Quote:
Originally Posted by darryl
I can't speak as to what publishing used to be like. The fact is that the bean counters have now been in charge for a long time. I have little difficulty accepting that many in publishing loved books, Unfortunately, this has had disadvantages as such people have to some extent acted to mask the true character of their masters. So many authors loved working with their teams at the large publishers, which did have many very good dedicated people. But these good dedicated people were not in control, and had to implement the bean counter's decisions. Some of the same decisions which later lead to many of them being let go. I wonder if there are many people who truly love books left at the large publishers.
You could be correct that I greatly underestimate the value of advances for some of the category of authors you name. I really don't know, no specific examples have been given and it is probably not realistic to expect examples or evidence. It doesn't really matter anyway. Groups do suffer because of changes, and if there is disadvantage to this and some other groups of authors it is not going to stop the changes, nor should it. We can only hope that such authors can either find alternate sources of funding or are able to write their books without the need for such funding.
If the large publishers were in fact once philanthropists, they are certainly not now.
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I do not expect the practice of advances to go away in the near future. It may be more limited, but it exists for a good business reason and that reason hasn't gone away.
Ultimately, I think there is a certain amount of tribalism involved with discussing business models of publishers. A lot of the indie fan club seems to see publishers as the enemy for some reason. As I've said before, I expect the publishing industry to follow the music industry's path, i.e. a lot of small publishing companies popping up, though the major companies will still be out there. Some artists preferring to strike out on their own rather than go with a label. Others preferring to stick with a label. There is no one paradigm that is a best fit for everyone.
We are already seeing this to a small extent. I also expect to eventually see significant competition in the area of ebook stores, I just don't know who or how.