Was This the First CC Community-Edited Novel?

Odinson writes "In late 2005 I released a draft of a science fiction novel under the by-nc-nd CC license. I started accepting edits in the hope of polishing a manuscript for submission to a publisher. A publisher never materialized, but after thousands of comments the draft started getting really solid. So a couple of months ago I decided to buy an ISBN and sell hard copies from Lulu. While doing research for a press release, I was unable to uncover the first community-edited, CC-licensed work of fiction. I strongly suspect that my novel is the first. Can anybody point to a prior example? How about under other licenses? If someone has traveled this road before, I'd like to ask them how it went. I would also like to vet this question here before staking a claim to be the first."

Comments

Cheap publicity.

[urcreepyneighbor]

I hope you realize that this sounds like nothing more than a cheap publicity stunt?

This novel was originally posted online as a rough draft in late 2005. It has made great strides, receiving tens of thousands of reader contributions. It has received good reader reviews, and has been downloaded 6000 times in a two year span. So, do the people that helped you get a cut of the $12.95?

Re:Cheap publicity.

[freedom_india]

So, do the people that helped you get a cut of the $12.95? That is the main problem of crowd sourcing or open sourced works.
Who profits off wikipedia? The maintainer, the contributors, ?
How do we distribute?
Is it the cost of printing (which is permissible) or more?

Re:Cheap publicity.

[QuantumG]

If there's people who are willing to do the editing for free, why would you pay them?

Re:Cheap publicity.

[endofcell]

This is not a problem of crowdsourcing at all. Contributors to Mozilla and Firefox don't ask for a cut of the profits/donations it receives from Google or other partnerships, and users of the browser don't get paid for using it. The fact you get to use Wikipedia is enough, and no one forces you to contribute to the common good, or commons. If you want to participate that is a free choice. You should not be vilified for trying to get some revenue back for open sourcing your work -- you should be congratulated for releasing it as such rather than going for the default 'commercial' model.

Re:Cheap publicity.

[Chapter80]

So, do the people that helped you get a cut of the $12.95?

Anyone else think this is funny? The fact that the parent contributed this comment to a forum that is making money from ads off this very page!

Using this logic, Slashdot should be paying its contributors. Surely the comments are a significant source of value to the readers, and they don't pay a penny for them.

Re:Cheap publicity.

[PopeRatzo]

The fact that the parent contributed this comment to a forum that is making money from ads off this very page!

There are ads here? Hell, I've been a subscriber so long I've completely forgotten that /. has advertisements.

Ad-block is the bomb.

No Derivative Works + Edits?

[not_surt]

Aren't they somewhat contrary?

Re:Fanfic

[jackharrer]

Slashdot.org

sometimes it feels like south american novel...

Re:Fanfic

[rvw]

Slashdot.org sometimes it feels like south american novel... I think the "novelty" here is that this is the first slashdotted book!

Re:It's been done before

[AlterRNow]

At least that kept me reading from start to finish. In some books the first 2 paragraphs nearly force you to put the book down.

Re:Fanfic

[the phantom]

Actually, you may not be too far off. Anyone else remember Jon Katz, and his book on Columbine? "Voices from the Hellmouth," or something like that -- it was a bunch of Slashdot comments slapped between two covers...

Re:Peter Watts

[Odinson]

This post is one of the better ones I have read. I may not be brilliant, but I'm smart enough to know no matter what I say there is a grains of truth to this. Except this part.

"I'm not sure what's so notable about the "community-edited" part. It sounds like an attempt to make a false analogy between fiction writing and software development."

It may seem like that, but based on my experience I respectfully disagree. You may have weighed the cost benefit of paying an editor over asking a group of people for help for yourself, but getting other smart people involved with the book has helped me and the book in many ways. Ways I am certain a single editor could not have. They may not be mutually exclusive, but I think the book has come far enough that I don't need that step.

Here are a few examples of what I mean.

1. I have learned a number of grammatical rules I did not know before. A paid editor would simply have washed them away for me.
2. I have engaged groups of people knowlagable in the arts and sciences who where also familiar with the book before it went stable. This helped correct errors in this book and gives me ideas for future works.
3. I got to review every change making it easier to keep continuity in a series.
4. Because of the period of public transition (peer review) I was able to discuss or even test the science in the book. I think many a slashdoter will agree that the many websites dedicated to really bad science in science fiction are both hilarious and humiliating for the authors.

And this part.

"There's also a massive oversupply of people who think they can write fiction, so it's not exactly exciting news that someone is willing to give me his novel for free."

Don't assume that just because something is gratis that it sucks. An open source nerd should know better. Where am I? Slashdot or the Time Warner boardroom?