Quote:
Originally Posted by Leyor
That's a pretty bleak outlook on things.
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I disagree. Our original discussion was on creativity and rewards and my reply is in that context. In my case I'm donating any profits from my second book to The Wounder Warrior Project to assist wounded soldiers and their families.
As for as donating, it is far different to compare people who have had successful and lucrative careers taking lower paying jobs for the enjoyment of a change, or giving their time in retirement to worthwhile causes against writers who are trying to build a following for their works. To that first group I would also include volunteers at hospital and library information desk etc. The difference is that while they give, they don't create anything. You're trying to compare apple to oranges.
There are many reason why writers will give their works away for free. Several I can think of are because the work is of poor quality, because there is no market for the subject matter, because they are unknown and are attempting to build a following and for marketing promotions. A few will even provide free works just because they are so inclined; but I believe these individuals do truly just enjoy writing but don't want to go through the hassle of marketing their works.
This issue of free works has only come about with the development of ebooks that carry minimal cost to the creator. Previously with pbooks the cost of publishing was so prohibitive that only groups with large endowments or some other source of funding could engage in giving them away. Or a writer might print his work and give it to a few immediate family members.
I fit into the free for marketing promotions group and expect at least a minimal payback for the months of work I put into creating a book and then the time spent marketing it. For without extensive marketing effort few ebooks are going to be noticed. Smashwords alone publishes over 5.000 books a month which makes the field extremely crowded.