Overcoming social and/or economic adversity; Surviving being an outcast; Uniting to form a community; Sexual maturity/exploration (optional);

Audience (generalities based on market studies): Given the characters and general storyline, I can see this appealing heavily to female romantic fans who like exploring new cultures with a bit of action at the plot's climax. Depending how much of the Western aspect is incorporated, there's a strong possibility to hook in a heavy male audience, but in that case the Sexual theme would have to be downplayed, as erotic fiction does not sell well with men. Even without the Sexual theme, I do not see this working well for teen audiences, due to certain necessities of the setting; while teenagers are curious about sex, moral guardians would probably clamp down just based on the premise.


And so, my "customers," are you ready to bid, or do you need more info? Play along, now, no real money required.

Comments

[ljlee.livejournal.com]

You've got your bases covered, it seems. One thing to consider: A big part of the "beware" part of "buyer beware" is research, and that's somewhat limited since the product won't be revealed until after the sale and word-of-mouth would be clandestine at best since a lot of buyers won't be raving (or ranting) openly about the product. I can imagine you tapping into a kind of underground economy of overworked and inspiration-starved writers, though, since social disapproval of getting creative help hasn't stopped the "ghost" market from prospering.

I mean, I hate the term ghostwriter anyway because it shows a fixation on rugged individualism in creativity and creative rights. People think the writer has to be able to do everything from conception to creation, but in truth the rugged individualist is a myth. Any decent book is the product of dozens if not hundreds of individuals' work, as honest writers will acknowledge, and that's before we even get into how all creators are part of culture and legacies without which they won't be able to create in any recognizable way.

It's the need to believe in the writer as sole creative genius that makes "ghosts" not only out of ghostwriters but also proofreaders, commenters and other vital helpers. Can't we just recognize that creativity is a highly distributed and social process and let the ghost be real? [/rant]

[loopy777.livejournal.com]

It's not even a problem limited to the book industry. Movies have all those credits, but none of those jobs are explained. Most people walk away from a movie thinking the director directed every scene, but it's not true. Even aside from secret guest directors like Stephen Spielberg on the opening sequence of the final Star Wars movie, you have all the second unit directors who get to mastermind various scenes for which the One True Director is too busy or doesn't have enough expertise. (One that was pointed out to me is that Peter Jackson didn't direct that first duel between Gandalf and Saruman in the first LOTR movie, where they hit each other with telekinesis.) The moneymakers need to have a brand name for everything, and that leads to the promotion of an "auteur" who is held up as the source of all good things.

That segues nicely into my next point, which is to address your question about how to actually promote and sell these ideas. Frankly, I don't think I'd be able to do it, professionally. I expect this would be something only big names like Stephen King- who already are a well known brand- could make work. The other possibility is to work with Lit Agents, get known to them, and have them refer me as a source of well-defined ideas to people who inquire about breaking into the industry. Since agents are increasingly forced to be editors for their clients, they might even welcome a mercenary third party who their clients could pay to do all that for them.

[ljlee.livejournal.com]

The moneymakers need to have a brand name for everything, and that leads to the promotion of an "auteur" who is held up as the source of all good things.

An article I read recently that fascinated me recently, called What Is the Business of Literature? (http://www.vqronline.org/articles/2013/spring/nash-business-literature/?utm_source=Daily+Newsletter&utm_campaign=60c6d96fda-Newsletter&utm_medium=email), made that very point, that the author is historically a construct created for commercial reasons. The whole article is worth reading because the author argues very astutely that publishing is far from dead, and rather the game has changed because of lower entry barriers including plummeting publishing costs. I think his conclusion is sound, that publishing needs to be the business of creating culture rather than moving manufactured products. The question still remains, though--how should literature generate value, and therefore revenue?

I think markets in creativity like the one you're envisioning could be one answer. If we recognize that creation isn't the purview of a few gifted individuals who are set apart from the mass of humanity, but rather something that exists throughout society, and that it's collaborative and even collective in nature, the resistance to the idea of buying creative components would probably decrease. The author could still be useful as a brand name that brings recognition and controls risk, as in your example of Stephen King, but it needs to be recognized as such--a means to a commercial end. New commercial realities requires new constructs, and maybe some deconstruction, too.

