Author Book Payments
The cluster focuses on debates about how authors get paid for their books, the financial realities of writing as a profession, the role of publishers, and challenges like digital distribution and low earnings.
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My understanding is that authors can get paid.
There is a fundamental contradiction:- first as an author, want to be read, the more people read your books the better.- second as a human, you need an income.Imagine a charity (it could be government taxes as well) paying you proportionally to how much your books are read and providing the books for free to the readers.What's wrong with that?You will have more readers and you'll get paid for writing books (according to their popularity).Do you really want to sell you
When you purchase a bound copy of my book, a small part of that money pays for the physical object. The publisher also takes a part, and that's what they use to keep the lights on in their office. The last bit goes to me so I can feed my cat and work on my next book. How does the medium or your ability to copy it change the fact that my cat needs to eat, and in lieu of getting paid for my writing so I can feed him, I'll need to do something other than write?
They gain money for the author.
How about the goal of allowing the author to actually earn something?
Are you paying any money to the original author?
This can't work, otherwise people would make actual money from publishing e.g. technical books, which we know is not really profitable.
I'm a writer. I can imagine it. But the landlord, grocer, car dealer and pretty much everyone else dealing in physical things wants me to pay for what I consume. I'm not independently wealthy. The only reason I can afford to write books is because the publisher pays me. The only reason the publisher can pay me is because people buy the books.I can guarantee you that this type of behavior means I'm writing fewer books. It's very short-sighted.
> Then the author doesn't get paid.
>you are so wrong in this mentality. the bottom line is, that someone took the time and energy to write and publish that book to make money, so that person should be paid.I took time and energy to write and "publish" this HN comment, and possibly provided utility for someone reading it. Where's my money?