Quote:
Originally Posted by Barcey
It also makes the Hachette authors look silly when they've been claiming they know what the disagreement is about and it's all Amazon's fault.
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The authors don't know the details, nor do we. But the authors do know that the dispute is about who gets more money, the publisher who pays them, or the retailer who doesn't.
As a largely nonfiction reader, my interest is in Hachette having the money to buy book proposals. Giving authors who already completed their books more money than they anticipated when they accepted the Hachette advance and other terms (the 100 percent) will do nothing there.
The devil is in the details of Amazon's proposal.
You could say that the same people who would get royalties should get the 100 percent money. But that doesn't seem fair to me, since most of these books weren't ever going to earn out their advance.
And what happens to translators? What happens to ghost writers? And what about the books where the Hachette editors put in more work than the author whose name is on the cover? If Amazon and Hachette can't ever agree on a contract -- and I don't see why they have to -- when does the 100 percent stop? Another big question is where Perseus authors fit it.
Financially, the 100 percent would hurt Hachette more than Amazon. Authors who want to get advances in the future will see this and be unlikely to fall for the Amazon stunt.