Re: Re: Paul Krugman holds forth on the future of publishing

And it's not the 'norm' here in Australia either. Mr Jermey is being  
disingenuous in trying to support his completely nonsensical original  
proposition.

While grants can be available, either through federal or state  
government arts councils etc, the amounts are miniscule in the scheme  
of things. Last year the Federal Government funded Australia Council  
for the Arts distributed a total of $A7.8 million to promote  
'literature' in general, including grants to authors, emerging  
writers and publishers as well as specific one-off projects. That  
represents an infinitesimal amount of the government's annual budget.  
The grants themselves are individually small, difficult to get and  
benefit only a few individuals. There's a helluva lot more cash than  
that wasted on frivolous projects by the government every year.

I'm quite certain that such grants are also available in the US and  
in the UK and in most other nations. Whether they lead to a "steady  
stream of unsaleable rubbish..." is an entirely subjective view. If  
one new 'classic' comes out of such schemes every few years then it's  
probably worth it the money. The reality is that almost every country  
provides some degree of subsidy for the 'arts', whether it be by  
supporting a symphony orchestra, theatre or by providing funding for  
festivals, music etc etc. Society as a whole has deemed it acceptable  
for some taxpayer's money to be spent on supporting artistic  
endeavours that might otherwise go the way of the dodo because of  
lack of commercial support. Whether that is a 'good' thing to do with  
taxpayer's dollars is also subjective. Mr Jermey thinks not, and fair  
enough.

However, to apply the concept of such grants to how writers like  
Stephen King should be paid (which Jermey did) is plain silly. King  
never received a cent of government funding. And nor do 99.9% of  
Australian authors, established or struggling, get any form of grant.  
The bottom line is that writers in Australia face exactly the same  
market forces as those in the US, and writers and publishers deal  
with it in exactly the same way -- they all struggle to make a living  
in a free market. E-books and the changing ways in which the public  
access what they want to read may indeed demand a new model but the  
argument that copyright distorts the free market has gone around in  
circles ever since e-books were a gleam in the eyes of the  
originators. Get over it. Listen to Marion Gropen people, she at  
least knows what publishing is about. The same cannot be said for the  
majority of e-publishers.

Jon Jermey is entitled to his opinion. He's previously said that he  
would never read (or buy) a new book because there's enough public  
domain literature to satisfy his needs. That's fine but trying to  
extend that view to everybody else is all a bit come back Karl Marx,  
all is forgiven. I can only support the earlier comments that it  
indicates a complete ignorance of both writing and, especially, of  
publishing.

And now, I shall return to my slothful Queensland retirement. Oh, and  
for the record, in 40 years in commercial publishing I never once got  
a government grant.

Alan


On 10/06/2008, at 4:09 PM, Aaron Walker wrote:

> Okay, now I get it.
>
> I was reading and responding to your post from an American point of  
> view.
>
> If I lived in Australia, I would completely agree with you.
>
> Luckily, the scenario you describe isn't the norm here in America.
> Aaron J. Walker
> Writer/Illustrator
> "Good Morning, Friend Moon"Publisher
> http://www.walkbroadpublishing.com
>
>
> To: ebook-community-hHKSG33Tihig7M29m/[email protected]:  
> [email protected]: Tue, 10 Jun 2008 13:39:10  
> +1000Subject: Re: [ebook-community] Re: Paul Krugman holds forth on  
> the future of publishing
>
>
>
>
> We need to distinguish here between 'production' and 'adding  
> value'. If I write a novel on 300 sheets of white paper I have been  
> productive, but I probably haven't added value, because people who  
> in the past would have paid good money for 300 sheets of white  
> paper will not now pay that.How do I determine if I have added  
> 'demonstrable' value? By trying to sell the stuff. How do I  
> determine if my novel-writing was the most productive way of  
> spending my time? By trying to sell the stuff in a free market, and  
> seeing if I make more money than I could have made doing anything  
> else. And a 'free market' doesn't involve suppressing or  
> restricting access to competing reading material. That just turns  
> everyone else into losers.If the burger shop would have paid me  
> $5000 for the same time spent flipping burgers, and I lose money on  
> my novel, then I haven't been using my time in the most productive  
> way and society is more than $5000 worse off as a result. This is  
> all just Economics 101. If I've got more than $5000 worth of fun  
> out of writing my novel then that's OK, but if not, then I'm not  
> entitled to sit and whine about how society 'ought' to pay me  
> better. I just need to get a real job.So -- getting back to basics  
> -- my initial response was to the claim "Writers deserve to make a  
> living". No. Nobody deserves to make a living unless they produce  
> something somebody else values sufficiently to pay for  
> it.Unfortunately the wrong-headed belief that producing words on  
> paper is somehow inherently virtuous and should be rewarded  
> regardless of its commercial value runs deep: maybe it's a hangover  
> from our largely pre-literate ancestors. I don't know about the US  
> but here in Australia there are plenty of tax-funded grants for  
> writers and other creative artists; and as a result we see a steady  
> stream of unsaleable rubbish presented under the name of 'art' by  
> people who could be spending their time getting off welfare and  
> doing something useful.Jon.
> .
>
>
>
>
>
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> It’s easy to add contacts from Facebook and other social sites  
> through Windows Live™ Messenger. Learn how.
> https://www.invite2messenger.net/im/?source=TXT_EML_WLH_LearnHow
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
> ------------------------------------
>
> ------------------------------------------------------
> Post a message:   ebook-community [[at]] *
> Unsubscribe:      ebook-community-unsubscribe [[at]] *
> Switch to digest: ebook-community-digest [[at]] *
> Switch to normal: ebook-community-normal [[at]] *
> Put mail on hold: ebook-community-nomail [[at]] *
> Administrator:    ebook-community-owner [[at]] *
>
> (* == yahoogroups.com)
> -------------------------------------------------------Yahoo!  
> Groups Links
>
>
>


------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------
Post a message:   ebook-community [[at]] *
Unsubscribe:      ebook-community-unsubscribe [[at]] *
Switch to digest: ebook-community-digest [[at]] *
Switch to normal: ebook-community-normal [[at]] *
Put mail on hold: ebook-community-nomail [[at]] *
Administrator:    ebook-community-owner [[at]] *

(* == yahoogroups.com)
-------------------------------------------------------Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ebook-community/

<*> Your email settings:
    Individual Email | Traditional

<*> To change settings online go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ebook-community/join
    (Yahoo! ID required)

<*> To change settings via email:
    mailto:[email protected] 
    mailto:ebook-community-fullfeatured-hHKSG33TihhbjbujkaE4pw@public.gmane.org

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
    ebook-community-unsubscribe-hHKSG33TihhbjbujkaE4pw@public.gmane.org

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
    http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/