[B5JMS] attn. JMS: A TV writing question...

[b5jms at cs.columbia.edu]

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From: "David S." <elven.bane at verizon.net>
Date: Thu, 3 Jul 2003 04:59:20 +0000 (UTC)
Lines: 34


> Remembering that the average novelist makes less per year than the average
> grade school teacher, if 2000 copies of a book are read or downloaded
online
> instead of purchased, that loss of $2-3,000 can make a huge impact on the
> writer's financial life.
>

I agree that you should not be posting or copying peoples works without
permission. However, I am curious how you made the above statistic. Often
when someone talks about losses from online piracy they are a bit (sometimes
very) overinflated. I am not saying this is one of those cases. People tend
to forget when making up these statistics to account for the fact that not
every illegal copy will become a actual sale. There are many alternatives
(since the people in question are too cheap to buy them). People can read
the stories at the library, or buy a used copy, or borrow a copy from a
friend, or not read it at all. Yes libraries and used books (used book sales
really dont give more royalties) were purchashed at one point but this does
not equal one sale per reader.

Sorry, had to point something out.

David S.

Figures often beguile me, particularly when I have the arranging of them
myself; in which case the remark attributed to Disraeli would often apply
with justice and force: "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies
and statistics."
- Autobiography of Mark Twain






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From: jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5)
Date: Thu, 3 Jul 2003 06:02:41 +0000 (UTC)
Lines: 31

>> Remembering that the average novelist makes less per year than the average
>> grade school teacher, if 2000 copies of a book are read or downloaded
>online
>> instead of purchased, that loss of $2-3,000 can make a huge impact on the
>> writer's financial life.
>>
>
>I agree that you should not be posting or copying peoples works without
>permission. However, I am curious how you made the above statistic.

This is hardly news; this has been covered in any number of magazine articles
and books about writing, from Publisher's Weekly on up and down the line.  And
it's not limited to prose writers; the Writers Guild of America noted recently
in a report that only about 2% of its members earn $100,000 or more per year;
most earn maybe $15-30,000 a year, meaning only about one or two sales at tops,
and sometimes not that.

Prose advances on fiction (and nonfiction) have not even kept up with
inflation.  Where they were about $3,000 for a first novel about 10 years ago,
they're still at or near that number.

 jms

(jmsatb5 at aol.com)
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