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Originally Posted by MrsJoseph
+100000
Out of karma again today.  |
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What it looks like is that someone wants to make it a requirement that all writers become fully supported full time writers. Which is too cute.  I mean, it makes perfect sense to suddenly change the economics of multiple countries just so someone has decided that the regular way the writing game works isn't for them. I guess I should go take down my blog. All those free words I'm giving away. /sarcasm
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I could understand a claim of "a diverse literary field is important to our culture, ergo, authors should be supported, and moreso than in the past because the internet has thrown the distribution systems out of whack. That means we should find ways to get payments to good authors who'd otherwise not be able to write as much, and all of society loses out when that happens." Sure. Support authors = good idea. Maybe we could extend NEA grants to authors, by some broad criteria, and allow a huge swarm of part-time novelists to become slightly-more-time novelists by way of a tax-supported stipend.
The argument would go over like a plutonium balloon in some arenas, but it's at least a plausible argument. We should have authors; if there's a threat to writing-as-career, something should be done about that. "Let's pay authors to write" is a reasonable starting point; "let's pay them with tax money" is a potentially workable plan.
"Let's have everyone charge money for writing, regardless of quality!" is not.
"Let's have everyone charge money for writing based on quality criteria that exist inside my head" is also not.
Nor is "Let's have all
authors but not all
writers charge for their works;" there's no longer a coherent difference between those categories.
And while "Let's have all ebook stores set a minimum price" is actually enforceable, unlike the others, it shows a vast lack of understanding of retail economics--that's not "support the authors;" it's "support the stores ... oh, and the authors, maybe, if they're ready to pay self-employment tax and file long-form income tax claims in the future; otherwise, it's a nice way to drive them into bankruptcy through tax complications."