Photo by Sharese Ann Frederick via Creative Commons

Recently I ran across the @Mashable article “StoryBundle Brings Indie Authors to Readers,” and the first thing I thought of—don’t ask me why, this is how my brain works—was Billy Mays pitching this thing. Okay, he’s dead but let me explain.

StoryBundle is a company with an interesting business model that borrows from the short story anthology. They package up books into time-sensitive “bundles” and offer those up to readers—without any sort of DRM—for whatever the reader wants to pay. You can’t pay less than a dollar though. This is from their FAQ:

The StoryBundle concept is pretty simple. There are a fixed set of books that we offer in a bundle, and each bundle is available only for a limited time. If you miss out on the bundle, you’ll have to buy the books individually from each author. We only have one bundle on sale at a time, once it’s gone, it’s gone.

Again, one of the central concepts is that you get to decide how much each bundle is worth to you. Think each individual book in a bundle of five books is worth $2? That’s fine! Pay $10 and get five books! Only think they’re worth $1 because you’re not sure if you like a certain genre? That’s fine too. If you want to reward these authors and encourage more independent writers by giving a bit more, that’s fantastic as well. One reason we started StoryBundle is because indie authors need our support, and we want to do our part in showcasing awesome writers.

You Must Act Now!

Because of the artificial time limit placed on these bundles, there’s a little bit of an HSN “You Must Act Now!” feel to it. I’ve often wondered about this sales technique. It’s artificial—unless we’re talking The Mayan Prophecy of 2012—and most customers are wise to it. I mean, who actually believes that whatever it is you’re selling won’t be available in some form or another in the future—maybe even at a reduced price? Can’t wait for that half-yearly sale!

Here’s the point. Because the Internet and social media and smart developers have made it easy to create new channels for almost no money, it’s becoming more difficult for authors like me to keep up—let alone understand—what we should do with our content. And content is indeed what drives these engines. Without it you’ve just got a bunch of cool kids with laptops creating things that serve no useful purpose. foursquare, anyone?

Protecting the Crown Jewels

Let’s say for a moment that as an author I like StoryBundle and actually see a way to incorporate it into my marketing plan. And this assumes that I have lots of published or soon-to-be-published content to choose from. I see one huge weakness with the model out of the gate:

There is no way I am going to permit my premium content to be included in these bundles. Did I mention no DRM? Those are my crown jewels—and I need to maximize revenue.

If every smart author takes this approach, that means readers are left with bundles of so-so to mediocre content all packaged nicely together. It also means that nine out of ten readers will offer a dollar. Which is interesting because ninety-nine cents is the minimum you can charge for your work on both Amazon and Barnes and Noble. And correct me but I think the general consensus among readers is that anything priced at ninety-nine cents is not top of the line. The only thing cheaper is Smashwords, where authors can give away free content.

One way for companies like StoryBundle to acquire premium content is for authors to offer excerpts from their work-in-progress novels. I’m not sure StoryBundle embraces this but it would be interesting. In this case one still might be able to build a following.

Getting back to Billy Mays, StoryBundle does offer bonus content, which is the “Wait, there’s more!” offer right out of the playbook. From what I can see, you do have to pay more in that case. But if my theory is correct, that just means more less-than-premium content.

Am I Dreaming or What?

But what if the content were premium? That’s certainly possible. There might be great as yet undiscovered indie authors out there desperate for an audience. They might figure that they’ll suck it up for now, build a loyal following then offer more good stuff on Amazon and Barnes and Noble later at higher prices. I’m normally a pretty positive guy but I don’t see that happening.

Of course I don’t have access to any of the sales figures for StoryBundle. They could very well be blowing out their number as readers pay three, five and ten dollars for bundles of fantastic content. I’m simply imagining how this would really work given what little I know about self-publishing and reader behavior.

I’d love to hear from authors out there—especially those who see things differently. Don’t get me wrong—I am open to the idea of contributing content to StoryBundle. I just haven’t figured out what to offer.

And now for some fun. Check out this Billy Mays video “Billy Mays Orders Food From A McDonald’s Drive Thru.”

What was great about Billy is that he was always selling. We could all take a lesson in that regard.

Related articles

Set Your Own Prices For StoryBundle Ebooks (lifehacker.com.au)
Can ebooks beat the piracy threat? (pcpro.co.uk)
“The DRM Free Movement for eBooks Expands” (economistsview.typepad.com)