Future Think: Bookigee's WriterCube

Like those writers, McLean is in exploratory mode, a modern Margaret Mead in the authorial hills:

“I expect our work on behalf of authors is going to be evolving and growing, and much of what we do will come directly out of the community of authors we are working with. For me it's a little bit of an anthropological experience—who are authors in this new paradigm? What do they need?”

At this point, such questions tend to lead to more questions, inclusive of the best business model for WriterCube itself. McLean explains some of her recent thinking:

“We started WriterCube as a subscription product, but we’re now starting to explore moving the database to a freemium model, and instead looking for other ways to drive revenue, either as a marketplace for people to sell services, or as a slightly different kind of marketplace where they (and professional publicists) can sell great publicity lists. (Think an awesome contact list for YA, for instance.) This idea is working very well in the education space where teachers sell lesson plans.”

The primacy of the author is always McLean’s watchword, however. “Before we make any decisions on all that,” she says, “we're going to ask our users what they think.”

With the candor she’s known for in the industry, McLean talks with compassion about how tricky it can be to devise workable commercial frameworks at this early stage in the entrepreneurial author movement:

“This is a very steep curve authors are on. There is definitely a ‘bleeding edge’ of entrepreneurial authors who are rolling up their sleeves and digging in, but there are also lots of authors on other places of the curve. I believe entrepreneurial 
authorship is the future of a successful author career, but man, it takes a lot of diverse skills and a very particular attitude. And, it won't happen in a vacuum—we need an ecosystem that supports this career growth for authors, and plenty of smart people to help.”