Quote:
Originally Posted by hidari
Just a view. Sour grapes? mmm. If an author has talent he will make a decent living. quite a few do. If my job ends. Yes, I will need to change career. Such is life. I think paying the authors directly is the long term answer via ebooks. I know several Russian friends who had their careers forcibly changed due to economic factors. No, They did not like it, but they are still working and making a living. anyways. Seems you did not like my view point and may want to get personal about it. Oh, by the way, I am happy in my job. Looks like you are the only one with talent and have the only right view. Good luck with it.
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No, I don't mean to get personal, just having a discussion.
Too many people can callously say "Authors should just suck it up and take less money than they made in the past" or "Authors should write for the good of literature, not to make a profit" etc. while they're own lives are focused on making and saving as much money as they can. So it ends up coming off as hypocritical to expect authors to be selfless.
I do agree that the answer is to eventually cut out the middleman and do away with publishers. Authors can just sell e-books themselves, hire marketing firms once they have some success etc. and have more freedom in setting prices, not having publishers take a big chunk of sales etc.
And no, I hardly have talent! At least not when it comes to creativity. Which is why I respect authors with talent, and musicians, movie directors etc. and strongly support their right to get paid fairly for their work.
I have no sense of entitlement that e-books should be cheaper than print etc., that MP3 albums should cost less than CDs etc. I'm paying to enjoy the work, and the experience is the same regardless of whether it's a physical product or a digital one--so the value is the same. I pay what I feel an e-book is worth to me, and if it costs more I don't buy it. Just like I do with physical books etc.
Any rate, I apologize if you took my post as insulting etc. Just expressing my strong views on the topic, with some annoyance at the sense of entitlement many have about artists, musicians etc. which is often hypocritical when they themselves are doing all they can in their own lives to maximize profits.
But of course, I forget not everyone on here is American, so not everyone is as focused on profit in our own lives as us Americans are ingrained to be!
