I recently ran across an excellent and innovative site called Book View Cafe, whose idea seems simultaneously very straightforwad and rather forward-thinking. A collective group of professional authors have pooled their work together and created a site that offers a combination of free and paid work for Science Fiction and Fantasy fans the world ’round.
As it happens, I’m a Science Fiction fan the world ’round, and I was excited to see some recognizable names on the author list, such as Ursula K. Le Guin.
I recently exchanged e-mails with Sarah Zettel (whose short fiction work you can find on the site here), the project manager for Book View Cafe, and had a chance to ask her a few questions about the scope and direction of the project:
Jason: You’re the project manager for Book View Cafe, which is a collaboration from a number of authors. How did this concept come about?
Sarah: By accident, as many of the best concepts do. I was looking at setting up a website to sell my out-of-print work, and possibly some new work, because I knew a number of authors had had success with selling online. I was asking for advice on a professional writers list I belong to, when Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff, and some other brave souls chimed in on the subject, which led to the following exchange on April 15 last year:
Sarah and company,
Is anyone else interested in trying a co-op effort with posted materials?
Here’s my thought : Sarah’s going to put up her chapters and ‘I’m going to put up the first three chapters of Taco Del in my “Reading Room,” and what I’m wondering is, what if we join forces and link our websites and PDF’d chapters to each other to create an online Bookshelf or Reading Room that “contains” all our works? A sort of SF-FFWs library.
That way if one of us gets a hit, the visitors know that if they click this Reading Room (Library or Bookshelf) link they’ll go to another book site and be able to read new material there, as well.
I’m thinking about creating a graphic with book spines on it that are clickable eventually, but what do you think of the general idea of creating an online Bookshelf co-op, where we use each other’s sites to make any work any of us have posted available at a click?
- Maya
Maya:
As you may or may not have noticed, I’ve just sent a list of my basic thoughts for going all internet on my books. I think a bunch of us hooking up together is a great idea, especially because we can cover way more internet territory that way. I’m willing to take point on organization if that’s needed, but am really hoping we get some more technically savvy folks to sign up. Although nobody seems to know what RSS is yet (it stands for Really Simple Syndication, BTW), I’ve got a line on how to get that working, and it might be good for us.
In short, I’m in. Are you in?
- Sarah Z.
Obviously, as our author pool expanded, and we did gain a number of tech savvy members, the concept evolved.
Jason: The web site is careful to note that all the authors have extensive publishing histories in the “print world.” Why do you think this distinction matters, and will it continue to matter?
Sarah: As things stands, print is the more established medium and is perceived, fairly or not, to have stronger editorial standards. What pointing out our print records does is let our readers know that the BVC authors are writing professionals skilled at our craft who can provide high quality reads. Hopefully, the fact that we are out there in print will also stick in their mind when they visit Amazon.com or browse their local bookstore.
Jason: Are you planning to limit the work on your site to that of your founding members, or will you accept outside work, the way a traditional magazine would? Would you only accept work from print-published authors?
Sarah: We will be accepting new members later in the new year (we already have a waiting list), but we only plan to accept professional authors who have published at least one print novel. These standards may change as online and e-publishing expands and evolves.
Jason: Do you think that offering so much fiction content free to the reader sets a dangerous precedent for the future? Will authors have to rely on “shareware” or “freemium” to make a living?
Sarah: More and more, people are expecting to have a chance to sample their entertainment before they buy it. They download movie clips, listen to songs on Pandora Radio, and they read online. By putting up samples of our work, we give new readers a chance to get to know us as authors, and current readers a reason to come back. That way when we do have work to sell, either in print or online, not only can we let our readers know directly, but the reader already knows that here is an author whose stories they have enjoyed and whose work they are interested in supporting. The trend with this model has been an increase in sales for authors, not a decrease.
Jason: Do you have any plans to extend your content offerings over other digital platforms – a mobile-friendly version of the site, kindle content, and iPhone app, anything like that?
Sarah:We do. Right now, we are partnered with TextonPhone, an iPhone application which offers an exclusive Book View Cafe reading list for the iPhone and iPod touch (they also have a Facebook Application). We are also exploring the most popular options and deciding which would be best for us to offer on the site. The world of mobile reads is changing quickly and we have to decide how Book View Cafe can most effectively join in.
Eat Sleep Publish is a Seattle-based blog that explores the difficulties and opportunities currently facing the publishing industry. 
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