Quote:
Originally Posted by stonetools
All this arithmetic is edifying, I guess, but all it proves is that in certain circumstances the publisher can make money if the book doesn't earn out it advance. The issue is whether in most cases the publisher makes or loses money where the book doesn't earn out in advance. If you look at the wording it appears that the usual case is that the publisher loses money but it is not necessarily so. It depends on the size of the advances and how well the book sells.It seems clear that the publisher is in fact risking capital in paying advances to authors , and therefore continues to play a crucial role in bringing a book to market.
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Only for such books that wouldn't be written without an advance. Which we see today is not the only way books are written.
(Actually in the past, some authors didn't get advances to write. Heinlein, for example, was notorious for not getting an advance for any book until he turned in a completed manuscript. He thought doing so was unprofessional.)