Quote:
Originally Posted by Moejoe
I agree, but on the other hand don't you feel somewhat ripped off when only 7-15% of your money goes to the actual author? Wouldn't it be great if I, or you, or any reader could give the full amount to the writer? That's another consequence of the generation we live in, they're becoming less and less tolerant of the big companies that manufacture our culture. They want a way to be directly involved with the creator. They want the money they give to go to the author, not the go-betweens.
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That's why I recommended that content creators/owners (think publishers in the eBook world) slice out a level of distribution. That change alone wipes out a 2x markup (in most cases), and changes the slice going to the author from 7-15% to more like 18-30%. And when I consider the services provided by the folks between author and me, it doesn't seem unreasonable to pay them 2/3 of the money. If eBook sales-volume went up drastically, I could see the cut that goes to the retailer going down quite a bit, and the publisher's cut going down modestly (in percentage terms, of course) -- that would leave a larger percentage for the authors.
Don't forget that slush-pile diving is both expensive (in time) and aesthetically painful for the diver. The typical submission leaves you wanting to gouge your eyes out with a spork! Editorial judgement, branding, publicity, copy-edits, proof-edits, type-setting and design, artwork... And let's not forget financial risk! The publisher fronts the advance, but the author need not pay it back if actual sales don't cover it.
I don't resent publishers who provide real services to both authors and readers. Nor do I resent retailers who make it easy for me to find good product. Those folks all add value. I'm not even sure I resent the distributors (at least in the paper world). After all, they save publishers from having to deal with each individual bookstore in the world (and bookstores from having to deal directly with every publisher) -- although I often think their markup is much larger than the value of that simplification.
In the world of bits, however, it's not clear that the distributors add any value at all. And I certainly resent paying when there's no value added.
Xenophon