Mark Waid’s speech and the Napsterization of comics
Mark Waid’s planned Harvey speech on copyright, piracy, digital distribution, and the like is now posted at CBR. Please note that this is his Platonic ideal speech, not what I heard in the room– as I recall it and he himself noted, the speech he gave was significantly, shall we say, rougher. Sadly, no one has posted an actual transcript or video yet, which is a shame as I think that may have been even more important. (And yes, I have a lead on a copy.)
A while back, I wrote about a meeting I had with DC Legal talking about comics piracy, and I talked about how comics were being Napsterized. In the light of Mark’s call to start a dialogue on these topics, I’d like to revisit that topic– sadly, five years on, the issues are still with us.
Seth Godin recently talked about what publishing should have learned from the music industry:
1) We have a fresh slate at HarperStudio. What’s your advice?
The huge opportunity for book publishers is to get unstuck. You’re not in the printing business. The life and death of trees is not your concern. You’re in the business of leveraging the big ideas authors have. There are a hundred ways to do that, yet book publishers obsess about just one or two of them. Here’s the news flash: that’s not what authors care about. Authors don’t care about units sold. They care about ideas spread. If you can help them do that, we’re delighted to share our profits with you. But one (broken) sales channel–bookstores–and one broken model (guaranteed sale of slow-to-market books) is not the way to get there. If you free yourself up enough to throw that out, you’ll figure out dozens of ways to leverage and spread and profit from ideas worth spreading.
2) If everything is free, how is anyone going to make any money?
First, the market and the internet don’t care if you make money. That’s important to say. You have no right to make money from every development in media, and the humility that comes from approaching the market that way matters. It’s not “how can the market make me money” it’s “how can I do things for this market.” Because generally, when you do something for an audience, they repay you. The Grateful Dead made plenty of money. Tom Peters makes many millions of dollars a year giving speeches, while books are a tiny fraction of that. Barack Obama used ideas to get elected, book royalties are just a nice side effect. There are doctors and consultants who profit from spreading ideas. Novelists and musicians can make money with bespoke work and appearances and interactions. And you know what? It’s entirely likely that many people in the chain WON’T make any money. That’s okay. That’s the way change works.
3) How do you think publishers and authors could work more productively together?
Publishing is far too focused on the pub day. The event of the publication. This is a tiny drip, perhaps the least important moment in a long timeline. As soon as publishers see themselves as marketers and agents and managers and developers of content, things change.
4) What’s the most important lesson the book publishing industry can learn from the music industry?
The market doesn’t care a whit about maintaining your industry. The lesson from Napster and iTunes is that there’s even MORE music than there was before. What got hurt was Tower and the guys in the suits and the unlimited budgets for groupies and drugs. The music will keep coming. Same thing is true with books. So you can decide to hassle your readers (oh, I mean your customers) and you can decide that a book on a Kindle SHOULD cost $15 because it replaces a $15 book, and if you do, we (the readers) will just walk away. Or, you could say, “if books on the Kindle were $1, perhaps we could create a vast audience of people who buy books like candy, all the time, and read more and don’t pirate stuff cause it’s convenient and cheap…” I’m a pessimist that the book industry will learn from music. How are you betting?
So let’s think about the state of the industries– where music’s been the last few years, and where comics could be heading.
Recession? Check.
Screwed up and weakened distribution channels? Check.
High studio costs? Check.
Nearly free, widespread distribution system that the fans use? Check.
Major industry execs and creators that are either clueless about the Internet, or are years late to the party? Check.
A newly empowered bunch of creators doing it themselves and distributing online? Check, check, check.
So is there a solution? Yes, but there are some big hurdles to overcome. Start discussing it in the comment threads, and we’ll be back in a bit with more.
Comic book publishers should really take a look at what O’Reilly has done with their Safari online service (http://safari.oreilly.com). They took a very progressive, pro-consumer approach to e-books fairly early on, and managed to convince many of the other tech publishing companies to join in. I think publishers in a lot of other fields could learn from their model. The Safari approach itself may not be a perfect fit for comic book distribution, but I think O’Reilly’s attitude towards getting content online and their overall approach to the customer could stand to be absorbed by a lot of other media publishers.
