Kafka's Crow
02-24-2008, 06:36 PM
Found this excellent article which shows the sad plight of writers in the UK and the complications involved in having one's work published. I have always believed that ultimately the internet will set the writer free. The author of this article is giving away his work as 'shareware', which means 'take it away. If you like it, please pay the nominal price I am asking for ($2.00).' Well worth a read specially if you are interested in writing. This article reflects my point of view 110%:
FREE-TO-COPY EBOOKS
A publishing model for the 21st Century
Research published in 2007 by ALCS (the Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society) reveals that British authors are struggling to survive.
According to the press release, "the typical UK author earns 33% less than the national average wage. If this trend in earnings continues will creators be able to continue contributing 8% of GDP in the UK? If we value our creative industries so highly, can the nation afford to let this decline in authors' earnings continue?"
Moreover, "the top 10% of authors earn more than 50% of total income. In other equally skilled professions the bottom 50% of workers earn nearly 40% of total income. Only 20% of writers earn all their income from writing; 60% of professional writers need another job to survive."
Why should writers be so badly paid? Why should such steep obstacles be put in the way of the small pool of talent on which rests the entire publishing industry?
Consider the hypothetical case of Jane, a young British author who has just written her first marketable novel. The book will have taken at least 1,000 hours of her time, perhaps twice or three times as much. To develop her craft she is likely to have written other novels already.
She has at last, after months or years of rejection, found a literary agent willing to take her on. (She knows it is pointless to submit a book directly to a publisher.)
The agent secures a deal with Quiggins & Craggs, a London publishing house. They offer an advance of £3,000 on a hardback edition, with a royalty rate on full-price sales of 10%. What this means is that, each time a book is sold at the cover price (let us say £15.99), Jane will be credited with £1.599. From this her agent deducts 15% in commission and charges 17.5% Value Added Tax on that commission, leaving Jane with £1.317 for every copy sold in this way. In order to earn her £3,000 advance, she must sell 1,876 copies at full price.
With the end of the Net Book Agreement and the rise of discounting by bookstores and supermarkets, fewer and fewer sales are being made at full price. Instead authors receive a percentage, typically 10%, of the price received by the publisher. Bookstores have a markup of at least 33%. The supermarkets and big chains get more.
....
Read the complete article here: http://www.richardherley.com/FTCebooks.html
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FREE-TO-COPY EBOOKS
A publishing model for the 21st Century
Research published in 2007 by ALCS (the Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society) reveals that British authors are struggling to survive.
According to the press release, "the typical UK author earns 33% less than the national average wage. If this trend in earnings continues will creators be able to continue contributing 8% of GDP in the UK? If we value our creative industries so highly, can the nation afford to let this decline in authors' earnings continue?"
Moreover, "the top 10% of authors earn more than 50% of total income. In other equally skilled professions the bottom 50% of workers earn nearly 40% of total income. Only 20% of writers earn all their income from writing; 60% of professional writers need another job to survive."
Why should writers be so badly paid? Why should such steep obstacles be put in the way of the small pool of talent on which rests the entire publishing industry?
Consider the hypothetical case of Jane, a young British author who has just written her first marketable novel. The book will have taken at least 1,000 hours of her time, perhaps twice or three times as much. To develop her craft she is likely to have written other novels already.
She has at last, after months or years of rejection, found a literary agent willing to take her on. (She knows it is pointless to submit a book directly to a publisher.)
The agent secures a deal with Quiggins & Craggs, a London publishing house. They offer an advance of £3,000 on a hardback edition, with a royalty rate on full-price sales of 10%. What this means is that, each time a book is sold at the cover price (let us say £15.99), Jane will be credited with £1.599. From this her agent deducts 15% in commission and charges 17.5% Value Added Tax on that commission, leaving Jane with £1.317 for every copy sold in this way. In order to earn her £3,000 advance, she must sell 1,876 copies at full price.
With the end of the Net Book Agreement and the rise of discounting by bookstores and supermarkets, fewer and fewer sales are being made at full price. Instead authors receive a percentage, typically 10%, of the price received by the publisher. Bookstores have a markup of at least 33%. The supermarkets and big chains get more.
....
Read the complete article here: http://www.richardherley.com/FTCebooks.html
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