Quote:
Originally Posted by darryl
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And I don't at all suggest that payment of an advance means a sale does not count, as you put it. What I do suggest is that the sale does not act as an incentive for an author who does not earn out to produce more books when the author in fact receives no additional funds. In other words, in 7 out of 10 cases, the author does not receive an extra cent from these sales. Such sales may be of some small non-monetary benefit in some circumstances, but it is difficult to see how there is any real incentive to an author to keep writing where they do not in fact receive any real money from that sale. To repeat, 70% of authors don't earn out their advance. And they do not need to repay one cent if they don't earn out.
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Of course it provides incentive. Every sale means the author gets closer to the earning out. The more you sale, the bigger your advance will be on the next book. The less you sale, the less the next advance is and the less likely there will be a next book. It's not hard.
Yes, I know they don't have to pay it back if they don't earn out. So what?
Of course, that 70% figure you quote is a pretty good proof what how one can mislead people with numbers. I'm pretty sure that authors who don't earn out on a regular basis soon become ex-authors. That is how it works. I would guess that only a small percentage of my favorite authors fall into that category. That implies that you assuming that any book that I buy is likely not to earn out is a very bad assumption. So your main talking point is both wrong and a red herring.