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Originally Posted by Giggleton
Are you suggesting that all textual output of our society is literature? Or are you suggesting that the promise of possible incentives is enough to generate this textual output from creators? Because it is quite evident that most books and most authors aren't making dollar one.
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Is it quite evident? Yes it is true that most books never sell well enough to make enough that the author's percentage covers the advance paid to him/her, but that is not the same thing as saying that the book never made any money. Publishers are in the business of making money; if they weren't, they would quickly go out of business.
Granted outfits like Smashwords changed the equation a bit; authors can self-publish and there is very little risk to Smashwords if the book doesn't sell. Still I suspect that most books that are put up for sale on Smashwords will garner at least a few sales.
Now that being said, the books that get read the most do in fact make quite a bit of money, both for their publisher and for their author. By allowing authors to sell their works, we encourage them to write more. How many novels and stories would Hemingway have written if he could never have broken free from having a regular job? More than one author has admitted the need to pay the bills has been a major incentive in finishing their next book/story. These tend to be by authors who write books that people want to read.
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The problem with logic is that it locks you in to a certain way of thinking, which isn't ever good...
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So does language, so if you really want to unlock your way of thinking you could just stop using language. Clearly it hasn't served you well.
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Bill