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Horror NOT! Podcaster Scott Sigler snags $500K+ three-book deal with Crown
April 14, 2007 | 8:07 am
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By David Rothman
Sci-fi horror novelist Scott Sigler, known for his free podcasts of Ancestor, EarthCore and other works, has made a three-book sale to Crown, a major group within Random House.
The word on Pub Row is that the deal is at least $500K range. Way to go, Scott! Hey, Sadi and I knew you when.
As reported by Publishers Marketplace, the works in the deal are:
–”Infested, about an everyman’s bloody battle against a mysterious parasite that hijacks his body and pushes his thoughts into a psychotic rage.” The horror’s in the books, not the deal.
–”The sequel Contagious, in which those murder-inducing parasites are just the first wave of a more sinister plot.”
–”A third, stand-alone book.”
So, Scott, when are you going to make that big movie sale? I’ll be surprised if one doesn’t happen, given the number and enthusiasm of your fans.
The big lesson here: In Scott’s case “free” did pay off. Those free podcasts built up the audience for his for-sale books. The question is whether this will work for zillions and zillions of writers once the novelty wears off. Incidentally, Scott’s deal is significant in one other way—as further indication that the worlds of the Net and big publishing are converging. Meanwhile I suspect that more than a few fans are hoping that Scott’s new works will appear as e-books before or at the same time as the paper editions do.
Note: Scott’s free audiobooks are still available.
Correction: The deal was $500K or above, “major” in the parlance of Publisher’s Marketplace / Publisher’s Lunch, rather than in lower range reported earlier. Mea culpa. I’ve changed the numbers elsewhere in this item.
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Comments:
Scott is successful because he is a talented author and writes a good story.
Podcasting worked for Scott because, in addition to being a good author, he’s also a good entertainer – he reads his work well.
Finally, the “free” part merely got his work into the hands of the public (because the publishing industry wasn’t doing it for Scott). While thousands of people like Scott’s work, many more probably listened and decided it wasn’t for them. But it cost them nothing to try Scott’s work out.
Which leaves you feeling better: spending $0 and finding that you don’t like the author’s work, or spending $15 and finding that you don’t like the author’s work.
If an author doesn’t have a good product, it won’t sell – no matter what.
If an author can’t read his work well, he should probably not try to podcast it (unfortunately, I’ve encountered a few of these).
And “try before you buy” is an old, tried-and-true marketing technique. More authors should do this. John Scalzi posted chapter 1 of his new “The Android’s Dream” on his blog. That allowed many, many people try try his work before spending the money.
If you’re interested in freely podcast stories, check out The Secret World Chronicle, a superhero series podcast whose authors include Mercedes Lackey.
Just a note – all my books will continue to be free, ad-supported podcasts. That’s a big part of this deal, that I get to keep engaging with my fans for as long as I do this.
Now that being said, it doesn’t mean that INFESTED is the same story as the one heard for free on the podcast. I’ve already re-written it, using a log of what I learned while podcasting it. The new version is much stronger, has new science, and sets up the sequel CONTAGIOUS. So sure, I gave it away for free, but if people really like the free version, they might consider paying the $ for the print version. We’ll see how it goes over.
[...] Scott Sigler gets a three-book deal with Crown Publishing (a Random House imprint). (John learned about it through Twitter!) We think this is another great example of the power of Social Media and self-publishing. Chia-Lin thinks this could be the first crack in the walls of book publishing. You heard it hear first, folks… ;) [...]
[...] There were tales of people screaming for the touchdowns, going wild for come-from-behind wins and generally acting like fans of their real football team. I even heard one caller who doesn’t like science fiction at all but still enjoyed the story immensely. It’s no wonder that when his Ancestor print novel was released the junkies pushed him so high on the Amazon listings that he landed a 3 book deal with Crown Publishing Group. [...]