In 2010, as I was discovering the joys of fiction writing, I also discovered a wonderful online community named Scribd where I could post my stories, and in workshop fashion, get critiques and responses. The writers whom I met were people whom I respected and admired then, and today: poets Dan Essman, Robin Rule, Cheryl Snell, and Barbara Alfaro (whose terrific memoir, Mirror Talk, is a book I love), and others such as Ingrid Ricks and Suzanne Rosenwasser, Sunny Lockwood and Rolando Garcia to name a few. All of are self-published authors, although some came from the traditional publishing world-- and are well worth knowing.
Scribd was my "go-to" site. I checked in a few times a day to see what new pieces my fellow writers had posted for me. I was eager to hear what their comments were on mine. Some relationships morphed into offline friendships -- telephone calls and meetings.
So what went wrong with Scribd? It had traffic, it had community, it had a loyal user base-- and then it was a dead zone.
It's a test case in how to get it wrong.
First was the publishing game. I posted to Scribd to get feedback, but that wasn't my end gane-- I expected to submit to literary magazines. Unfortunately, once I posted on Scribd, it was technically a publication -- and only the magazines that accepted "reprints" would touch it. That was bad news, and bad news travels. Scribd should have found a way to position itself with magazines as a workshop, and not a no-no. But it never played ball, and people like me learned our lesson.
Second, community basics. There were tensions at Scribd about what the value proposition was. Scribd had cool technology for getting PDFs, etc., into HTML, but its primary value to users was the community. And Scribd didn't get it. It abandoned its commitment to supporting the community. And guess what, users noticed-- and after a while, there wasn't any community to support.
Finally, customer support basics (and I do mean basic.) Putting in a request to Scribd was a quasi-existential exercise. Your post went missing-- too bad. Your followers vanished -- too bad. Emails went unanswered, and guess what, users fled.
A sad coda to this story. I had created collections of "theme-based" Scribd pieces: Spooky Stories, Funny Stories, Mothers and Daughters, Fathers and Daughters, and so on. I'd put effort into these, because I valued my fellow writers. I tweeted these collection so that others could read some of the great stories and essays that I'd discovered on the site. Scribd recently "deleted" my account when I unlinked it from Facebook, and now those collections are lost.
Things change, and not always for the better. A cautionary tale for any website.
Scribd was my "go-to" site. I checked in a few times a day to see what new pieces my fellow writers had posted for me. I was eager to hear what their comments were on mine. Some relationships morphed into offline friendships -- telephone calls and meetings.
So what went wrong with Scribd? It had traffic, it had community, it had a loyal user base-- and then it was a dead zone.
It's a test case in how to get it wrong.
First was the publishing game. I posted to Scribd to get feedback, but that wasn't my end gane-- I expected to submit to literary magazines. Unfortunately, once I posted on Scribd, it was technically a publication -- and only the magazines that accepted "reprints" would touch it. That was bad news, and bad news travels. Scribd should have found a way to position itself with magazines as a workshop, and not a no-no. But it never played ball, and people like me learned our lesson.
Second, community basics. There were tensions at Scribd about what the value proposition was. Scribd had cool technology for getting PDFs, etc., into HTML, but its primary value to users was the community. And Scribd didn't get it. It abandoned its commitment to supporting the community. And guess what, users noticed-- and after a while, there wasn't any community to support.
Finally, customer support basics (and I do mean basic.) Putting in a request to Scribd was a quasi-existential exercise. Your post went missing-- too bad. Your followers vanished -- too bad. Emails went unanswered, and guess what, users fled.
A sad coda to this story. I had created collections of "theme-based" Scribd pieces: Spooky Stories, Funny Stories, Mothers and Daughters, Fathers and Daughters, and so on. I'd put effort into these, because I valued my fellow writers. I tweeted these collection so that others could read some of the great stories and essays that I'd discovered on the site. Scribd recently "deleted" my account when I unlinked it from Facebook, and now those collections are lost.
Things change, and not always for the better. A cautionary tale for any website.
7 comments:
Indeed a very sad end to a wonderful meeting place, which once used to be. Losing a collection is really shocking.
Amazing post.
You cannot imagine how much work each of my collections took! Labors of love, lost.
You cannot imagine how much work each of my collections took! Labors of love, lost.
Carla, I joined Scribd in 2009 and my experience mirrors yours. Scribd was a great place to post work and enjoy a strong sense of community with other writers. But, for whatever reasons, Scribd has changed. Now there isn't even a feature where one can leave comments and that's a pretty clear way of saying they don't care what Scribd members think. I treasure my ongoing friendships with Scribd writers and that is something that will not change.
Thanks so much for your kind comments about my work and for plugging my memoir.
I found your great blog through the WLC Blog Follows on the World Literary Cafe! Great to Connect!
Carla -
I miss Scribd and you hit the reasons for its demise. The best to be said at this point is worth repeating: the strength of its beginnings is inherent in the bond we all formed in its original community. I felt so supported there at one time - and am delighted we were lucky enough to get the best it had to offer at the time and hold on to it.
I miss Scribd too, and as you said, most of all, I miss the people. I'm not sure why Scribd management changed it, but I think they probably weren't making money or at least not as much as they wanted. I've no idea how successful the "new Scribd" is, and I have wondered. Anyway, I will always value the people I met. Sorry they lost your writing. They made some mistakes with mine as well, and I think almost everyone had one problem or another. It was good while it lasted!
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