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Old 07-23-2009, 12:08 AM   #118
ahi
Wizard
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Quote:
Originally Posted by HansTWN View Post
A composer or an author makes something that can be easily copied, therefore he does not.
Except they did.

Most of, if not all, the works of the greatest composers of classical music were rampantly copied and internationally performed without, in the vast majority of cases, any compensation to them and nobody gave a damn, not even the composers themselves.

As to who will write our books? People like Moejoe, who enjoys writing and who have no delusional expectation that it will pay their bills, until one day it starts to despite all expectation.

Given the incredible amount of unremarkable trash the North American publishing industry churns out every single day, cutting the number of aspiring authors by even as much as 90% might easily be solely and wholly a blessing and nothing else.

By the way, this reminds me of C.J. Cherryh some time ago having written a post here complaining that routine delays in the receipt of $20,000 advance royalty payments can make paying bills and mortgages difficult for (it vaguely seemed to be implied) the average author. Apparently even when publishers are willing to throw $20,000 at you before a single copy is sold, writing is still not sensible to treat as your sole source of income. So part of me wonders whether you might be imagining writing even under the best circumstances as more lucrative than it can be for 99%+ of writers.

Hell... the moment you stop talking about the anglosphere's publishing market, or perhaps China's, you get into national publishing markets where books are regularly printing with the expectation of selling as little as 1000-2000 copies. Most writers, both historically and contemporarily, neither do nor sanely can treat their writing career as their sole income producing occupation in life unless they are in the tiny highest echelons of their national field or they are independently wealthy.

Or so it seems to me.

If at any point my tone seems unduly combative, Hans, it's mostly just that I am about to fall asleep, so please take no offense.

- Ahi
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