What irks me about SOME (not all) of the attitude in this is the prevalent message of my work is not my work, that it belongs to everyone. That my making money (aka a living) is not and shouldn’t be the Internet’s concern. Underlying that is the premise it should all be free because those who use the Internet don’t want to pay for anything or that they will only if it’s cheap enough and they feel guilty enough to do it.
Yes, there needs to be new models for publishing and charging the same online as you would for a volume in a store is ridiculous. It’s costing the publisher less so they should charge less. True for comics as well as books. But this is a transition time. Publishers will understandably find it difficult to abandon their main sources of revenue for a business model not proven on a large scale. If they charge less online, the retailer will feel betrayed and stop ordering. To keep them appeased, they chrage the same online as in the store even though it is ultimately contrary to their own best interests. That will change and very quickly.
Essentially what I’m hearing is that I shouldn’t EXPECT to make money off my writing; it’s the stuff I do AROUND my writing — perhaps lectures, speeches, or what have you. So I should take on other jobs to support my main job? Because the Internet doesn’t want to respect copyright or feel it should pay more than it wants to pay even if that amount is nothing? What other professions are being asked to do that?
Word.
The part about work not belonging to the creator bothered me, too.
I read and make comics because I love them, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t cost an arm and a leg to create quality books and it doesn’t mean that creators don’t deserve some compensation if you are enjoying their work.
Comic book publishers should really take a look at what O'Reilly has done with their Safari online service (http://safari.oreilly.com). They took a very progressive, pro-consumer approach to e-books fairly early on, and managed to convince many of the other tech publishing companies to join in. I think publishers in a lot of other fields could learn from their model. The Safari approach itself may not be a perfect fit for comic book distribution, but I think O'Reilly's attitude towards getting content online and their overall approach to the customer could stand to be absorbed by a lot of other media publishers.
What irks me about SOME (not all) of the attitude in this is the prevalent message of my work is not my work, that it belongs to everyone. That my making money (aka a living) is not and shouldn't be the Internet's concern. Underlying that is the premise it should all be free because those who use the Internet don't want to pay for anything or that they will only if it's cheap enough and they feel guilty enough to do it.Yes, there needs to be new models for publishing and charging the same online as you would for a volume in a store is ridiculous. It's costing the publisher less so they should charge less. True for comics as well as books. But this is a transition time. Publishers will understandably find it difficult to abandon their main sources of revenue for a business model not proven on a large scale. If they charge less online, the retailer will feel betrayed and stop ordering. To keep them appeased, they chrage the same online as in the store even though it is ultimately contrary to their own best interests. That will change and very quickly.Essentially what I'm hearing is that I shouldn't EXPECT to make money off my writing; it's the stuff I do AROUND my writing — perhaps lectures, speeches, or what have you. So I should take on other jobs to support my main job? Because the Internet doesn't want to respect copyright or feel it should pay more than it wants to pay even if that amount is nothing? What other professions are being asked to do that?
Word.
The part about work not belonging to the creator bothered me, too.I read and make comics because I love them, but that doesn't mean it doesn't cost an arm and a leg to create quality books and it doesn't mean that creators don't deserve some compensation if you are enjoying their work.
As someone with a lil’ studio who has yet to see a dime of profit from anything creative we’ve put out, on this issue I’m torn. I DO think comics and published items should make their way to digital mediums like tablets, mobile phones and the like… and that a digital copy of an item should “hopefully” be less expensive than a physical product.
More-so on John’s point re: that he shouldn’t “expect” to make money off his writing IS perplexing, because he himself is a living legend in the industry. His name on a book equals copies sold. My name on a book gets a quizzical look from someone. Of course I’m not making a living writing. Would I like to? You better believe it. But at the core of so much of this is the mainstream publisher’s continuing pursuit of “put it out as quickly and as cheaply as possible” mentality. DC, Marvel, Dark Horse, IDW… they all have “pilot programs” and ways for a few kids to “break it” but for those years deep in it, there’s no map to Valhalla. And the idea that Unshaven Comics would put it’s book online for free, without any possibility of making money, is highly unlikely.
