Comment on Copyright Doesn’t Provide A ‘Living’ For A Successful Author

• chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  I read the link. It doesn’t say what you think it’s saying. The perception you’re getting is that there are millions of authors out there, that they’re all writing full time, and that 80% of them are earning less than Monica Byrne.

  There are simply huge numbers of books that essentially don’t sell at all. I’m talking about technical manuals, academic books in niche topics of research, and even textbooks for courses that only a handful of people take. We don’t need a system to support these authors because they’re not trying to support themselves by writing books. Rather, the books they write are basically a side effect of their day job.

  source

  • PhilipTheBucket@ponder.cat ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    It doesn’t say what you think it’s saying.

    What does it say?

    source

    • chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      It says she earned $3400/year since she began writing the book (2012) and that her book is in the top 20% of book sales. Yes, it’s an unsustainable amount of money to support yourself on, clearly. You could earn more money stocking shelves at the grocery store.

      But here’s the thing: she wrote one book in a decade!

      Nora Roberts, at the peak of her career, was writing one book a month (now she’s only writing one book every three months in her 70s)! And the great thing about writing is that it builds momentum: the more you write, the better you get at writing, the faster you can write a book, the more you build a name for yourself, the more sales each of your books get.

      There’s no problem here. Anyone who wants to can publish a book! You don’t have to go through a big publisher and collect a tiny royalty. You don’t have to take an advance. Just self-publish and keep all the profits yourself!

      source

      • PhilipTheBucket@ponder.cat ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        No, I meant my pluralistic link. What does that one say?

        source