Introduction

We are addicted to drama and we prefer it fresh. Our stories, the news, the family scandal - all have more impact if the event in question is beyond normal. Perhaps this is evolution’s way of making us learn by other people’s misfortune - preferably at a distance. We have never been safer or more privileged but it does not always seem that way. Murder and violence and theft are newsworthy because they are beyond ordinary whereas acts of small kindness - the billions of tolerant interactions, the trillions of theft opportunities forgone - are so commonplace that they go unnoticed. I do not wish to imply that we are all saints. Most of us live in the complex grey zone where we are capable of bad things given the circumstances but I believe that most people in a modern society have been civilised and are basically good. It is right that we lock our valuables and protect ourselves and those close to us from predators, but we should not allow the imbalance of perceptions to push us into fear of our neighbours. With that in mind, I ran an experiment that meshed nicely with the writing adventure that is now my life. Most writers do not write for money but many dream of making a living from their work. Most will be disappointed. Anyone who spends a year or ten creating a novel is probably making one of the worst business decisions of their life. Thankfully, life is more than a business. Still, if you hope to reach more than a handful of readers, the risk in time and unearned income is great. Those who look at The Honesty Project as a foolish risk do not understand the risk every writer takes. I worry more about spending the rest of my life working on something no-one will read than I do about losing a few thousand pounds on an experiment dear to my heart. I will go without a bed and work through the years to find my readers. If I get lucky, things will get easier and if not, I’ll never be bored. You can read about the background leading to the project here. This is what happened:

Summary of Results

At the close of play, 807 people paid, predominantly after reading the book. This falls short of the 1,000 target but is almost three times the maximum predicted by experts. Of those who paid, approximately 500 gave their contact details. This was by default if they paid by mobile or online via Paypal or Google Checkout. When paying by cheque, two thirds included a note or letter and many added their physical or email address. When meeting people in person, I was often offered money on the spot but always refused until it felt rude doing so. When I thought that, I thanked them and accepted but that was the exception. On a number of occasions, people left money when they picked up a book (when I was not present). Then, I might trip over a pile of coins or a note protected by a plastic bag partially sticking out from under a stone (days or even weeks later). This happened on the Isle of Arran in particular and I suspect was repeated in other remote locations I am unaware of. In one example, I left a box full of books outside Laggan Cottage while I attended the Edinburgh Festival. When I returned, I was pleased to see that many of the books were gone. The instructions were clear and emphasised on the lid of the box: Only pay after reading. However, on this occasion, there was £96 worth of cash littering the inside. Large and small coins and notes were just lying about - a child’s dream of treasure. While the absolute sum is modest, it represents a gift far more valuable. The month was August, a period when many walkers pass by the cottage. That people felt compelled to on-the-spot honesty is admirable enough and I am truly grateful, however, it is also easy to visualise all the others who opened the lid, saw the money and then closed it again. Sincere and anonymous honesty was as evident in those uninterested in the book as in those who were. I had six people send me full payment because they loved the project but did not enjoy the book. For the last 5,000 books, I altered the instructions to include the promise to pay £1.00 if they did not like it. I did this to log the difference between honest people who did not like the story and the books that simply disappeared for whatever reason. I was anxious to learn the following: Would I get (say) nine single £1.00 coins for every happy payment, implying that 90% of readers hated it? Surprisingly (and thankfully) the ratio was 2:1. For every two proper payments, I also received a single honesty thumbs-down. It is difficult to extrapolate accurately because the factors involved are so diverse, but I was truly pleased and if anyone reading this report sent me £1.00 I cannot thank you enough. The information you conveyed in doing so has value far beyond the sum involved.

