#how authors get paid

[lilyionamackenzie]

Huge thanks to Elizabeth Winthrop Alsop for this excellent piece on "How, What and When Book Authors Get Paid"

The Royal(ty) Lesson I’m reposting this newsletter that I sent out over a year ago in case some of my newer readers missed it. I continue to get questions on the royalty system, both in traditional publishing, and in the newer forms from independent presses to hybrid to self-publishing. I hope this math lesson helps a little to clarify matters. I’ve learned over the years that many readers, fans…

[inamagicalhallucination]

i know i say that atsushi likes to spend his extra cash on kyouka but i also dont think kyouka lives there for "free" like she could, atsushi wouldn't mind, but i feel like it makes more sense for her to contribute since its not like atsushi's rolling in cash

maybe atsushi wouald be hesitant at a 50-50 thing becuz she's so little and he cares so much about her but i dont believe its 0-100 ya know?

[fromtheseventhhell]

I’ll never forget how insecure Stansa’s got when the Key Five was revealed, complained about it and then to cope they created the ‘Core Six’ and actually ties into their continuous stream of passing of fanon as canon and at the same time being the usual delusional bunch they’ve always been

What's really funny is that they still confidently claim that the Key Five doesn't mean anything, solely because she isn't a part of it. The Core Six is a completely fanon invention but people talk about it like it's fact. They want her to be more important than she is so badly that they're straight up ignoring the author. And yes, until otherwise stated by George, the Key Five are still a thing. Tbh I'm not sure if there was ever a time that they engaged with the source material though? A lot of them came from the show (*cough*fanfiction) so that's where a majority of their takes are coming from. That's why we get people saying things like "Sansa charmed George off the page" or "Sansa took Arya's place as George's favorite Stark sister". They just desperately want the show to match up with the books. What's annoying is that her not being a part of the Key Five doesn't mean she isn't important, but people take it as hate towards her. It's sad that the only version of her they like is her fanon one.

[starbuck]

if anyone was wondering, i’m currently reading published RPF about F. Scott Fitzgerald for *checks notes* my job, so that’s how my life is going.

[dragonji]

have to be honest guys its actually going Really Badly again.

[oidheadh-con-culainn]

sometimes people online are like "wow can you believe that people who write professionally and rely on selling books to pay rent will think about the marketability of a book before they dedicate several months to writing it, to make sure it's a worthwhile investment of time and a good step for their career at this particular moment"

and it's like yeah hate to break it to you but it's almost like writing for a job is slightly different to writing as a hobby and sometimes you DO have to weigh up whether it's likely to help you pay the bills before you commit to a project

[isatoru]

guys i don't wanna ever hear you say you hate your writing when booktok exists. every time you say you hate your writing an angel loses its wings or wtv they say

[tallochar]

One of the quickest ways I can tell whether someone American has written a fic about UK key workers / government workers is if they have someone say that they "used up all their sick days".

[sevenfists]

I've been reading your Sid/Geno fics and loving them, and then found your tumblr and was absolutely delighted to hear that you've written some profic as well (I have requested all of them from my library!) I'm sorry to hear your current WIP is giving you trouble, sending good vibes your way (and some hockey magic, if it is a hockey/hockey-adjacent work!)

Love to hear that you're getting them from the library!!! That's the entire reason I pulled them from Kindle Unlimited. Lol the WIP is unbearable MM sci-fi with at least three complicated subplots in addition to the main romance arc... my ambitions routinely exceed my talent. Someday I will figure out how to make all the pieces fit together.

[talentforlying]

naming one of my new icons 221b and feeling arthur conan doyle do a backflip in his grave.

[onepiexe]

bad week

[rewritingcanon]

trying not to think about how the publishing market in australia is dead for fantasy novels and to get sales i should submit the manuscript to a british/american agent but if thats the case what the fuck is the point of me doing uni in aus and trying to network and if it gets good sales on the other side of the world how the fuck am i even gonna interact with it or help promote it when i live in AUSTRALIA

[artemisdesari-blog]

A writer friend told me something that broke my heart a little bit today; they're going to quit publishing their fanfic.

My instant thought was that they had been trolled or attacked or that something terrible had happened in their life because this person is so passionate about their writing. It wasn't any of that. Engagement with their works has been going down, as it has for many of us. Comments are like gold dust a lot of the time, and just looking through the historical comment counts on old fics on ao3 demonstrates this trend very clearly. It was not simply the comments dropping off which caused them to decide to stop posting, however.

My friend came across a discord server for their fandom (I should point out here that their fandom interest and mine diverged a couple of years ago, we stay in touch but don't currently read each other's posts because I'm not into their fandom and they would rather gouge their eyes out with a wooden spoon than read anything Star Wars) and specifically to share fic in that fandom. They joined, because we all love a good fic rec, only to discover that their latest multichapter fic, which has almost no comments and very few kudos, is being hotly discussed in this server as one of the best stories ever. Not one of these people has bothered to say this to them on the fic. When they asked, none of participants could see the point in telling the author of the fic they apparently loved so much that they love it.

This discovery has absolutely destroyed my friend's love of sharing fic. They share because they love seeing other people's enjoyment, and fic writers do that through comments and kudos/reblogs/likes because we don't get paid. There is no literary critic writing a blog post/article about how amazing the story is for us to copy and keep/frame. There is no money from royalties. All we have are the words of the people reading our works.

Those people on that server could have taken five minutes of the time they spent gushing about how amazing my friend's story was to other people and used it to tell the one person guaranteed to want to hear that praise how much they loved it. They could have taken a moment to express their opinion to the person who spent hours upon hours plotting, writing, editing, and posting those chapters. Instead, they deprived my friend of thing that keeps them sharing their writing, and in the process have killed their love of it. My friend now feels used and unmotivated.

I won't be sharing a link to their fic, they said I could share their experience but not their identity. I know they plan to post one final chapter. I know they intend to express their hurt at being excluded from the praise for the thing they created, and I know they intend to announce that as a consequence they will not be posting for a long while, if at all.

So please, I beg you, don't hide your love of a story from the writer. It's just about the only thing we have.

[def-not-kaz-brekker]

crazy how fanfic authors drop the most beautiful and gorgeous pieces of work ever, leaving you speechless and sobbing at three in the morning as you quietly contemplate the masterpiece you just read

and they don’t get paid for it they just do it because they’re having fun and they want to share their joy with you

like I would literally die for all of you fanfic authors out there reblog to swear your allegiance to fanfic authors

[strohller27]

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[oidheadh-con-culainn]

i might be getting slightly fed up of mean-spirited posts about authors, idk if you could tell