[lbo-talk] Dumb QOTD: What kind of labor produces intellectual property?

[// ravi]

On Sep 5, 2011, at 4:38 PM, Michael Pollak wrote:
> On Sun, 4 Sep 2011, Doug Henwood wrote:
> 
>>> $6000 for the book Wall Street
>> 
>> It was a great deal for Verso, which made something like $300,000 from the book.
> 
> So you made 2% of the take?
> 
> I honestly have to wonder whether you would do any worse on an aggresive cyber tip jar basis.  That is, if you wrote a book, told people they could download it for free but if they liked it, the suggested donation was 10 bucks.
> 

My guess is that donations are a tricky business… everyone seems to assume that someone else will donate. I think if you could (perhaps via Kindle / Amazon store) sell an book for something below the concerns of the conscious brain (say less than $5), then you would do better. The key for that, I suppose, is visibility.


> Or alternatively, has anyone ever financed a book via Kickstarter?  Where nobody would pay unless you reached your goal of say $20k?  And then you could do the tip jar on top of that?

That would be interesting.


> Just wondering out loud.

Same here!

	—ravi