Analysis

When I started the Honesty Project, many people warned me about mass-theft but in my opinion that pales into insignificance when other factors are taken into account. While most people are decent, I only have to look at myself to see a tendency to laziness, forgetfulness, well- intentioned promises that are overtaken by life’s events and many other reasons to take a book and put it in the drawer to be read someday never. TV, Facebook, digital games, movies, Twitter and a thousand other competitors have taken their toll. If they were to be honest many who think themselves readers are actually out of the habit. With luck, eBooks will help but the publishing world is truly under siege. My working assumption was that I would lose at least 50% of all books to non-readers and to attrition (for instance street cleaners binning them or storms blowing them to a distant mush or children chucking them on a bonfire). The second major factor lies in the random nature of distribution. Of those that reached genuine and honest readers, there was no account taken of age or gender or genre preference. How many readers only like a small range of authors, how many prefer romance, abhor violence, need a murder on the first page or a joke or sex or…? The danger in reaching individuals who would not normally read something like Dreamwords is obvious and one that I calculated (a wild-assed guess) might account for at least another 25% attrition. Thus, I guesstimated, the meaningful distribution figure was around 25%. My hope was that, if 2,500 books got into the hands of true readers who were honest and motivated, a good percentage would enjoy it enough to act. While the final tally falls short of the 1,000 I hoped for, it would take a mean spirit to be unimpressed by 807. Remember, that (normally) between 80% and 90% of a book’s final price goes on getting it to a reader - not to the author. I was merely swapping one cost of delivery for another with the hope of setting Dreamwords on a path that would grow into the future. I was fascinated by the difference between the return from one location and another. I missed a trick by not asking respondents to tell me where they picked their copy up from. Thankfully many did but I was unable to run parallel experiments without binning crucial data. For that reason, and others, I cannot tell precisely how one area fared over another but when the difference in response was extreme and the signal large enough to read, the disparity was obvious. The lowest return was through ‘dumping’ the books on city streets. I’m not sure if many were cleaned away or those who picked them up were running their lives at a hundred miles an hour or if age had anything to do with it, but the figure was around 4% (no more than 6%). This compared dramatically with the Isle of Arran and (surprisingly) a car boot sale in Lanark where the response rate was closer to a remarkable 30%. There was also a high success rate from the town of Nairn on the Moray coast (one person was kind enough to tell me that I’d set the town abuzz). Looking at the commonalities, my impression is that (statistically speaking) the more mature the population in a particular location, the more likely the book would find a good honest home. I see many men enjoying the book but there were definitely more women. When making such general statements, I must counter with the number of young people who went out of their way to not only pay but to tell me that they loved Dreamwords and what I was doing. It may not be an honesty issue but one of time and opportunity. I am not sure but the lesson of location is well taken. For obvious reasons, I refer to Laggan Cottage on Arran. Laggan is remote. There are no roads and it is wild. It is a walk that you can do in an afternoon or take the day over - just adventurous enough for all ages but not enough for young people bent on training for Everest. It is also the setting for Tom Corven (the book at the centre of The Honesty Edition). It is hardly surprising then, that a high number might be engaged by the story. They have an intimate connection with the place and the adventure of that day they found the novel. I also believe that you have to be motivated to read the book in order to put something extra in your rucksack for the hike back. Arran is not inexpensive. To take a walking holiday there, you have to have a reasonable disposable income. It attracts adventurous families and older people who take pleasure in making the time to stand and stare. I also suspect something in the nature of people who value experience over objects but that is quite a subjective view. Taking all of the above into consideration, it seems that - among genuine readers and not taking account of genre preference - as many as 30% might enjoy Dreamwords. As a purely marketing exercise, I was pleased to learn that the response never dropped below 3% in any location Conclusions I did not plan the project for immediate financial success. That was not the point. In doing something genuinely new, you always give some margin to the notion of abject failure and some to the dream of runaway luck but this is a long-term project designed to move The Dreamwords Series up a notch, not a get rich quick scheme. Asked if I would recommend someone doing what I did, I always answer ‘No’. However, if you had asked me before and as I launched the project, the answer would have been the same. This was a challenge that fitted my writing adventure and a small step towards a commercially successful Dreamwords Series. Some people go running, some climb mountains, some hitchhike Ireland with a fridge and others spend their lives chipping at their sanity for a crust. I fully get why some people might wonder at my choices but I equally feel sorry for those who do not have the freedom to choose. If instead, the question asked was this: Was the Honesty Project a success? Then the answer is ‘Yes’. I met print costs, thousands of new people have now heard of Dreamwords and I have a list of incredible readers who jumped through hoops to pay for it. In today’s digital world and given my status as an unknown writer, it is up to me to make that count. Much will depend on The Journal. If those who paid follow through and buy a copy of that book and subsequently enjoy it, it will then put a seal on that success. This will only happen if the work I put in delivers on the promise they saw in Tom Corven. If it does and readers are kind enough to review it well, this could propel the series up the charts and give it visibility. I have done everything I can and it is down to the actions of others but each reader is self-selected and has demonstrated integrity and motivation. I cannot ask for more than that. A Final Comment I stress the point about the Honesty Project being more than a business venture. With that in mind, I want to share the following: We are living in an incredible age. If you are lucky to be born in a wealthy country, you are already winning. I feel passionately about this privilege and grateful to the system and people who have made it possible now and through the ages. As technology continues apace, be prepared to have your socks blown off. Scientists, engineers and business people are delivering a world of possibilities but there is a real danger in isolating ourselves from each other. The Honesty Project has given me a thousand wonderful memories. It was a challenge and a joy. It brought me closer to the world and made me appreciate a little more those who share it with us. I’ll never forget the father who wrote to say that he and his daughter were out walking in the early snow by the seaside during the Christmas holidays. They could not believe it when they found the book together, sitting there as though waiting for them to come. It was like magic and a memory-in-making that they shared together in that moment and when they read the book. I also laughed at the story of the CEO of a NE Company who loved the book and the concept but could not get the time to read uninterrupted. He had his eye on an island or the scar at the end of Cruden Bay which is cut off by a high tide where he could turn the phone off and no-one could get to him. I got a particular kick when a young man told me that he had not picked up a book since school and never for pleasure but on finding a copy of Dreamwords he was so curious that he had to read it. He enjoyed the story so much that he was now determined to try others. There are too many stories to list and this report is already long enough. I just want to say to everyone who engaged with the project in any way: I am truly humbled. Thank you all. Paul

Midge-Bitten

In the future, I imagine a cure for the notorious Scottish midge. For that reason, I left them out of The Journal but they did not care while I was on location at Camasunary on Skye.

On Location - Arran

Sometimes at Laggan, I dreamt of taxis.

The Honesty Box - Laggan

One day, this box was picked up by the wind - complete with 67 books and smashed against the rocks. Kind walkers collected and secured the books and the next day I spent hours scouring the area for green and blue plastic shards. The box is no more.

To Buy Dreamwords

Both Tom Corven and The Journal are available online in all major ebook stores. The Journal is also available in print from your normal Amazon outlet. Just enter Dreamwords as the search term in the Kindle, iBooks or other store or click below for UK and US: From the UK: Amazon The Journal kindle   print Tom Corven kindle iBooks The Journal ebook Tom Corven ebook From the US: Amazon The Journal kindle   print Tom Corven kindle iBooks The Journal ebook Tom Corven ebook