Dollar Downloads: a Jacobism

If there’s one thing I’ve learned about writing, its that it’s very rare for pure, unadulterated inspiration to come your way, especially in something you have to do on the regular like publishing a blog, something that, without any proper motivation, doesn’t feel like its worth the effort of trying to put something into words. So, I said, why not, I might as well try to write something. And I figured that one of the many, many words I’ve come up with to describe phenomena without actual words for them, specifically, the “Dollar Download.”

Okay, quick e-book history lesson. Around the mid-2000s or so, back when Amazon’s unapologetic monopoly was but a twinkle in Jeff Bezos’s eyes, Kindle and the e-book came onto the scene. Now, like a lot of storefronts, Kindle had a bit of a problem: there weren’t enough books to sell to people. While, yes, there were public domain books, that wasn’t exactly the major incentive for folks to pick up those hot new “e-readers” that Bezos had probably bought the patent for. So, Amazon offered aspiring authors a unique, but not unheard of service--the ability to publish whatever you pleased for cheap. No publishers, no publicists, nada. You didn’t even need to put any cash down, if you didn’t want to. All you needed to do was submit a Word document or PDF, a digital cover, and an asking price as low as 99¢. And make no mistake; that 99¢ price point was quite popular. It meant plenty of exposure, if nothing else, and if you played your cards right, you could get people to buy something based solely on the cover, whether it be ridiculous, sexy, or unique in some other manner. Make no mistake; this strategy worked. o much so that it created an entire genre of literature I’ve come to refer to as “Dollar Downloads,” or “Dollar Dreck,” if I’m feeling extra bitter and cynical.

Dollar Downloads are a book--typically in the snug 20-30k word, or 100-150 page, length of a Goosebump, Animorphs, or Babysitter’s club book--you can pick up for a dollar or so on Kindle, Nook, or any a number of existing e-lit providers. While you may be able to pick up a physical copy of the book, they’ll typically be pricier because even in this day and age, printing costs money and then some. Bonus points if said book is the first book in a series.

Like a lot of things in this world, Dollar Downloads, or at least the culture surrounding such books, has a long, interesting lineage. I’d argue the Dollar Download comes from two separate places--fan-fiction and the “cheap” literature of the past.

When I say “cheap” literature, I mean the long, long history of books printed on the cheap and meant to pad out book stores and potentially supermarkets, drug stores, and anywhere else that didn’t exactly cater to the discerning reader. Think penny dreadfuls, dime novels, pulp fiction, and airport books. Books that are primarily meant to be light reading, not the sort of thing that will win a Nobel prize in literature. “Low culture,” if you will. Which isn’t to say that all of those types of books, or Dollar Downloads, are without their fans, or will inherently lack cultural relevance.

After all, Penny dreadful characters like Sweeney Todd, Springheel Jack, and Varney the Vampire have all remained culturally relevant over the years. The dime novel, arguably the American equivalent of the British penny dreadful, popularized the western, a powerhouse genre of fiction that shaped most every medium of the 20th century, and helped build the legend of Buffalo Bill. Pulp fiction tales of action and adventure were the start of such characters as Doc Savage, Tarzan, Conan the Barbarian, Zorro and the Shadow [HE-HE-HE]. Hell, the science fiction-horror juggernaut that is the C’thulu mythos got its start in cheap, “trashy” pulp magazines. The airport novel, meanwhile, is arguably the form of literature in this day and age. Aside from giving us Stephen King and Michael Crichton, you’d be hard-pressed to find any year where Hollywood hasn’t graced us with an adaptation of an Airport novel. The Dollar Download, meanwhile, looks to be taking its place in this pantheon of “low culture.” Aside from the 50 Shades books, I’m pretty sure that that gay hockey show started as a dollar download. Hell, Dungeon Crawler Carl and the entire “lit-RPG” genre most likely came about because of Dollar Downloads.

