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Old 01-22-2010, 02:51 PM   #196
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Originally Posted by Seli View Post
In a related issue, the reaction of Cherie Priest on a bad review as a result of Amazon/publishers geo-restrictions, pointing out what writers can and cannot be blamed for. (by way of scalzi)
Lists a whole bunch of things which they could control, but have not traditionally, and then conflates them with something which they genuinely don't control (Holywood interest).

Well, frankly, do you think the people downloading on the darknet give a flying nut about tradition, my dear? Maybe the traditions of what Authors control in their contracts needs to change... if Hobbits on Mars are important to your book's sales in this day and age you (or your agent) better start researching dwarfism and space flight.

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Old 01-22-2010, 03:15 PM   #197
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I think the point is, this is the only way customers have right now to complain in a forum where those who make decisions might actually listen. So whether it is the author's 'fault' or not is immaterial. Agents/publishers could care less about a handful of people writing random emails to authors. Authors may not even tell their agent/publisher about such things. But a dozen authors sending their agents panicked emails at the sight of their plummeting Amazon ratings? Already, this has gotten more press than all the emails I have sent to authors over the past year. I say, power to the people. After all, they are the ones who pay for all of this.

As to the author in the above post complaining about how little she makes per year relative to how much work she does, I have to admit I don't have much sympathy. A lot of people aren't paid what they are worth. That's life. If she doesn't like it, she can moonlight---as she seems to be I really don't feel that anyone has a 'right' to make a comfortable middle-class living doing solely things they want to do. Sometimes, you just plain old have to hustle for it, and even then, you might have to make some compromises (for example, my cousin the professional musician who teaches on the side, or myself and my numerous teacher colleagues who ALL tutor on the side but realize we are lucky to have our pays-below-standard jobs in this market when so many teachers we know have no job at all...)
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Old 01-22-2010, 05:33 PM   #198
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I'm not sure about people not being paid what they're worth, but I'll definitely agree that what they're paid bears little relationship to the amount of work they do. (Or, more precisely, to the amount of effort they put in. For me, programming comes easy so I produce a lot of work for little effort-until I'm given the task of documenting a program purchased without documentation. Writing, for me, take a great deal of effort-so this year I've been 'working' more but actually producing less 'work'. But as I keep reminding myself, it all pays the same. Note that I'm on salary, not piece-work as many, possibly most, authors are. But your statement seemed to be more broadly applied than to just authors, so I answered in the same sense.)

FWIW, the US Declaration of Independence claims people have a right to *pursue* happiness-it says nothing about a right to *achieve* it.
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Old 01-22-2010, 09:42 PM   #199
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Originally Posted by calvin-c View Post
I'm not sure about people not being paid what they're worth, but I'll definitely agree that what they're paid bears little relationship to the amount of work they do. (Or, more precisely, to the amount of effort they put in. For me, programming comes easy so I produce a lot of work for little effort-until I'm given the task of documenting a program purchased without documentation. Writing, for me, take a great deal of effort-so this year I've been 'working' more but actually producing less 'work'. But as I keep reminding myself, it all pays the same. Note that I'm on salary, not piece-work as many, possibly most, authors are. But your statement seemed to be more broadly applied than to just authors, so I answered in the same sense.)

