Thread: Konrath challenges the Authors Guild
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Old 10-19-2015, 09:01 PM   #1
fjtorres
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Konrath challenges the Authors Guild
It starts out as a snarky fisking of the AG's position on the Google scan verdict:

http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2015/1...ors-guild.html

...but it gets serious and sensible:

Quote:

Amazon, ebooks, and piracy are here to stay. No law can ever work if it goes against what people are going to do anyway. The spread of digital media must force us to study how it is being used, so we can benefit from it. It isn't something you can control. It's something you observe. Prohibition didn't work for alcohol, or the war on drugs. Net neutrality will remain, and piracy will always be a part of it. Treat Google as a partner, rather than as an adversary. The same with Amazon. Treat the Big 5 as adversaries, until they reform their contracts. Use the media to push a positive agenda. Hire Data Guy at AuthorEarnings.com to teach you how to conduct your own studies or the marketplace. Abandon the status quo, drop your preconceptions, and start fresh, figuring out how all of your poverty-level members could have a shot at making a living.

If I were in charge, it would take me a week to put the Authors Guild on the right track.

My first job would be to give the current Board of Directors new responsibilities, the sum total of which would be a daily meeting at Dennys spent brainstorming, and the notes generated will serve as an example of what not to do.

Then I'm bringing in a bunch of young, smart writers to get shit done. Such as:
  • An advertising partnership with Amazon to feature AG members' titles.
  • An advertising partnership with Facebook to feature AG members' titles.
  • An advertising partnership with Google to feature AG members' titles.
  • Letters to the Big 5 demanding better contract terms, and a media campaign held in the court of public opinion exposing the unconscionability of publishing contracts. If it leads to litigation, all the better.
  • Letters to the Big 5 to demand lower ebook prices, for both retailers and libraries.
  • Petitioning Congress to reform copyright law.
  • Health care.
  • Conducting actual studies on piracy.
  • Fighting SOPA and other threats to free speech and net neutrality.
  • Striking if needed.
The Authors Guild isn't beneficial. It isn't neutral. It's harmful. Every time Robinson or Ravensberger whines in the media, they spout nonsense that less-informed readers and writers accept as truths.
More at the source.
(And the mockery is good, too.)
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