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Originally Posted by Moejoe
I don't think writers will stop writing, money or not. I can't NOT write, no matter what I say or any of my darker moods and little tempter tantrums I might have. Asking me not to write is asking me not to breath or feel or think, it's impossible. I believe there are a lot of writers exactly the same, who are passionate, who eat, sleep, breathe and shit words every single day. Using myself as an example, I realized a long time ago I wouldn't see any money from my work. It's awful to admit that, but while I spend most of my time as a hopeless romantic, I'm also realistic enough to know what lies ahead for me, and for many others too. We will have to write because we have no other option. We will have to write because that's what we do, who we are. I wake up with a story in my head. I listen to a piece of music and I'm already halfway through a story that I NEED to tell. This isn't something that would stop whether I was making minimum wage or a billion pounds a week. So the most, the very MOST I can hope for is a readership. People who like how I see the world and want to see the world in that way also.
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Ok, I will grant that there are some authors who write for reasons other than money. But lets put it this way, there are also writers who can spend a lot more time writing because they are paid for their writing.
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The sad fact is that most authors don't make enough to pay the rent even now, and there's plenty more who were brimming with talent who never even got the chance in the first place to get paid for what they write (markets, PR, blah, blah blah). At least now, at least with digital publishing a writer might find an audience. A writer might find someone who loves their work (isn't that what all authors are after anyway, in the secret parts of their heart?)
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And yes, I know it is a sad fact that most authors, even most published authors never receive a reasonable financial return for the efforts that they have put into writing. Whats worse is, that many of them are certainly better authors than many of the authors who hit the NY Times Best Seller list these days.
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Taxes are a good incentive. I believe a lot of writers, and I'm thinking specifically of Europe here, would welcome a national taxation that would provide a living wage if they continued to contribute to the artistic output of a nation. I'm not sure how it would work, but it's possibly a step in the right direction for those in Europe. As far as licensing goes, I like Creative Commons which gives the creator and the audience equal, and fair rights to the material being used.
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I don't necessarily think that such a system should ensure a living wage. In some sense, it should be tied to how popular a work is. There are too many people out there who can write, play music, etc. for the state to simply give them all an income. They should still have to produce work that connects to the public. I like the idea (I forget whose idea it was, but it did circulate either here or on teleread) where the highest repayment was made for the earliest downloads and then the rate declined as the number of downloaders increased.
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Bill