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Originally Posted by ApK
And if your Chinese history author requires an advance from a BPH to do work, maybe it's time to look for a new model: grants, patrons, crowd-fundng....it's a brave new world.
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Crowd-funding Chinese history is unlikely to work for the prospective authorial/editorial team, and a foolish gamble for investors. By contrast, grants and patrons are old news -- that's how academia works. That system does produces many good history books. But, on average, those from the big five are, to my taste, better written and more interesting.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ApK
Maybe I, as a reader, no longer feel I should have to subsidize that Chinese history advance by paying the overhead in the cost of the books I buy.
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So borrow them from libraries. You live in New Jersey, where there are good ones. If your local one isn't among them, you can join the state library and/or get it on interlibrary loan. Or pay $50 a year to the Brooklyn library, which has one of the largest Overdrive collections. Or buy indie Chinese history books. And if you find even one that's as good as those by
Jung Chang, please let me know.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ApK
That 'risk the publishers assume' is really the money we all pay in the cover price. It's not coming out of the CEO's trust fund.
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I read this part of your post several times and do not understand the point.