I don't want to shame anyone involved, but I am genuinely baffled, so did some digging. The imprint's parent company last year made an operating profit of £218–on revenues of £560m! That is a healthy margin.
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I've been asked to write a 5,000-word chapter for a mostly academic imprint that I respect. I said sure, sounds fun, how much can you offer? The answer: we don't, uh, pay but let me get back to you. Then they got back to me: £100. A mini-thread.
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I suppose most companies would make such margins if they didn't pay for labor. But it seems an expected thing in academia that to publish is a public good, and academics have it cushy anyway, so why pay them extra for doing writing, their core job? Or something like that.
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But nearly every university receives public subsidy, as does vast amounts of research. So the taxpayer pays the salaries and the research funding; private companies then take the result, add what value exactly?, and publish it to a 39% profit margin.
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Everyone in this exchange seems to have thought this pretty normal until I politely said "huh?" Academics, publishing friends, what am I missing?
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Ce Tweet est indisponible.
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Link? I don't know the concept. So it's a gift to me to be published, and my gift to them is quite a lot of labour?
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I was sent freelance rates for a large newspaper not long ago, dated 2009. I thought it was mistake. Nope, they just haven’t increased their rates since then
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what’s happening to journalism in the print media over the last ~10 years is devastating. It’s so much worse in countries like Australia where i’m living. social media eg twitter & facebook & search engines (google..) should pay more $ to news outlets for content.
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Wait until you write the 5,000 word chapter, they tell you it’s great, hold it for while, then tell you they don’t have space to run it so you never get your £100. That’s when the £216m figure will really hurt.
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Don't forget the 24 months of endless reviews and the fights over archaic formatting rules
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Le chargement semble prendre du temps.
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