RE: Paul Krugman holds forth on the future of publishing

Well said Mary.
 
I'll never understand why, as we evolve as a society, that intellectual property is devalued.
 
People should be able to earn a living from their brain just as much as their brawn.Following his argument, Physicians dispense nothing more than their accumulated learning and wisdom to help people get/stay well. They are sharing their intellectual property with us after years of study and training.
 
Maybe we should pay them less for their services since what they offer isn't "tangible" or reproducible on an assembly line.
 
Aaron J. Walker
Writer/Illustrator
"Good Morning, Friend Moon"Publisher
http://www.walkbroadpublishing.com


To: ebook-community-hHKSG33Tihig7M29m/[email protected]: [email protected]: Fri, 6 Jun 2008 09:13:03 -0400Subject: [ebook-community] Paul Krugman holds forth on the future of publishing




So NYT columnist/economist Paul Krugman held forth on the Kindle and the future of publishing today...http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/06/opinion/06krugman.htmlMy response to him:Re: the Kindle and information wanting to be free...I've been "in ebooks" (and publishing, written 2 pbooks) for about ten years now. And I know people making livings from publishing them. They make money from books, not appearances by authors, which had you checked in the last decade, no one but the largest authors even draw remotely large crowds even when said appearances are free.There is another alternative to "they must find a way." It's that they won't find a way and that the intellectual property will just go away. It will never be created in the first place. People who otherwise would have written great book
 s will flip burgers or go into investment banking. They will be tired and sapped of creativity at the end of the day and they will never write because they have lives and families and like to eat and have shelter just like the consuming public.Okay, so only the JK Rowlings of the world will write books. But wait, there will never BE a JK Rowling. Because JK was once not JK and how did she GET to BE JK in the first place? Harry Potter was a sleeper hit for three books--didn't become big til the 4th book. No on goes to the readings of unknown novelists, much less pays for them. Thus, JK would have, eventually had to give up scribbling, round about book 2, and go get a real job. One that paid.But even so, what happens with intellectual property that is more important than the marketplace, f
 or example, news? Bloggers are very popular, but they don't do a lot of primary reporting. That primary-- and EXPENSIVE--reporting is done by organizations like the NYT, which spends a lot of money to create intellectual property that will become valueless under the new model. If the NYT can't make money selling its reportage--WHICH COSTS MONEY TO PRODUCE--that reportage will go away. Democracy--all of us--will be the poorer for it.I'd make a case that novels are the same way. What happens when all novels are Harry Potter (like all restaurants in Judge Dred were Taco Bell)? We as a society, as a civilization, will be poorer when only the rich can afford to create because there is nothing "in it" for the rest of the grubby writers.Intellectual property does not want to be free. Books take
  money to produce: writers have to be paid, copyeditors have to be paid, interior and cover designers have to be paid. No money = no making a living = no creating. It's supply and demand. If the demand is big, but only at a very, very low price, it almost guarantees that shortage will be a constant reality.dej----------------------------------------------------------Learn to use Google Analytics to make your web site more effective.Buy my book! http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/047017501X/----------------------------------------------------------"I loathe writing. On the other hand I'm a great believer in money." -- S.J. Perelman----------------------------------------------------------In the midst of winter, I finally realized that deep within me there lay an invincible summer.--Albert C
 amus----------------------------------------------------------I am Writer, hear me Pontificate! 






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