Originally Posted by frahse
I see a lot of misunderstanding where people don't know how and why things are done in the book world. People, whether authors, publishers, sellers, buyers, robbers, legitimate borrowers, resellers, lenders, all have their reasons for doing what they do, and many times resent others who aren't sympathetic to their decisions.
I just saw an article about cell phones, texting, and new methods of avoiding the high texting charges which had a quote worth repeating here.
"Zero is a really compelling price point."
I dare say that there are few people that will turn down something free, or even very cheap if they don't personally have to take a risk to steal it.
Others will glory in their successes at thwarting the rules and the laws.
All will give excuses, and find reasons for their actions, and among their peers or co-conspirators will find ready acceptance and even applause.
Years ago, when I thought to see if some work I had been dabbling in since middle school would be accepted by a Publisher, and finally talked to a Rep, she said 1 of the 5 books I had submitted would be printed and they wanted a hold on 2 others that related to the first 1. The other 2 they had no real interest in but they did reserve a right (for a period of time) to pick them up. (Of course that was in case I sold like hotcakes.)
She had some changes in mind for the book and we discussed them, and then some art work.
We then talked about how the books would be merchandised. I was familiar with hard bound and mass market paper bound, MMPB, which was what I usually bought, but I was told they wanted to put the 1st book of these three into a Trade Paperback form, and afterwards into MMPB.
Now days of course there is the digital form as well.
I am just a small part-time (occasional) author with a few published books, and stories, and when my Publisher and the Seller says ""This is what we want to do," I usually say O.K.
Straight to MMPB. -O.K.
Copy protect on digital. -O.K.
Change the story. -O.K.
Add a type of character. -O.K.
Add a kid. -O.K.
Less Killing, more sex. -O.K.
Less sex, more killing -O.K.
Nobody understands this. Simplify. -O.K.
We will pay you this much. -What?
Simply put, I have a theory that my time is worth something. Starting out you take what you can get, and then you can say, "Hey Mom, I published a book, and get a smile and a hug or pat on the head, just like when you made an A or the President's List." But these days mom is gone and so I have to have something else.
I recall a story I read about the shortest interchange ever in the literary world, at the time at least.
Victor Hugo was curious about how his latest book "Les Misérables" was doing, so he sent his publisher a note which had only a ? question mark in it. The publisher sent back his own note which had only a ! exclamation mark in it.
I send a lot of those ? notes and I keep track of the !'s. If I don't get enough, I will pick another way to pass my spare time. Perhaps I will go and take a couple of my super duper metal detectors and hunt for gold jewelry. The price is really high these days.
(Or maybe I will write "the better" book about metal detecting and treasure hunting.)
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