5 ms·
How do authors make a living by giving away all their work for free?
by jawns 3y ago
How do authors make a living by giving away all their work for free?
- Zambyte 3y agoA book in the public domain can be sold, so probably by selling books. Or other jobs. This seems really interesting to me as someone who does not write books full time.
- knome 3y agoThey established early copyright because publishers would just print copies of books and never pay the authors at all. The middlemen aren't going to do it voluntarily, and if they do, they'll be undercut by those that don't.
- Zambyte 3y agoAuthors can sell their own books even if someone else publishes it. Especially if it's published into the public domain.
- numbsafari 3y agoThe last chapter requires an enterprise license.
- sonicanatidae 3y agoHi! I found a typo, I suspect you meant, enterprise subscription.
- whycome 3y agoHow much do you want for that comment? Someone who spends years perfecting a recipe has no similar protections, yet they've certainly done work. Their options for making money off of it comes from maybe associated works, or a restaurant, or hiding the recipe. Maybe authors will have to read works out loud? Create different types of value in a world where we will have AI generating stories en masse?
- 4death4 3y agoThe recipe itself isn’t protected by copyright but the rest of a cookbook is. E.g. their writings about the recipe and the photography. Usage of one’s likeness is also subject to protection. E.g. you can’t market a cookbook on Amazon as Ina Garten’s Barefoot Contessa even if the contents of the book are exactly her recipes. I don’t think it’s a good analogy.
- whycome 3y agoI mean that's exactly my point -- one needs to find other ways to "making a living" from the work done within the framework of laws which may or may not appreciate or have the means to protect ones work.
- Buttons840 3y agoThey're not making a living from that comment, and they are worried that authors will not be able to make a living from their writings. Taking a big step back, I guess that question is: Do we value people who write enough that we want some full time writers? We can then structure our society accordingly.
- MichaelZuo 3y agoThere plenty of idle people who can afford to give away their book length writings for free, probably millions in fact. And some fraction of them do, some fraction add an optional donation prompt, etc...
- karaterobot 3y ago
- novosel 3y agoSo, one writes a book to make a living? You made that comment to make ends meet? It is only "for free" if it has any value. This is the gift economy, where reciprocity is just a special (restricted) case of it.
- temp112123 3y ago[dead]
- ghaff 3y agoIt's either done as a hobby and/or the reputational etc. benefits support their "brand" in their pursuits that they do get paid for.
- eikenberry 3y agoAuthors don't make a living from their work now. I've known many authors and they all do it as a side gig.. to promote their career while making a few extra bucks. None of them were even close to doing it for a living. If you want to encourage writing you'll need a different system than copyright.
- krapp 3y agoWeird. Every author I'm aware of writes their books for an actual living.