Quote:
Originally Posted by pwalker8
I don't disagree with you too much . I was just saying that your interpretation of the meaning of the phrase "support the authors" is somewhat different that what I mean when I say it.
I will say that there are certainly some here who apparently don't feel any particular obligation or desire to pay more than the "new indie author trying to build an audience" rate, even if most authors are unable to make a living at that price.
|
Okay, so, let me ask you this:
My business competes pretty head-on with all the comparable firms (so to speak) in India. My rates are suppressed, due to that; John Doe author can go to India and get someone to make his book that is paid $0.99/hour.
Now...in my humble opinion, our work is superior--but much of that is not visible to the buyer. Most authors couldn't care less if every word in an ePUB is surrounded by a span, or made using Calibre instead of hand-coded, etc.
Should authors pay me more? If they genuinely cannot see the difference, between the end product, because it's in the code, should they pay me more--out of what sense of what, exactly? Because in this country, I can't make a living, charging what the Indians charge, $0.99/hour for bookmaking?
Why
should they pay me more? What, should I call myself an "artist" so as to warrant more money? They need to keep their costs down, just like a greengrocer, because they are then selling that product. Lower costs=more profit for them, right?
Perhaps I've misunderstood what you've said, but you seem to be saying that if John Doe author can't earn his daily bread as a writer, we should "pay more" so that he can. I say to you that either John needs to up his game, or like most (for all time, not just recently) John needs to keep his damn day job so that he can feed himself and his family. If he can't, then he's obviously not meant to be a full-time author.
How is this different than what we tell people generally? We tell kids, "go to college, get a good education so that you can get a good job, have a family, buy a house, etc." yes? We do that because some gigs pay more than others. We do that because greater education, generally, yields more dough. Them's the breaks.
Why is this different for writers, if that's what you're saying? They start out, they make X if they're fortunate and they work hard and their work is worth reading. They persist, write more (move up the ladder), they grow a fan base, they sell more through WOM, and raising their prices. For writers, generally, that added experience = greater education. So...they move up the "writer's ladder" and earn
more. If they're good enough, they make a living at it and can quit their day job.
This is no different than many occupations. Authors, actors, singers--certainly, anything in the "arts" or "creative" arenas. It's the same in any business--the guy who starts on the factory floor won't be guaranteed that someday, he'll sit in the corner office. He has to work at it to do that. The woman in the pink ghetto, the secretarial pool--she has to work at it to move out of that and into the executive offices. Not everybody gets to the top of their chosen profession, whether it's glorified, like acting, singing, writing, or mundane, like being the CEO of a garbage-collection business. The few make it to the top, more don't. There's an entire middle group of writers, that used to be called "midlisters" that make some, but not quite enough money, to quit their day jobs. They've been around forever, and they are now in even greater numbers, the KDP Journeymen, right?
Or have I completely misunderstood your meaning, which is routine in the world of (ha!) written forum posts? If I have, my sincerest apologies for rambling on so...
Hitch