https://www.elysian.press/p/no-one-buys-books
Everything we learned about the publishing industry from Penguin vs. DOJ.
Not sure I like the "Netflix of books" suggestion(libraries exist!), but I thought this was interesting.
Data is a concept the markets still haven't figured out. When something can be copied infinitely at no additional production cost it defies the economic nature of physical goods. Ten years ago in a business class the suggested adaption was providing data as a service through subscriptions and a lot of the market has moved in that direction. We absolutely hate that, though.
Art as a market commodity is also an interesting thing since we can't define art. The best we can do is create art for the purpose of motivating purchasing behavior. Some great art has been made like this, but most art industries are horrendously abusive to the producers of art who often have to rely on outside forces to market their work who also happen to have a much easier time making much more money than the artists themselves will ever see.
All this to say that the systems we have in place are inadequete to support artists appropriately to the value they contribute to society. I don't have a solution for anyone who wants to create art as their job. My personal solution is to make my work something else and produce my art only on my own terms. Supporting oneself as an artist in the market is a nightmare.
Really interesting article. It underscores why, if you like a particular author, it's important to buy and source their work ethically.
And some, like Henry Neff, are just really lovely people. I highly recommend Henry Neff.
My bank account tells a different story.
But seriously an interesting article! I had no idea that such a huge swath of books simply aren’t profitable, even for the big publishers. Wild!
Well, I must admit that I am not bugin them. Mostly because I have acces to some good library near my home.