3 ms·

I'm really excited about this, not least because she claims another 18,000 words available through the site. (My nerd self rejoices!) This is the publishing eq

I'm really excited about this, not least because she claims another 18,000 words available through the site. (My nerd self rejoices!) This is the publishing equivalent of the Stones or U2 doing what they want, since they own their own back-catalog, so at some level it's not that big a deal, less replicable by the small-fry. On the other hand, I enjoy seeing disintermediation, and I truly enjoy hearing the whining from publishers about stuff like this. One of the major underdiscussed ways to get screwed writing is just not being able to learn how much you're selling. I worked for an author at one point with a major publisher. We literally could not get reports as to how many books had been sold, were shipped, were in bookstores. Nothing. If you think that's shocking and we misunderstood, I did some research -- it's common. Isn't that strange? You get paid per book, but publishers can't tell you how many books you've sold. Really! This lack of reporting happens in the music industry as well, for the same economic reasons. Rowling is going to have access to realtime statistics of sales; along with owning 100% of proceeds, these statistics are a major change in the amount of knowledge and control she has.

InclinedPlane 15y ago
Book publishing isn't quite as bad as music publishing, as far as I know. Even so, much of the revenue goes to the middle men. I don't think many people appreciate how difficult and rare it is to make a living as an author. A lot of the people who wrote the books you're staring at in a book store have day jobs. More so if you're looking at, say, computer tech books. Self-publishing of books and music is already revolutionizing these industries, and will turn them upside down once it becomes the norm. More control, more money in the creator's pockets, and a closer relationship between creator and fans. It's a good thing all around.
- paganel 15y ago
  > A lot of the people who wrote the books you're staring at in a book store have day jobs. And I don't think there's anything wrong with that, IMHO. Kafka had a day job at Assicurazioni Generali, but that didn't stop him writing The Castle or Metamorphosis.
  - InclinedPlane 15y ago
    Think about the implications though. Think about how many otherwise good books haven't been written because authors couldn't spare the time due to their jobs. Think about how many prospective authors haven't written their first books because they didn't have the time and/or didn't think it would make a significant amount of money.

InclinedPlane 15y ago

Book publishing isn't quite as bad as music publishing, as far as I know. Even so, much of the revenue goes to the middle men. I don't think many people appreciate how difficult and rare it is to make a living as an author. A lot of the people who wrote the books you're staring at in a book store have day jobs. More so if you're looking at, say, computer tech books. Self-publishing of books and music is already revolutionizing these industries, and will turn them upside down once it becomes the norm. More control, more money in the creator's pockets, and a closer relationship between creator and fans. It's a good thing all around.

paganel 15y ago
> A lot of the people who wrote the books you're staring at in a book store have day jobs. And I don't think there's anything wrong with that, IMHO. Kafka had a day job at Assicurazioni Generali, but that didn't stop him writing The Castle or Metamorphosis.
- InclinedPlane 15y ago
  Think about the implications though. Think about how many otherwise good books haven't been written because authors couldn't spare the time due to their jobs. Think about how many prospective authors haven't written their first books because they didn't have the time and/or didn't think it would make a significant amount of money.