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Originally Posted by MaggieScratch
I think it's a darned shame that many very good books wouldn't be written because the authors were busy doing something else to pay the bills
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Most authors already have day jobs. Very few make their living writing. Yet they still write, and I think a fair chunk still would, even when it's admitted that copyright is a bust in a digital age. (Isn't there some quote about essentially unenforceable laws merely serving to engender contempt for laws?) "If you're read and liked this, paypal a euro to..." could work, maybe even better than the present system. Or pre-writing, collecting subscriptions for the author's next work, refunded if it's not released by a certain date. I think there are a range of systems that could work, and that worrying about one that's maladapted to reality is a waste.
And, yes, much fan fiction is tripe. But there exist forums that rate the stuff, so it's not all that difficult to see that a particular author is a good or bad risk. Reviews are a useful thing. Rather than trusting a publisher, you trust intelligent reviewers. You may find out that if JZ and RD and FT like a work, it's all but guaranteed you will, too.
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For-profit publication assumes that the work is good and someone will want to read it
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The latter, yes; the former, no.
Popular doesn't mean
good. Rather the reverse, IMO: a bestselling book or top-rated TV show is more often than not something I have zero interest in.