FWIW, the US Declaration of Independence claims people have a right to *pursue* happiness-it says nothing about a right to *achieve* it.
A lot of people feel they are not being paid what they're worth. Most often, they are not. It has nothing to do with how hard the work is. In the end, you can answer this question easily: "How much do they pay me? And how much do they make off my work each month?". What you make for your employer must be more than salary/wage, vacation, benefits, overhead, etc. If you are really underpaid, then it is time to ask for a raise. And since your effort is worth so much more they will give it to you, otherwise your employer loses. If they don't agree, it will be easy to get a different job, since others will appreciate you working for them.
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Old 01-23-2010, 10:31 AM   #200
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Originally Posted by HansTWN View Post
A lot of people feel they are not being paid what they're worth. Most often, they are not. It has nothing to do with how hard the work is. In the end, you can answer this question easily: "How much do they pay me? And how much do they make off my work each month?". What you make for your employer must be more than salary/wage, vacation, benefits, overhead, etc. If you are really underpaid, then it is time to ask for a raise. And since your effort is worth so much more they will give it to you, otherwise your employer loses. If they don't agree, it will be easy to get a different job, since others will appreciate you working for them.
How much does my employer make off my work each month? Not such an easy question to answer, even if my employer was selling anything. Assume my employer sells widgets-but I don't produce widgets, I produce programs that management uses for quality control, marketing campaigns, labor analysis, etc. So let's say my employer makes millions each month selling widgets-how much to they make from my work? Not to mention that I don't do my work in isolation. Often (as now) I'm working on a program that somebody else wrote originally. So now, how much do they make from my work?

In real life it's not often that you can measure the value of your work, other than in terms of what people are willing to pay you for it. In other words, if you don't think you're being paid what you're worth then you can ask your employer for a raise or you can try to find another job. Most often, these days at least, you'll find out that you're already being paid at least what you're worth. (An old joke: Employer: "We'll pay you what you're worth" Applicant: "Sorry, I can't live on that little")

In one sense you're right though, most people don't think they're being paid what they're worth. I attribute that to the efforts put in during childhood to "raise the child's self-esteem". The goal is good, but they end up making the child think (s)he's special-and it often comes as a severe shock when they discover that others don't think so. Some people never get over the feeling that they're missing out because they don't have the 'special' life they think they were promised. Sorry, but you're unique-just like everybody else.
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Old 01-26-2010, 11:23 AM   #201
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Hurting ourselves

Lots of good arguements here and justified frustration but it didn't impact on me what the result of artificial low rating would be until I was looking for books (audio format) recently and passed on a very good book because of it's low ratings. Luckily someone recommended the book to me later and I bought it and it turned out to be one of the best books I'd read recently. In reviewing all of the ratings several people posted that the delay was why they rated it low. Seems like artificially twisting the ratings hurts readers (as well as authors) as much as publishers - sort of cutting off our nose to spite our face.
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Old 01-26-2010, 11:55 AM   #202
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Lots of good arguements here and justified frustration but it didn't impact on me what the result of artificial low rating would be until I was looking for books (audio format) recently and passed on a very good book because of it's low ratings. Luckily someone recommended the book to me later and I bought it and it turned out to be one of the best books I'd read recently. In reviewing all of the ratings several people posted that the delay was why they rated it low. Seems like artificially twisting the ratings hurts readers (as well as authors) as much as publishers - sort of cutting off our nose to spite our face.
I take it that you don't actually read the ratings then? Given the number of obvious shills I've seen giving 'ratings' on Amazon, I think that's a necessity.
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Old 01-26-2010, 12:05 PM   #203
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sort of cutting off our nose to spite our face.
I see it more inline with using an anti-septic on a cut. It might hurt a little, but in the long run the action is good. The 1-star-ratings aren't just whining simply to whine, but are being used to bring about a needed change.
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Old 01-29-2010, 07:33 PM   #204
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Lots of good arguements here and justified frustration but it didn't impact on me what the result of artificial low rating would be until I was looking for books (audio format) recently and passed on a very good book because of it's low ratings. Luckily someone recommended the book to me later and I bought it and it turned out to be one of the best books I'd read recently. In reviewing all of the ratings several people posted that the delay was why they rated it low. Seems like artificially twisting the ratings hurts readers (as well as authors) as much as publishers - sort of cutting off our nose to spite our face.
an interesting point--I tend to read the reviews to see why they are rated 5 or 1, so ratings of 1 for "delay of book" don't affect my purchase decision. That's if I make it past the price, of course.
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