The vast majority of the people who are making any kind of a living from writing are still doing so through the trad-pub apparatus, and there are good reasons for that which are NOT copyright-related.
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Replying to @iridienne @Random832 and
I don't believe that copyright was part of the discussion about funding models for artists.
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Replying to @phyphor @iridienne and
Well I mean, yeah, self-publishers are in fact way way more dependent on copyright, all things considered, than trad publishers
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Replying to @arthur_affect @phyphor and
Like, you don't have the advantage that it's easier to find your book on bookstore shelves or in a legit rec list on a legit website No one can find your book *at all*, except by chance
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Replying to @arthur_affect @phyphor and
And the people who do stumble on your book's title by chance ("Arthur Chu said he read this book and really liked it! He has 40k followers!") are way, way more likely to do a quick Google and look to see if it's available for free to "check it out" After all, you're nobody
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Replying to @arthur_affect @phyphor and
The inspiring ending to this story is that your book is in fact available for free but it's SO GOOD that it goes viral nationally, you became famous, and it makes millions of dollars This is not going to happen
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Replying to @arthur_affect @phyphor and
The only sales you are EVER going to get is that brief week of maybe fifty or sixty people "checking out" your book, and whether you make ANY money from this is entirely dependent on whether they can find the free version within a few minutes of Googling or not
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Replying to @arthur_affect @phyphor and
And, yes, probably less than half of those fifty or sixty will actually pony up ten bucks for your book when they find out it happens not to be easily accessible for free But that's the actual money you get in your pocket, that's your revenue stream
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Replying to @arthur_affect @phyphor and
Your *fans* are going to be a much smaller percentage of that percentage, maybe one or two people who email you all "Wow that WAS good!" That's ugly and it's harsh but it's true
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Replying to @arthur_affect @phyphor and
And this dynamic doesn't really change that much if you multiply the numbers by 10, 100 or 1000
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Like my harsh example of someone who only ever makes fifty bucks from self-pubbing is still pretty optimistic But this is just as true of someone who gets REALLY successful for a self-publisher If their shit isn't easy to find, they'll make $5k, if it is, they'll make $200
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