4 ms·

For Music I would mention BandCamp and Spotify (as you did). For Books, I'd mention Amazon (as nowadays it has become far easier to self-publish)

ghaff 6y ago
Of course, the fact that it's easy to publish on those platforms doesn't mean it's easy to make more than beer money on them. (And, truth be told, even a publishing contract for a book often doesn't mean you'll make a significant sum of money.)
- WalterBright 6y ago
  > even a publishing contract for a book often doesn't mean you'll make a significant sum of money. So true. Very, very few published authors don't also need a real job to pay the bills. JK Rowling is a unicorn.
  - ghaff 6y ago
    My experience in the tech industry writing tech-ish books is that they've been very good for my career. Also. The direct money I've made from them has been a rounding error even though the one I've done through a publisher was apparently successful enough they asked me to do a new edition.
    - WalterBright 6y ago
      You're right, the indirect benefits can be career-making for tech books.
hairofadog 6y ago
I thought about Amazon for self publishing, and that’s a good point. I could be wrong (and would be happy to be wrong), but it feels like most of the people in the making-a-living-but-not-striking-it-rich group there are turning out high-volume junk. When I think of the “middle class” of the arts, I think of the Duplass Brothers, for example, or the Blumhouse horror studio, where their goal seems to be to allow talented artists to experiment and make quality, if low-budget, media. My very possibly wrong impression of Amazon self publishers is that their success strategy is to churn out as much serialized content as fast as possible.
- ghaff 6y ago
  The reality is that making a comfortable five USD figures annually by publishing books whether self-publishing or going through a traditional publisher probably puts you at the very top of the curve. Yes, and I assume at least some of the more successful self-published authors on Amazon are churning out material they can create a lot of quickly. I also assume they do a lot of marketing and have a reliable fan base in most cases.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
- TheOtherHobbes 6y ago
  It's not wrong at all, and you'll find that strategy being discussed on Amazon creator forums. It's the difference between product and culture. Culture makes you think, changes your world view, surprises you, challenges you, and is driven by imagination. Product fills a gap, fuels a transaction, and is driven by cash. There used to be more of a balance, but now the scales are tilted heavily towards product.
  - edmundsauto 6y ago
    Is the ratio of product/culture the right metric? If the amount of product increased 100x but the amount of culture 10x, are we really worse off?

ghaff 6y ago

Of course, the fact that it's easy to publish on those platforms doesn't mean it's easy to make more than beer money on them. (And, truth be told, even a publishing contract for a book often doesn't mean you'll make a significant sum of money.)

WalterBright 6y ago
> even a publishing contract for a book often doesn't mean you'll make a significant sum of money. So true. Very, very few published authors don't also need a real job to pay the bills. JK Rowling is a unicorn.
- ghaff 6y ago
  My experience in the tech industry writing tech-ish books is that they've been very good for my career. Also. The direct money I've made from them has been a rounding error even though the one I've done through a publisher was apparently successful enough they asked me to do a new edition.
  - WalterBright 6y ago
    You're right, the indirect benefits can be career-making for tech books.

hairofadog 6y ago

I thought about Amazon for self publishing, and that’s a good point. I could be wrong (and would be happy to be wrong), but it feels like most of the people in the making-a-living-but-not-striking-it-rich group there are turning out high-volume junk. When I think of the “middle class” of the arts, I think of the Duplass Brothers, for example, or the Blumhouse horror studio, where their goal seems to be to allow talented artists to experiment and make quality, if low-budget, media. My very possibly wrong impression of Amazon self publishers is that their success strategy is to churn out as much serialized content as fast as possible.

ghaff 6y ago
The reality is that making a comfortable five USD figures annually by publishing books whether self-publishing or going through a traditional publisher probably puts you at the very top of the curve. Yes, and I assume at least some of the more successful self-published authors on Amazon are churning out material they can create a lot of quickly. I also assume they do a lot of marketing and have a reliable fan base in most cases.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
TheOtherHobbes 6y ago
It's not wrong at all, and you'll find that strategy being discussed on Amazon creator forums. It's the difference between product and culture. Culture makes you think, changes your world view, surprises you, challenges you, and is driven by imagination. Product fills a gap, fuels a transaction, and is driven by cash. There used to be more of a balance, but now the scales are tilted heavily towards product.
- edmundsauto 6y ago
  Is the ratio of product/culture the right metric? If the amount of product increased 100x but the amount of culture 10x, are we really worse off?