I am reading up a lot on OPDS and other digital book topics. I am fascinated by this stuff, and I keep going over different scenarios in my head where a person releases their works online that takes into account a new paradigm of publishing that discounts the traditional distribution channels.
One such idea I had seemed like a hybrid model that I hadn’t heard about before, so I wanted to share it: Pay Now and Later. The concept is simple, you set a value of a given work, and create a portion of it as the bottom line on how much you would like people to purchase it for. Then, if they enjoy it, or want to continue supporting you, or whatever reason they may have, they can pay the remainder of the price.
So, if I write a light novel and value it at $10, I could set the low price at $2. If people enjoy it, they can pay me the remaining $8 at some other time (like after their done reading it).
I am not going for depth here, it is just an idea of how to start massaging people to open up a bit with their pricing models. The world I want to create is one where people create and share, and those who appreciate and consume their creations will support the artist, without a series of middle-entities skimming from the profits and lobbying to keep a broken system intact.
In the words of Oscar Goldman, “…We have the technology…”