Cory Doctorow
Liability vs. leverage
How writers lose when "piracy" gets harder
[Editor’s note: Be sure to catch Cory Doctorow’s opening keynote at next month’s TOC Author (R)evolution Day in NY.]
How much will your publisher pay you?
There’s a short, easy answer to this: as little as they can. Not because they’re heartless monsters, but because businesses pay as little as they can for their supplies, and charge as much as they can for their products*.
But that’s an abstract answer. The more concrete one — exactly how much will your publisher pay you? — hinges on how many other people have books that can fill the same niche for the publisher, and how many other publishers there are looking to fill that niche. In other words, the amount you get turns on supply and demand.