A wish, specifically, for Critters

[anatoly]

I had this idea about open-source podcasting, and it would work very well in combination with Critters model. Here it is:

(1) authors submit stories, same as for Critters
(2) if they have no pro publication plans, they may opt to mark the "available" box
(3)for stories so marked, any Critters member has the option of "publishing" this story -- either as a nice, maybe even illustrated HTML or PDF, formatted for fun and clarity; or as a podcast, audio and/or video, ranging from a simple reading of the piece to something more elaborate -- basically whatever they want to do (open source, see?)
(4) They would then be "published" on the pay-if-you-feel like it page; people would have the option of paying (split 50:50 between author and publisher) or rating it -- but the trick is, the rating would apply to publisher, NOT author -- thus sparing the author's feeling (I understand perfectly why Critters does not have a linear rating system, and agree with it) but allowing a degree of pre-selectability by potential readers -- as in "I like this "publisher" because (s)he picks the stories I also tend to like and does them up in a fun way".

Let me know what you think -- the beauty of it is, only minimal enhancements to the Critters site would be needed, and for those who do not like this idea, NOTHING will change (they don't have to mark any story available and they don't have to visit the publication page which would be publically accessible).

[aburt]

Hmm, if there's interest in it (chime in here, folks) this might be doable between critters and my iFiction project. That is, an extension of iFiction.

It's not quite a direct extension of Critters, in that the manuscripts people post are the ones that need revision, and presumably will get revised. Once the author has finished revising, Critters doesn't see it, but someone could choose to put it into a pool for publishers to select from (and get rated on their selection ability etc. as you describe). iFiction already supports the "pay if you like it" payment model, as well as various others.

It would be nice if paypal or google checkout supported internally splitting one payment among multiple parties -- user clicks "pay 99cents" and paypal sends half each to the author and publisher. Wouldn't have to rely on publishers for accounting for royalties etc. Hey, maybe I'll add this as a wish for the future........