I’d like to see the publishing industry embrace the digital marketplace the record companies were forced to. Mainly because I’d like to see the big boys in comics open their doors a little wider toward new faces with new ideas… instead of always gilding the lilly by letting their existing golden boys romp and stomp as they please.
As someone with a lil' studio who has yet to see a dime of profit from anything creative we've put out, on this issue I'm torn. I DO think comics and published items should make their way to digital mediums like tablets, mobile phones and the like… and that a digital copy of an item should "hopefully" be less expensive than a physical product. More-so on John's point re: that he shouldn't "expect" to make money off his writing IS perplexing, because he himself is a living legend in the industry. His name on a book equals copies sold. My name on a book gets a quizzical look from someone. Of course I'm not making a living writing. Would I like to? You better believe it. But at the core of so much of this is the mainstream publisher's continuing pursuit of "put it out as quickly and as cheaply as possible" mentality. DC, Marvel, Dark Horse, IDW… they all have "pilot programs" and ways for a few kids to "break it" but for those years deep in it, there's no map to Valhalla. And the idea that Unshaven Comics would put it's book online for free, without any possibility of making money, is highly unlikely.I'd like to see the publishing industry embrace the digital marketplace the record companies were forced to. Mainly because I'd like to see the big boys in comics open their doors a little wider toward new faces with new ideas… instead of always gilding the lilly by letting their existing golden boys romp and stomp as they please.
Two things here. One, getting the work out there isn’t enough, and Waid oughta know that. Not all of us are Steve King, where we can put “Riding The Bullet” on our website for a one dollar download and make an obscene amount of money for it. Most of us aren’t even Marc Fishman, who busts his ass creatively and still loses money. For every Steve King there are hundreds of Beam Pipers, great storytellers who are struggling for one reason or another.
Remember H. Beam Piper? Author of Little Fuzzy? He shot homself because he thought he’d failed as an author, not know that the reason he hadn’t gotten a check in months was because his agent died.
Thing two. Writing to tell a story and get an idea out isn’t enough. Bob Asprin once told me that the idea was to tell the story and get it sold, come hell or high water, because if you don’t make the sale you’ve wasted your time. I’ve always agreed with this, and kick the shit outta myself hourly for letting the novel I was working on go flat. Fred Pohl liked the idea when I told it to him in 1987, and said I should finish it so he can read it. Twenty plus years, a dead hard drive and terrorists stealing my gimmick on tv and in reality, and the book is close to dead, so Fred won’t be reading it anytime soon. In that respect, I’m nowhere near as successful as Marc, let alone you, Big John.
Yeah, comics can learn something from the music biz and Napster. But in the short term, the idea is still to write, draw, and print, and get the stuff out there so we can pay for pencils and Bristol board and pens and ink, and ultimately eat. I love Waid dearly, but I don’t think he’s quite seeing the short term here. Or did I read the wrong speech?
Two things here. One, getting the work out there isn't enough, and Waid oughta know that. Not all of us are Steve King, where we can put "Riding The Bullet" on our website for a one dollar download and make an obscene amount of money for it. Most of us aren't even Marc Fishman, who busts his ass creatively and still loses money. For every Steve King there are hundreds of Beam Pipers, great storytellers who are struggling for one reason or another. Remember H. Beam Piper? Author of Little Fuzzy? He shot homself because he thought he'd failed as an author, not know that the reason he hadn't gotten a check in months was because his agent died. Thing two. Writing to tell a story and get an idea out isn't enough. Bob Asprin once told me that the idea was to tell the story and get it sold, come hell or high water, because if you don't make the sale you've wasted your time. I've always agreed with this, and kick the shit outta myself hourly for letting the novel I was working on go flat. Fred Pohl liked the idea when I told it to him in 1987, and said I should finish it so he can read it. Twenty plus years, a dead hard drive and terrorists stealing my gimmick on tv and in reality, and the book is close to dead, so Fred won't be reading it anytime soon. In that respect, I'm nowhere near as successful as Marc, let alone you, Big John. Yeah, comics can learn something from the music biz and Napster. But in the short term, the idea is still to write, draw, and print, and get the stuff out there so we can pay for pencils and Bristol board and pens and ink, and ultimately eat. I love Waid dearly, but I don't think he's quite seeing the short term here. Or did I read the wrong speech?