6 ms·
Well, if you could somehow guarantee that your book would sell enough copies in that two-year window to make a million dollars profit, it would make sense to pa
by yorwba 7d ago
Well, if you could somehow guarantee that your book would sell enough copies in that two-year window to make a million dollars profit, it would make sense to pay you a reasonable salary for the five years it takes you to write it. It's not completely implausible that people would pay for something that could be had for cheaper soon, considering that there are grifters selling "new editions" (with a publication date in the future, to game recency-biased search algorithms) of out-of-copyright works that are available for free elsewhere.
The real problem is that it's hard to predict the commercial success of a creative work, especially when it doesn't exist yet. Publishing is a hit-based where most books barely sell, but then a few make more than enough to cover the losses incurred by giving long-shot authors a chance.
With much shorter copyright terms, I guess only sequels of already-popular works would get significant funding.
- philipallstar 7d ago> if you could somehow guarantee that your book would sell enough copies in that two-year window to make a million dollars profit This is madness. > With much shorter copyright terms, I guess only sequels of already-popular works would get significant funding. Even then - who would buy it if they could just wait two years and read it for much less?
- _davide_ 5d agoYou are thinking in reverse, think it more like a kickstarter, you sponsor the author, at that point the author would probably just release as public domain and you could buy a physical "official" copy on kindle or whatever, but you think it as just a tip/convenience or a merchandise, not the product.