A short bit about book pricing

[barbarienne]

I see articles where people complain about the price of books, or the unavailability of ebooks on particular platforms. There's a thing that lots of folks don't know about, which is the cause of this problem

Comments

[malkatsheva]

You know, I had to go back and read this a couple of times. It's completely bugnuts! What evil, awful genius agent ever came up with such a devilish contract?!

[barbarienne]

It's part of making sure your author is a top author at that company. So if you're Big Bestselling Novelist and don't want to be supplanted in the company's sales emphasis by Hot Upcoming Novelist, your agent gets that clause written in.

It's a form of scent-marking. "Yeah, if anyone else gets attention, I want you to remember that I AM STILL HERE."

[malkatsheva]

How awesome it must feel to be big enough that you can negotiate one of these ridiculous contracts! I can't even really imagine it, being so big.

[barbarienne]

It's the writer equivalent of a baseball player who hits 50+ homeruns a year, or pitches and wins 20 games a season, or has a batting average of .350.

There are superstars in every field, and they get paid more than the folks who merely do the job well.