Cory Doctorow unterstreicht die Vorzüge des Buchmarktes aus Künstler-Perspektive

In seiner Kolumne bei Publishers Weekly schreibt Cory Doctorow im Piraterie-Kontext:

Record labels, movie studios, and, yes, publishers, too, are commonly viewed as rapacious scoundrels that prey on artists, exploit a stranglehold on distribution, and force content owners into abusive contractual relationships.

But trade publishing is different, especially when it comes to fiction. Unlike musicians, we novelists give limited licenses to our publishers, licenses that we can terminate if the publisher doesn’t actually get our creations into retail channels. If a song isn’t available for download, it’s often the case that some record company owns the rights and can’t be bothered to do anything with it. If you can’t get a book it’s usually because no one wants to publish it, not because some faceless corporate bean-counter has decided to sit on the rights.

And unlike musicians, authors are not commonly charged for production expenses. A recording contract typically requires musicians to sell enough to pay for all the production, publicity, and marketing before they see a penny in royalties. In publishing, the publisher pays these expenses out of its pocket, and the author isn’t expected to pay it back.

Finally, authors’ advances are (usually) only charged to their current books, or sometimes across a single deal. Unlike musicians, who are often required to pay back shortfalls from their last project before they can start earning on their latest one, authors’ balance sheets are zeroed out with each new book. If your last book tanks, your next book usually doesn’t have to pay back its advance. Publishing doesn’t do debt slavery.

Doctorows Fazit: Verlage sollten ihre im Vergleich zum Musik- und Filmmarkt positiven Leistungen stärker herausstreichen und sich als echte Partner der Autoren und damit wiederum gegenüber den Endkunden als unterstützenswert darstellen. Das helfe beim Kampf gegen die Piraterie, weil viele Kunden dann aus Überzeugung kauften.

Dazu passt, was Juli Zeh und Ilija Trojanow über den deutschen Markt sagen: … weil Literaturverlage eher idealistisch als gewinnmaximierend eingestellt sind und ihre Autoren in der Regel nicht ausbeuten, sondern angemessen beteiligen.

Kompletten Beitrag von Cory Doctorow lesen: With a Little Help: Publishing’s Virtue

via: Boing Boing

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