[LINK] Radiohead: Artists often screwed by digital downloads

Jan Whitaker jwhit at melbpc.org.au
Sun Jan 6 16:06:50 AEDT 2008


At 03:44 PM 6/01/2008, Roger Clarke wrote:
>[Lots of us have warned for years that public payment morality was 
>being seriously undermined, and hence that an increasing proportion 
>of consumers would appropriate content.  Now the alienation of 
>artists is going to extremes, at the same time as alternative 
>channels to market are maturing.  Business historians may come to 
>write case studies of the collapse of a vast industry 1980-2020.]

Keep an eye on publishing, too. It's a mess of uninformed 'middle' 
'men' interns screening works or having to go through layer upon 
layer to get a decision to sign an author/work after the author has 
found an agent willing to take on the author/work to begin with.

Here in Australia, it's pretty bad in that way. There aren't enough agents.

There is an emergence of print on demand that comes in a range of 
flavours, from bring your own cover to editorial services for a fee. 
As far as I know, there isn't one for direct production in Australia, 
but there are a few in the US now, such as lulu.com and iuniverse. As 
they get more use, people are being more adventurous. The downside is 
that there is no screening, so you pays your money and you takes your 
chances. The author gets a much higher return, but they have to 
handle all their own promotion and they are unlikely to get any 
bookstores to carry. But nowadays, many publishers (most) want their 
writers to do their own publicity. I've even been told they expect 
their authors to use their advance for it!

It's a strange old world, isn't it?
Jan

Jan Whitaker
JLWhitaker Associates, Melbourne Victoria
jwhit at janwhitaker.com
business: http://www.janwhitaker.com
personal: http://www.janwhitaker.com/personal/
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Living, like writing, requires no wisdom. Only revising does. - Jim 
Sollisch, Sept, 2007
'Seed planting is often the most important step. Without the seed, 
there is no plant.' - JW, April 2005
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