5 ms·

Personally, I find it hard to be sympathetic to the publishers and authors when they are so over-the-top. Painting the Internet Archive as "vile" and claiming t

Personally, I find it hard to be sympathetic to the publishers and authors when they are so over-the-top. Painting the Internet Archive as "vile" and claiming they don't provide any valuable service strikes me as so far from the truth as to be insulting. It feels like they are targeting people who don't really know much about what IA is or what they do... That makes me wonder if it's really about more than IA and their emergency lending program, but now I'm probably starting to sound paranoid. I'm sure that some authors lost some dollars to this program, but is it really all that much? The coverage on the lawsuit doesn't mention how much injury the publishers (and, to a much lesser degree, their authors) have suffered.

ben_w 6y ago
I’m writing a novel. I’ve been at it since 2016, partly because project planning is just as hard outside of software and partly because I have a full-time job too. Based on what people like Charlie Stross blog about, and based on the few sales estimates I can find, even if I reach the heady highs of ranking 214th biggest SciFi writer by sales, I will make less than $40k in lifetime sales for four year’s work. As income goes, this is a lottery.
- a1369209993 6y ago
  This has little or nothing to do with any supposed reduction in book sales the Internet Archive or any other library, dead-tree or bittorrent, has caused, and quite a lot to do with publishers screwing authors out of royalties for books they do sell. I have no sympathy any author too stupid to realize that publishers are to blame for their still needing a day job after (for example of Myke Cole) twelve books, two TV shows, and a comic series.
  - ben_w 6y ago
    If piracy had zero or positive impact, a genuinely greedy publisher wouldn’t care or would actively encourage it. When I do finally finish this thing and try to get it published, I will go though a normal publisher, because I like listening to the advice of people who’ve been though things before: https://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2013/03/why-i-dont-self-publish.html https://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2013/03/why-i-d... Also, no: most authors need day jobs because sales are a generally power-law distributions.
Ensorceled 6y ago
Whoa, you have very inflated view of how much an author makes. I follow Myke Cole on Twitter his tag line is: 9 fantasy novels, 1 sci-fi novel, 2 history books, 2 TV shows, 1 comic series, 1 day job, 0 sleep The guy has published 12 books and STILL needs a day job.
- zatel 6y ago
  I'm not familiar with Myke Cole or his books. I'm sure they are quite good. I think that quality is more important then quantity though. Some people on here seem to make one app and kick back for years on the earnings while others churn out one after the other unprofitable software tool. I myself have written 3 novella, 1 book of short stories, 1 movie, 2 native apps, and 4 web apps. I can't live on the royalties from any of them but I know there are people who do less and get more.
- sukilot 6y ago
  This is the fallacy of assuming that people would pay for content they can't pirate.
  - ComputerGuru 6y ago
    That’s a reply to an argument for abolishing BitTorrent, and not on-topic. What the Archive did is obviate the need to even pirate: everyone could get content “for free” from a legal entity operating under US laws and subsuming all liabilities. Suddenly you can get your book for free without even the legal or ethical hazards.
  - cmiles74 6y ago
    I haven't seen any evidence that the shrinking earnings of authors are related to piracy. From what I've read, publishers are simply retaining more of the profits for themselves and, often, theorizing that piracy is somehow raising their costs yet providing little by way of documentation. https://www.statista.com/topics/3928/reading-habits-in-the-us/ https://www.statista.com/topics/3928/reading-habits-in-the-u...
    - 6y ago
6510 6y ago
They are targeting their competitor.

ben_w 6y ago

I’m writing a novel. I’ve been at it since 2016, partly because project planning is just as hard outside of software and partly because I have a full-time job too. Based on what people like Charlie Stross blog about, and based on the few sales estimates I can find, even if I reach the heady highs of ranking 214th biggest SciFi writer by sales, I will make less than $40k in lifetime sales for four year’s work. As income goes, this is a lottery.

a1369209993 6y ago
This has little or nothing to do with any supposed reduction in book sales the Internet Archive or any other library, dead-tree or bittorrent, has caused, and quite a lot to do with publishers screwing authors out of royalties for books they do sell. I have no sympathy any author too stupid to realize that publishers are to blame for their still needing a day job after (for example of Myke Cole) twelve books, two TV shows, and a comic series.
- ben_w 6y ago
  If piracy had zero or positive impact, a genuinely greedy publisher wouldn’t care or would actively encourage it. When I do finally finish this thing and try to get it published, I will go though a normal publisher, because I like listening to the advice of people who’ve been though things before: https://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2013/03/why-i-dont-self-publish.html https://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2013/03/why-i-d... Also, no: most authors need day jobs because sales are a generally power-law distributions.

Ensorceled 6y ago

Whoa, you have very inflated view of how much an author makes. I follow Myke Cole on Twitter his tag line is: 9 fantasy novels, 1 sci-fi novel, 2 history books, 2 TV shows, 1 comic series, 1 day job, 0 sleep The guy has published 12 books and STILL needs a day job.

zatel 6y ago
I'm not familiar with Myke Cole or his books. I'm sure they are quite good. I think that quality is more important then quantity though. Some people on here seem to make one app and kick back for years on the earnings while others churn out one after the other unprofitable software tool. I myself have written 3 novella, 1 book of short stories, 1 movie, 2 native apps, and 4 web apps. I can't live on the royalties from any of them but I know there are people who do less and get more.
sukilot 6y ago
This is the fallacy of assuming that people would pay for content they can't pirate.
- ComputerGuru 6y ago
  That’s a reply to an argument for abolishing BitTorrent, and not on-topic. What the Archive did is obviate the need to even pirate: everyone could get content “for free” from a legal entity operating under US laws and subsuming all liabilities. Suddenly you can get your book for free without even the legal or ethical hazards.
- cmiles74 6y ago
  I haven't seen any evidence that the shrinking earnings of authors are related to piracy. From what I've read, publishers are simply retaining more of the profits for themselves and, often, theorizing that piracy is somehow raising their costs yet providing little by way of documentation. https://www.statista.com/topics/3928/reading-habits-in-the-us/ https://www.statista.com/topics/3928/reading-habits-in-the-u...
  - 6y ago

6510 6y ago

They are targeting their competitor.