If there’s one difference between the dollar download and previous forms of “low” literature, the genres you can find for these types of books are capital V varied. Thanks to these books technically not taking up actual space, you’re allowed to have as many books as many different genres as you like. You can find romance of course, and queer romance, but also sports-based queer/romance, cozy romance in every setting this side of Warhammer 40k to “urban” romance, Alpha-verse stuff (warning: click that link at your own peril), and smut versions of each of the following. If that’s not your speed, there’s also cozy slice-of-life, “isekai” (a very specific kind of portal fiction), fantasy worlds invading our own, unapologetic villains as protagonists, “extreme” horror (how much gore is too much for you? Think that, but add even more), urban fantasy, and of course, the aforementioned “lit-rpg.” And while you’d think there wouldn’t be a market for so, so many kinds of books, you deeply underestimate both the morbid curiosity and the peculiar tastes of the modern. I’ve found sorts of books while perusing indie publishing markets. Hell I know a guy who specializes in “Villain protagonists not facing the consequences of their actions.” Hell, if I had a nickel for every biblical reimagining of Buffy I’ve come across in independent writing circles, I’d have two nickels, and could probably find many, many more if I wanted to.

Which brings us to the origin of such a proliferation of genres: fan-fiction and it’s sister genre, the web serial. I’m not going to pretend to be the most familiar with the fan-fiction world, at least not in as many words. There are three that I remember reading: the infamous “My Immortal,” “The Technoqueen, a unique take on the “Worm” universe that reimagines the main character as a Gru or Mega-mind scenery chewing nutcase; and a creepy reimagining of the pokemon verse that reimagines the main character discovering that the world outside his village is populated by the assorted mons.

That said, I know that fan-fiction has a legacy that goes all the way back to at least the 60s, possibly even as long as literature has been a thing. Hell, the popular term “mary-sue” came around during the 60s era of the Star-Trek fandom. Such efforts were, of course, hampered by the limitations of the era regarding wide-spread printing. Hell, if you thought that printing and copying are an endeavor these days, try doing it in the 60s. It would take the one-two punch of wide-spread computer adaptation, not to mention the expansion of the internet, before that particular world would expand in the giant it is these days. Specifically, the boom of the Harry Potter franchise in the late 90s and early 2000s, when it hadn’t occurred to us as a society just how awful of a person JK Rowling was, or how problematic certain aspects of that particular franchise were, was when a lot of younger folks really got into fan-fiction writing. As the years would go on, these writers would write about everything from certain characters getting together to self-insert tales about characters who definitely aren’t the author fixing everything in the franchise. And as these people came into existence, an audience of folks who’d exhausted the material provided to them by official channels followed in their wake. Not that there’s anything wrong with writing a story that takes place in an already established universe. I’ve been meaning to get into it myself, but I digress.

But, of course, those teens would grow up and become writers in their own right. Writers who wanted to continue their efforts. And when Amazon’s aforementioned self-publishing architecture came into existence, these authors who’d spent decades writing elaborate tales of in the universes of their preferred worlds saw a golden opportunity. They could either publish their tales with the details changed, or even write full-blown, unique tales of their own. And as these authors expanded into the world of e-books, their audience followed, most likely more than happy to give money to the noble cause that is an independent author.

I suppose this is the part of the substack where I recommend assorted Dollar Downloads to any readers here. And while I’m not the most familiar with the genre, there are a couple of directions I could point you in. Please note that this will start with relatively unknown authors/content and will end with the big names (even the one I don’t entirely approve of). Also, confession time, I might have neglected to read more than a few of these particular pieces of fiction, so take these recommendations with a grain of salt, if not Lot’s Wife:

• Stuart Grosse, the aforementioned writer of those “villains as protagonists” I wrote about earlier. I’ve only read some of his “OP Lich is a Returnee” novellas, but they’re fun enough.

• I’d be remiss not mentioning arguably the greatest Dollar Download writer of our time, one Chuck Tingle. Though, to be fair, I’m pretty sure Tingle is a parody of these sorts of books. Tingle’s books tend to be both some of the most irreverent, but also the most wholesome queer smut you’ll ever read in your life. Expect to see such titles as “Pounded in the Butt by my Own Butt,” and other such ridiculous names.

That’s all I can think to mention for now. If I think of anything else, I shall let inquiring minds know.