The Realities of Publishing, or,

[ellenkushner]

Why Authors Need You to Buy Lots & Lots of Books
or,
Why Most of Us Don't Quit Our Day Jobs,
or,
What is this Thing Called Royalties?

a most Excellent Explanation & Analysis by Mr. Barry Lyga, which I urge everyone who wants to understand the publishing business to read.

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

He missed the bit where the royalty software crashes and something odd happens to the statements that no-one elver finds out to fix. And there's an error which is never sorted out. (Not that this happened to me with a non fiction publisher or anything. Not that I am still rather irritated about it, oh, no.)

[paulakate.livejournal.com]

I buy lots and lots of books. Just doing my part.

[mouseworks.livejournal.com]

Potter friends of mine were horrified at how many units I had to sell to make $20K compared to how many ceramic things they had to sell to make $20K and they get repeat customers because their things break. Of course, I don't have to throw each book by hand.