Quote:
Originally Posted by HansTWN
What must change in the digital age is the perception that works in digital form have zero value, or we will have a future without innovation.
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Forgive me, Hans, but this seems plainly wrong to me.
Consider how the creative professions traditionally supported themselves throughout most of history, and it is actually the last 100 or so years that suddenly look like an aberration, not the increasingly prevalent attitude that the costless reproduction of creative works ought not be a guarantee of livelihood to their authors, and much less to their publishers.
Not to mention that some amazing books even less than two hundred years ago were written on a subscription basis... that is to say, the author found enough people willing to pony up (or promise to pony up) money for his book in advance to it being written to make his efforts (including paying for printing, et al) worthwhile.
Author's getting 3% - 10% of the purchase price, and the fundamentally non-creative book industry (of publishers, printers, distributors, wholesalers, and retailers) getting the other 90% - 97% is not the only viable model... nor is it even one that seems particularly defensible to me.
And I write all this as a publisher.
- Ahi