Interesting Links for 02-08-2013

[andrewducker]

• In Lieu of Money, Toyota Donates Efficiency to New York Charity
  (tags: efficiency charity )
• What happens when you ask abusive trolls to phone a talk show.
  (tags: abuse society misogyny )
• Nuclear power: Not financially viable?
  (tags: money nuclearpower )
• Writer would like to be paid for all the things people want him to do.
  (tags: money writing )

Comments

[philmophlegm]

I saw your link to the "Writer would like to be paid..." not long after I'd seen Saladin Ahmed (whom I follow on twitter) post this:

http://www.saladinahmed.com/wordpress/cap-in-hand-the-darker-side-of-the-writing-life/

You assume that once someone has had a successful novel published that they're set. Ahmed's first novel got both Hugo and Nebula nominations (deservedly so, I really liked it - 'Throne of the Crescent Moon', middle-eastern flavoured fantasy), but he can't actually afford to go to WorldCon - or even childcare.

[andrewducker]

Oh yes. Writing is only a good way to make money for the 0.1%

When I posted it to Twitter yesterday I got this back from Graham Linehan:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mj5IV23g-fE

[philmophlegm]

I think Ellison is right.

It's part of a wider issue that certain aspects of the way creatives are rewarded for their work don't actually work, and the rewards go to various middlemen - publishers, editors etc. Don't get me wrong, all of these people are valuable, but the balance of power doesn't seem right.

I don't see an easy solution for this, but other industries that aren't that dissimilar seem to reward the creatives adequately. Major sports pay their athletes for example. Maybe sports agents are more effective than literary agents.

Maybe the problem is that it's a buyers' market. There are so many people out there trying to write the next great novel that it's difficult for genuinely talented writers to stand out without big marketing pushes from the publishers. (The J.K. Rowling pseudonym novel is a perfect example of this.)

[andrewducker]

Oh yes. You don't expect people to make a living on selling 500 copies of a book, but that's apparently very good for most authors.

[bart_calendar]

I think this is why when James Ellroy did a reading and Q&A in town a couple years ago he started off screaming "Buy my fucking book" and then repeated that scream after the reading and again in the middle of his responses to questions.

[bart_calendar]

The funny thing is that when you talk to him outside his readings - which he clearly sees as a bully pulpit to generate book sales - he's super nice.

Rome Girl asked him if he was going to include one of her favorite characters in any of his future books and he said he wasn't but then spent 10 minutes telling her what happens to the rest of the character's life.

And he was super nice to me and talked about writing and cool historical stuff and then signed my book "Professor Barticus Calendarus Maximus Stop Writing Porno! - The Reverend James Ellroy."

[bart_calendar]

Yeah. In person he just comes off as a really friendly American History nerd - although one that is gigantic and accidental physically intimidating. (He's one of the tallest dudes I've ever seen and his very real prison tats are no joke.)

[moussaka_thief]

I wouldn't call 500 copies quite good by any stretch of the imagination. I'd say it isn't abnormal but any publisher would be disappointed by 500 sales of a book. You would not make your money for even a very limited print run of 3000 on the profits from 500 books!

[cartesiandaemon]

It seems like there's a spectrum of activities from those that you normally can't get anyone to pay for, to those which give you a reasonably steady job. And writing is somewhere in the middle.

And it depends both "how much money there is total" and "whether that is spread out amongst many amateurs, or concentrated in a few best sellers".

[andrewducker]

That's something that publishers actually help with. By paying advances to writers, which (at a low level) are usually more than they would get from selling the book, they act as a leveller and redistribute some money from the biggest sellers to newcomers.

[naath]

The athletes who get lots of money are pretty rare though; a lot of people play sports for free, or for tiny amounts.

[philmophlegm]

Also true.

As a newish writer whose first novel was critically acclaimed, Saladin Ahmed would seem to be at the same level as say a young Premier League footballer just breaking into the first team. That footballer's club would spend money developing him (and paying him) because they would see him as an asset that will get more valuable - either in terms of results on the field or being able to sell him to a bigger club. I wonder why Ahmed's publisher doesn't think to invest in him in the same way. (Wouldn't it be in their interests to have him at WorldCon promoting their products?)

Or maybe, like Andrew says, they already have, in terms of an advance for his next book.

[andrewducker]

Yeah, they'll have given him an advance, and hope that he can either strike it lucky, or develop a back catalogue that continues to sell small amounts whenever a new book comes out.

If he then has a patch of bad luck then he's in trouble though. Which is why 99% of writers have a day job.

[naath]

The premier league ... has a lot more money to throw around that most sports. But yes, the teams to spend their money developing new talent.