|
I'm going to answer by saying that except for a very select few, writers are not going to be paid for writing much longer.
They will be paid for selling.
There is a huge difference. The days of the mid-list and debut novel advances are numbered.
I admit I kind of wince whenever I see the "nobody will want to write anymore arguments." I just don't see it. There are already hundreds of thousands of authors out there writing with absolutely no promise of ever seeing a payment.
To me the biggest problem facing the industry today is NOT the willingness of writers to take a chance of coming up empty. The problem is the decreasing availability of reliable gatekeepers that find and promote the best of the slush piles to readers. In my mind, if Publishers and Agents and all the rest want to protect their piece of the book selling pie they need to stop fussing so much about Agency Pricing and Amazon and beef up their roles of selection, editing, and promotion. Quit just scooping up bucketfuls of recycled plot line crap, throwing it up on Amazon at $12.99 and waiting for the readers to tell you which one was a good book.
|