I have been working on a personal project for six years now (in concept, writing and artwork design) off and on. Things keep coming up unless you stop all of it to finally get the work done that you REALLY enjoy doing; for me it was to finish this “World Concept Bible” that would break down all the pieces that I could then build on.

This week I’ve been rolling a Creative Commons angle around in my head very seriously since I’ve already accepted that I’m likely going to hire freelance writers to help build up the core content–paid for of course.

I am a HUGE fan of the CC license during my last 4 years doing web projects especially (all of which are By-Attribution now). I’d hate to use this post as a form of advertising, but if ANY writers out there are looking to pass their writing samples anywhere–please send me a link or sample! Click on my name above and we’ll initially connect that way!

In The Mob, would second level consideration be less likely to be thought of as publication if the core fans weren’t paying to read the stories? I think there’s several different directions you could take this basic approach. One would be to not require a password or reader payment, and have any readers vote on the popularity, with more popular stories being featured more prominently on the site.
Also, could you weld this onto some already existing social structure, and have it be the official publication of, say, a writer’s association?

I know some writers of RPGs have released material based on a “hostage model”, where they say, “I’ll release this material for free on the net once people donate $100″ or whatever sum. I’m not sure how that model could be translated to a zine rather than an individual author though…

And then there’s the possibility of a network/serial of smaller ARGs, each of which is trying to capture some facet of a larger world…

The Mob and The Soup were part of our Big Scary Idea for a workable, ad-supported online fiction publishing platform. Unfortunately, my day job is eating my life, or I might be able to pay more attention to BSI.

On the ARG side, we’re actively producing one as we speak (for a client that shall remain nameless). The business model on ARGs demands either (a) sponsorship, (b) building from a popular fictional world, or (c) ideally both.

When you’re building from a popular fictional world (we’re talking mega-bestseller or mega-blockbuster here), it is possible that you could fund an ARG by selling ancillary content. Yep, merchandising. We’re finding that many, many people will pay good money for “real” stuff that comes from places, companies, or people who never existed.

Keep thinkin. We’ll change this model sooner or later!

Joking aside – great post. Every publisher should read this.