Zonulet

6 ms·

1.
by Zonulet 4mo ago
Based on the prose of the DroneXL piece, I think it would be more accurate to say that Claude adds its own angle.
2.
by Zonulet 6y ago
I am an author, I'm published by one of the publishers involved, and I'm very happy that they're doing it.
3.
by Zonulet 6y ago
I am an author in the middle of my career. I make my living on book sales. Personally I would prefer not to gamble my survival on this airy assumption that "people would figure it out".
4.
by Zonulet 6y ago
Why are you making the assumption that giving our books away for free doesn't affect our sales?
5.
by Zonulet 6y ago
I think your maths is off. A literary novel is a success if it sells 10,000 copies in hardback. I'm pretty sure that doesn't entail getting the book in front of a hundred million people.
6.
by Zonulet 6y ago
I don't understand where you're getting the idea that books are something "no one will pay for". Sales of books are generally stable or rising. They are not like buggy whips. I also don't understand how it is that y
7.
by Zonulet 6y ago
2018 was also the first time in five years that overall revenues fell – 2018 was still better than 2014 and 2015. The idea that we should scuttle the entire publishing industry and switch to Spotify because of these minor fluctuations from
8.
by Zonulet 6y ago
If all book sales were electronic, that might indeed invite a reassessment of publishers' value in securing distribution. But ebooks are only about 20% of book sales (and that figure is not rising).
9.
by Zonulet 6y ago
Here in the UK, if you go to a library and take out a book, the author does get compensated, it's called the Public Lending Right. Apparently in Denmark they've had it since 1941 so I don't think it took ebooks to make it tec
10.
by Zonulet 6y ago
You're admitting what most anti-copyright people don't want to admit – if instead of bookshops we only had the Emergency Library, certain classes of works would indeed go away, including most good fiction, not to mention history,
11.
by Zonulet 6y ago
In the UK, revenue from ebook sales grew 3% between 2018 and 2019. Where is your evidence that the business model of "counting copies" – i.e. selling books to people who want to read them – doesn't work any more?
12.
by Zonulet 6y ago
The percentages aren't particularly relevant to me, because I live off advances, not royalties. Sales are still meaningful, because they help determine what advance I get next time, but in my case the idea that I'm getting a cut o
13.
by Zonulet 6y ago
I am an author and I making my living from book sales. You're right, I'm absolutely obsessed with money, in the sense that I need money to buy food and pay my electricity bill.
14.
by Zonulet 6y ago
This exists in the UK, it's called Unbound. They've been around for ten years and they've done... fine. Some decent books. But their business model has not exactly conquered the world. As an author myself, I would never consi
15.
by Zonulet 6y ago
No, this is just my point. Among people on message boards, for whom copyright is oppression and piracy is second nature, paying for media is a voluntary donation. For the average person in the world I am selling my books to, that is not yet
16.
by Zonulet 6y ago
I can assure you there are a lot of great books that would not have been written if the authors first had to either 1. become beloved enough on the internet that they could crowdfund their income for five years or 2. somehow secure a "
17.
by Zonulet 6y ago
Once this change is made, won't somebody just start a website that looks exactly like the Amazon Kindle Store except everything is free to download, and it's legal? You don't think that will hurt our sales at all? I know peop
18.
by Zonulet 6y ago
Right, but authors getting a shitty percentage from their publishers is a complaint that's literally as old as publishing itself, it has nothing to do with the model being "obsolete" because of the internet. If it was really
19.
by Zonulet 6y ago
Wait, I thought the argument from the anti-copyright people was supposed to be that piracy doesn't hurt sales, not that piracy takes away livelihoods?
20.
by Zonulet 6y ago
Every author who's published by a traditional publisher will agree with you that the system has problems, but I guarantee you won't find many who think the whole thing needs to be scrapped and turned into Spotify or OnlyFans or wh
21.
by Zonulet 6y ago
What are your options if your book is going to take years of work and you don't already have a following?
22.
by Zonulet 6y ago
Business models like self-publishing and Kindle Unlimited have worked really well for romance and fantasy novelists who can publish six books a year and have fans who plough through two books a week. They absolutely have not worked for lite
23.
by Zonulet 6y ago
>I understand why authors find arguments like mine upsetting. Their "pay a toll per copy" business model is obsolete. It's been obsolete for years. I am an author in the UK. Revenue from digital book sales – i.e. what you
24.
by Zonulet 6y ago
Actually as an author I am very sympathetic to what happened to musicians and I desperately hope it doesn't happen to us too.
25.
by Zonulet 6y ago
I am a small time author myself. If someone gives away a pirated copy of one of my books for free, but includes a readme inviting people to buy the book, I do not feel they are 'minimising the impact on me'. In fact I do not feel
26.
by Zonulet 6y ago
This isn't really about Neil Gaiman, this is about the vast majority of small-time authors who work incredibly hard for every sale and who rely on paying readers to be able to continue with their careers.
27.
by Zonulet 6y ago
I am an author with three books on there, and I've just emailed them to opt out. One reason authors are fine with libraries lending out their books for free, electronically or otherwise, is that borrowing a library copy is always a lit
28.
by Zonulet 6y ago
They tried this, it was called Kindle Unlimited and it turned out to be terrible for most authors.