Sunday, January 10, 2016

Writing matters


Quatz reports...
By the numbers, self-publishing should be a lucrative endeavor. In 2015, author-published books accounted for 18% of the entire book market in the United States. The industry’s growth is staggering, and some firms predict the business could eventually get as big as $52 billionThe giant self-publishing market essentially now falls largely to Amazon, which already churns out an estimated 85% of self-published titles via its various platforms.

The Guardian chimes in... 
The competition watchdogs have allowed Amazon and the big supermarkets to strangle what had been a working business model. As a result, the remaining, desperately consolidated, mainstream publishers are trapped in a business model that works for nobody – except perhaps for the 5%, the mega-earning authors, who take 43% of all the money.


Ah well, my Kindle royalties paid in December amounted to EUR 7.94 and I have no expectation of joining those 'mega-earning authors' any time soon.

But as Miss Sayers said "A human being must have occupation if he or she is not to become a nuisance to the world".

Hence I shall continue to write and try not to be a nuisance to anyone. As for my current reading, I have spent the first ten days in the world of Wimsey. I am more and more convinced that the Dorothy Sayers novels should be read and re-read by any writer wishing to take women seriously. She was far ahead of her time.

My belated discovery of Sayers's work was prompted by my wish to plunge into the attitudes and ways of the thirties... research for Chance of Reign, my magnum opus set in 1936. This manuscript is now becoming more 'magnum' than before with a revised and augmented version progressing well. But my return to the stories of Lord Peter and Bunter ks now a matter of simple reading pleasure. Indeed I would read every single one of them were it not for the price of almost EUR 9 per title. 

Can it be that some confounded cad has re-packaged content that's in the public domain and is getting disgustingly rich with this cunning wheeze? I must consult Bunter.

In the meantime I'll just toddle along to the Flying Scotsman's cocktail bar... 

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