A large part of the problem is that people are ignorant when it comes to economics. This is true of many authors, most readers, and probably an overwhelming majority of MBAs running publishers. These are not stupid people, but economics was never presented to them in a fun and interesting manner so they never bothered to learn it.
Economics can be a bit dry, but I bet you can put it into your books in a way that will work and be funny(1). Just as military fiction explains the military to civilians, economic fiction can explain business and economics. And if you did it, I bet it would be good.
(1) Without the mathematical models that assume everybody is rational and other unlikely things.
I ran into quite a few business books that did this really well. It's not difficult to make it interesting if you make it concrete and you're a good writer.
LOL - if it seemed easy and logical and looks like any fool could understand it and write about it - then they were very good writers. Any fool can write a turgid complex book about something relatively simple (at which point they usually get a literary prize of some sort), but it takes real skill to write about something complex and make it clear and easy to read.
The dangers of conflating the author's brand with the publishers, illustrated right there. When the publisher does something the consumers dislike, it's the author's fault.
I often try to tell authors (and artists of all kind) to separate their brand from their distributor's or publisher's, but unfortunately a lot of them are right when they say, "But if I disassociate myself from my publisher, I won't be published at all." So they see themselves as being locked into an un-ideal situation, and feel that they have to treat a business partner as something more intimate/innately trust-worthy.
Which is surprising considering that publishers and distributors have almost no brand recognition to the general public* when it comes to books. Of course there are prominent exceptions, such as in the field of technical books, but in fiction someone is going to ask when the new Joe Author book is going to come out, rather than what's coming out next week from Publishers Incorporated (Inc) next month. The focus of the publishers is for the sale to distributors and retail buyers, where their monthly output is important information (and the reason why they spend a lot of their advertising budget in the trade and out of view of the public). The problem is that the advent of new technologies has opened new avenues that can effectively bypass this established system. And the big publishers are making the same mistake the recording industry made when they attempted to preserve an outmoded business model (such as the idea of an album), by attempting to artificially restrict supply. And it will cause them more and more problems,
( ... )
I'm ambivalent - as an author - about POD. If it means the rights do not revert to me, (when I can sell it as a POD, or resell it to another publisher) then I'd say it's a pretty bad thing. As a reader, of course I'd love to buy another Eric Frank Russell NEXT OF KIN to name one.
Maybe we could get one of those pie-charts attached to each book? You know the kind of thing -- the price you pay for this book is 45% for the publisher, 30% for the distributor, 20% for the agent, 3% misc., 2% author? Make it a required public statement on every cover (or equivalent for ebooks), and see what happens when the readers know who is really making the money?
Do you see publishers - or retailers - agreeing to that without a knife at their throats? Seriously, it is precisely the last thing they'd agree to do, albeit a good idea.
About the only way I could see it happening would be (a) someone takes someone to court over something, and it's an accidental outcome of the court ruling, or (b) the folks who are running "independent" publishing/distribution start doing it as a sign of their handling, and it becomes an industry standard. Of course, in the second version, there's a bit of a problem of who checks the accuracy, but... I can't really see it happening without major pressure somehow, but it would be fun.
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Economics can be a bit dry, but I bet you can put it into your books in a way that will work and be funny(1). Just as military fiction explains the military to civilians, economic fiction can explain business and economics. And if you did it, I bet it would be good.
(1) Without the mathematical models that assume everybody is rational and other unlikely things.
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*thinks*
Okay, maybe it is difficult. -_-
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I often try to tell authors (and artists of all kind) to separate their brand from their distributor's or publisher's, but unfortunately a lot of them are right when they say, "But if I disassociate myself from my publisher, I won't be published at all." So they see themselves as being locked into an un-ideal situation, and feel that they have to treat a business partner as something more intimate/innately trust-worthy.
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Which is surprising considering that publishers and distributors have almost no brand recognition to the general public* when it comes to books. Of course there are prominent exceptions, such as in the field of technical books, but in fiction someone is going to ask when the new Joe Author book is going to come out, rather than what's coming out next week from Publishers Incorporated (Inc) next month. The focus of the publishers is for the sale to distributors and retail buyers, where their monthly output is important information (and the reason why they spend a lot of their advertising budget in the trade and out of view of the public). The problem is that the advent of new technologies has opened new avenues that can effectively bypass this established system. And the big publishers are making the same mistake the recording industry made when they attempted to preserve an outmoded business model (such as the idea of an album), by attempting to artificially restrict supply. And it will cause them more and more problems, ( ... )
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