Quote:
Originally Posted by taustin
Your premise seems to be based on the idea that nobody but the author contributes anything whatsoever to the production of the book. No editing, no layout, no marketing, nothing. And therefore deserves no compensation whatsoever for the book.
I have never, once, ever, seen anyone propose splitting their contribution between the author and the publisher. By rights, any such contribution should be split equally, because the publisher contributes about as many man-hours to the average book as the author does. According to at least one professional author, Charlie Stross.
|
I'm a slow writer then because there is no way a publisher could contribute the same number of hours it took me to write any of my books (anywhere from 2 years to 4 years.) Editors edit many books over the course of a year and while there is also copyeditors and marketing people and so on, the number of hours spent wouldn't equal the number of hours I spent on it. Not to say that the split shouldn't be even or whatever, and many writers are faster and better than I am. But as a blanket statement? No way.