I’ve been quiet about the latest brouhaha kerfuffle in the blogging and podcasting circles, wondering if the free model is dead. As someone who has been giving her writing away online for free since 2004, this has been of great interest to me, so I’ve just been thinking a lot about it.
I’ve read the opinions from the content creators, and the fans, and the very opinionated armchair quarterbacks (no, they don’t get a link. They annoy me.) And I’ve finally realized there are two things that have been bothering me about this whole thing.
1) The Tool is not the Content
We lose sight of this so frequently. It makes sense: we call ourselves podcasters, bloggers, columnists, novelists, defining ourselves not by the content (writing), but by the method of distribution. This is okay; it’s human nature to need to define things, to put things in boxes, to sort things so they make sense.
A problem arises when someone decides to stop using one tool in favor of another. My good friend JC Hutchins decided to do just this. He’s a brilliant writer, a creator of innovative content, and he decided that the podcast was not the tool that was building what he wanted. He wants to switch tools. And some people are quite upset about it. Others are worried about What It Means for the free model.
Why are people upset? Are they worried they’ll never again experience something that he creates? I’m going to bet cash money that Hutch is going to still create. He’s too brilliant not to. If you honestly like his stories, you will push yourself to experience them in the way that he delivers them.
Are they worried that his work won’t be for free anymore? If a free gravy train is all you want, there’s plenty of other free content still being developed.
But does this mean that free is dead? Should we all just quit?
No. And this brings me to my second point.
2) Everyone Has Different Goals.
It honestly makes me very sad when an eager writer tells me s/he wants to podcast their novel like I did, but have no reason why they want to do it and no solid goal. They see the end result-podcasted novel led to audience building led to publication-but they don’t know the thought process behind it or all the work that went into it. Whenever you start a creative endeavor, you have to have a goal. Whatever the goal is doesn’t matter, but you have to work toward something. It could be anything:
- Publication
- Audience size of X (this is what I’m focusing on with ISBW right now)
- $Y (I did this with War)
So many people just want to “put their work out there” and see what happens. I know; I’ve been guilty of this. Then, after hundreds of hours of work on the back end, they put their podcast up and then… what? What are they hoping for? What are they expecting? “Listeners?” How many? “Publication?” By whom? How wide of a distribution model? If they don’t have a goal in mind, how can they say it was a successful experiment?
They’re focusing on the tool. They want to play with the hammer, but no idea what they want to build. And yeah, sometimes playing with the hammer can inspire you to build great things that you wouldn’t have thought of, but more often than not, just going out and buying a hammer with no plan in mind has rarely led to anything awesome.
A key point here, one that very few people think about (and I think this is an unspoken thing that separates people like Scott Sigler and JC Hutchins from most other podcasters) is that FIRST you have a goal, THEN you decide what tools to use. For example:
Goal: audience building and publication of my book.
Tools: podcasting, blogging, Facebook, Twitter, street teams, queries.
Here’s a basic, basic concept. When you’re using a tool to achieve a goal, and the tool isn’t working, stop using the tool. Hutch never hid his goals: he wants to make a living writing. After several years and thousands of hours of podcasting his work for free, I think he has enough experience to make an educated decision that this tool is not the one he needs to use to reach his goals.
And if you disagree with his goals, or argue that he should still use the tools of podcasting and the free model for your preferred needs, you don’t get to make that decision. Content creators are not your bitch.
Podcasting isn’t dead. The free model isn’t dead. Just like hammers aren’t dead. If that’s not the tool that will build a tiny model dinosaur skeleton for you, get a laser cutter.
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22 Responses to The tool is not the content
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Killer read, Mur. Thanks for supporting my decision, and for thoughtfully exploring the far wider issue.
Excellent post Mur. There has been the air of slight panic in the podcast author community in the last few weeks. JC put down his hammer, but he has a whole toolbox of other choices. I look forward to seeing what he makes with them
Well said.
-Dan
Nicely written article that I agree with 100%. I think that the creative process has to be selfish on some level, or else its pandering.
@james – selfish? That’s kind of a harsh word. That’s like saying that anyone with a career is selfish if they want to do what’s best to advance that career. Selfish McDonald’s employee wants to make manager!
Ditto ^
This is why I love the internet. I’ve been pondering what I wanted to post about this issue for a while, and now I don’t have to. You said exactly what I wanted to say, Mur. Thanks.
Thanks, Mur, I’ve been waiting for someone to put this debate in terms of personal goals. I thought long and hard about podcasting my novel. It’s my first novel and I’ve kept my expectations about where and how far it may go quietly reserved. Frankly I doubt it will ever be published, but that hasn’t stopped me from trying out all the traditional “tools” of publishing.
So far I have a lovely little pile of rejections to show for my efforts and surely there will be more to come. In the process I’ve learned more about those “tools” and their application than I could ever have learned from books or blogs, so it hasn’t been a waste of my time. The main thing I’ve learned, however, is that they have not fulfilled my primary goal when I was writing the story.
What I really want more than fame, fortune or a writing career is to tell this story to an audience. What I’m getting out of podcasting is exactly that, I’m storytelling! If at the same time I’m also building name recognition, an audience, a platform or whatever is subservient to my desired goal.