[loopy777.livejournal.com]

SLUSH YES.

I waited on a response because I wanted to take the time to really read the heck out of that article and process what it had to say. Aside from its intelligent and punchy style, I'm really fired up for the notions it expresses and the way it got my brain considering the future of the publishing industry. I'm actually willing to concede that my idea for selling ideas may be completely wrong-headed.

See, I have more ideas than I could ever write in a lifetime, especially considering that I'll likely never be able to make that hobby pay for itself no matter how much effort I put into it. Traditional publishing routes don't play to my strengths, as I'd need to find an agent who could also be an editor, then if I managed to sell a novel to one of the big publishing houses, I'd need to take to new media to half the work of promoting the thing, and considering that I can't even get as many people to read my intricately plotted adventures as will click any random Tokka fluff story, that's obviously a losing proposition for me. Likewise, if I go through the new internet-based self-publishing routes, I'd have to do a full 100% of the promotion, and my chance of discovery would be even worse.

Of course, I could always just publish a novel because I want to, and not for any real expectation of profiting from it. We've discussed the benefits and pitfalls of this versus just sticking with fanfic, so there's no need to go over that here. But that still leaves me more ideas than I can do anything with, hence my speculation that I could sell ideas.

However, reading that article got me thinking about the notion of Authors, and the myriad of possibilities offered by small publishers, and it got me thinking. What if- instead of an Author- I started an Author Team?

(1/2)

[loopy777.livejournal.com]

In my vision, there would be a team of people, preferably friends, but the overriding concern is that they'd be creatively compatible. Most or all would be writers. Perhaps one is good with dialogue scenes. Perhaps one is good at fight scenes. Perhaps another is just really good at sticking to a set of themes and keeping the story on track. Each would have their own weaknesses, and hopefully the team approach would address that. The story would be made up as a team, and each member would have different writing assignments. One or two could serve as the primary writers, with another one or two serving as editors, but anyone in the team could try their handing at writing a portion.

But the team wouldn't just be limited to writing and editing. One or more members of the team would be able to handle the publishing process, formatting all final draft for submission to all the various digital publishing venues. You'd have one or more doing the promotion, playing up connections on Facebook and Twitter and the like, and maybe running a blog that the whole group could contribute towards. One person would be an artist and could put together a cover, or would simply have enough deviantArt friends that they could get someone appropriate to put together a cover.

Basically, it would be an Agile team (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agile_development) devoted to creating a book, from beginning to end. Perhaps the team is working on multiple books, but not everyone on the team is involved in both books. Perhaps I'm one of the two primary writers for one book, but only contributed the Idea (covered in the same detail as the Idea I was trying to sell up above) to a second book, and am merely going to edit that and a third book. The person doing the distribution could do all three books more easily than one at a time, and as success built, promoting each new book would become easier.

It would offer all the services of a big publishing house (even if it had to work harder and longer to get a hard copy on the shelves of book stores), and vastly superior to going it alone in the self-publishing scene.

And, instead of there being an Author's name under the title, there would simply be a team, just like a video game. And just like a video game, at the end are the full credits. Unlike Hollywood, the team identity would be given priority over the Auteur. That's what the brand would be built on. (Example: the video game development studio Valve. They run the whole process from start to finish, including their own digital distribution, and everyone knows that when you buy a Valve game, you're getting a certain standard of quality and production values, even if the game isn't your thing.)

Dang, I'm all fired up for this. If only I had a team of writing buddies I could bring together in my basement.

(2/2)

[ljlee.livejournal.com]

Ha, not a bad idea. The manga creative team CLAMP have been killing it for decades now, the same thing is feasible with writing--I don't even care if it's novels, YA books, franchise tie-ins, screenplays, graphic novels, it's all just content generation. If the team have marketing and promotion capabilities I'm pretty sure they'll be taking on indie authors as clients in no time and probably become a small, agile publishing house in addition to a writing team. Sounds pretty awesome!