Quote:
Originally Posted by Sil_liS
Consider the whole post quoted.
I don't see the difference between putting money aside for books and going into debt for practical items such as socks and underwear and putting money aside for practical items such as socks and underwear and going into debt for books. The bottom line is the same.
Fair compensation for reading a book is a difficult thing to express. Last year there was a thread about authors suing Harlequin over royalties, as they were getting 3-4% on ebooks when the contracts made it sound like they would be getting 50%. But the contracts signed after 2004 were clearer, so it is legal for the publisher to give such a low percentage. I googled average ebook prices for Harlequin, and found this article:
I don't know what percentage this author gets, but keep in mind that 3-4% of $3.03 is 9-12 cents. |
There really was no difference in terms of money spent, and if times were really tough the little bit of money saved would go to practical items.
Emotionally I believe it was easier for them to put a little money aside for luxury items, which books were for us. They got most books from the library, and the books they did buy were generally illustrated children's books AFAIK,. But as I said we always had better than adequate food and a comic book or an ice cream on payday
As to fair compensation I do not have any idea, and I doubt that it could be easily derived. Too much is subjective. For some it takes one hour to read 200 pages and for others it takes 12 hours. If we equate it to movies to see 2 hours in a cinema is maybe $16 (in Canada) on TV practically nothing. Buying the DVD may cost a bit, but multiple people can watch for that price.
As far as I can determine (mainly from Hennen's American Public Library Ratings) libraries pay approximately $0.78 per circulation for ebooks and around $0.75 for paper books per circulation. This is what is paid to the publisher. Many paper books are leased and I believe the cost is a bit higher then overall. Ebooks actually cost the libraries less per circulation though as there is little overhead for staff or property cost or building construction or maintenance or property rental, unbelievably high in the case of smaller libraries. Overhead for ebooks is generally what overdrive charges. Maybe I am being totally off topic here but it seems relevant.
Your guess is as good as mine, but a tax on CD's and hard drives etc. is unlikely to yield even a penny a copy to the authors IMO.
Small bit of trivia. harlequin books were not all romances in the early 50's and retailed for 35 cents to 95 cents way back then.
http://www.romancewiki.com/Harlequin...By_The_Numbers
Helen