So in a way I’m the poler opposite of Hutch, I don’t want to trade in the day job (35 years doing something I enjoy) for a writing career, I don’t want the big book deals, the signing tours, the guest spots on Oprah. I just want to tell stories.
Based on my experience so far, I’ll probably continue podcasting my writing and giving it away for free. If at some point I decide to stop submitting queries and announce in a blog that I will no longer seek to publish my work, do you think there would be an uproar like this? I doubt it.
So relax folks, there will be plenty of us out there still pumping out free stories to listen to. Even if the publishing Gods should bend down and anointist me with contract, I shall dwell in the house of podcasting. And I suspect I’m not alone.
Paulette Jaxton
Storyteller
I don’t think the Free model is going to be, to use a phrase I usually hate unless Marc Maron is using it “become the new paradigm,” but that doesn’t mean it’s going to die like some people were worried about when J.C. made his post. I think it’s just going to be a niche. Which is fine. Even Hollywood makes niche movies. Look at Kevin Smith’ Dogma for example. That is not a mass market movie. A lot of the jokes don’t even make sense unless you are either a Catholic or know quite a bit about Catholicism.
I hope that all made sense, I just woke up and I’ve still got sleep gunk in my left eye.
I confess, I love to play with the hammer……
But I don’t put out on the internet what I’ve made with it because that hasn’t been my goal.
Just like you said, my goal is more to just have fun with things like seeing what it’s like to make a podcast. (It’s a lot harder than it seems, btw!)
As for the free model, I applaud everyone’s efforts who has put good, free content out there for us to consume. Thank you. (And I thank you with finances as well, whenever I see an opportunity.)
Hey Mur,
Excellent post. I’ve been feeling the same disillusionment as Hutch with the free model. Of course, I agree that the model can be wonderful. Building an audience is a critical part of a successful creative career and giving away content is a great way to do that. But yes, you need a plan, and you also need an iron gut or you can find yourself feeling cheated and burned-out. Keeping on top of the constant creative output can take away from the long-term, deep, thought-out work. That has been my experience and has been the reason for my extreme pull-back from podcasting. This is coming from someone whose podcast IS her work. I don’t podcast books that I can later sell. I podcast podcasts. Obviously this makes my situation different from yours or Hutch’s or Scott’s. Also, in many ways it makes my situation worse because, while folks will still shell-out for a hardcover, who wants to buy a podcast?
I’m still making my show, I will always make it because I love the immediacy of the medium, but these days the majority of my energy goes towards creating something more indelible, lasting and complete — also sell-able
Will I consider podcasting some of it? Absolutely. But all of it? For free? Not a chance. We all need to be compensated for the work we produce. Compensation can come in many forms but money is my favorite. Huge props to those who manage to release complete works for free AND get paid for them. That is the best of both worlds. But it is not the norm and it takes a tremendous amount of consistent output, which to my overworked brain just isn’t an option right now.
But even if it were an option, on some fundamental level, it still just doesn’t seem fair.
Great post. You are right that we need to think about goals first and tools second. I need to do that. I want to use all tools and end up scattering myself too thinly.
I think James is right – “selfish” is a loaded word so I can see why you reacted to it, but I do think creative people need to create for themselves first. Otherwise everyone wants a piece of you and you get all used up.
I think we’re always better off when we think of ourselves as creators and storytellers, and not as “podcasters.” After all, if you’re in print, do you call yourself a “paperbacker”? I’m being deliberately silly…
Spot on assessments here, Mur.
We tend to so love our particular favorite tool, that we want to use it in every situation. And we are slow to give grace to others who prefer different tools.
I appreciate the content but I would expect the people who do these great works to consider all their tools. Creativity should be rewarded and if that includes a monetary sum then better still. I am happy that they were willing to share their stuff for free but to expect them to give everything away is the Selfish thought.
What Caitlin said, creative people need to create for themselves first. An important part of creativity is self expression. You should create what you want to create first. If you decide you want to sell what you create, then you use different tools to do so. Maybe “get your needs met” is a better phrase than selfish.
Clear, focused, wise, and informative. That’s why I drop by here. Thank you.
See my latest post since it was spawned by the comment I was originally going to leave here.
I guess that’s why it’s important to quantify your goals, otherwise you don’t know if you’re winning or losing… You don’t know if your current tools are doing the job.
Excellent points! I enjoy playing with the hammer for what content I produce but at the end of the day it really is just serving its purpose: to wave a big sign that says, “HEY! LOOK OVER HERE!!” in the hope that eventually someone will hear my stuff and say, “Hey, we enjoy your content! If we give you a large sack of money will you come and produce some for us?” (Yes, sadly, at this stage one of my goals is to sell out. As soon as humanly possible.) Of course, for me, that means I have to try to go beyond just podcasting and play with an array of other tools as well. I haven’t podcasted much fiction as of yet, not yet having completed that elusive First Novel (which currently hangs unfinished about my neck like an albatross), but I’ll jump off that bridge when I come to it – after working out whether I want to use the same hammer for it or switch to a different tool first.
Great post! People seem to forget that “form follows function,” not the other way around.
Fascinating read about a subject that I’m just beginning to grasp.