tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post3569771850583610662..comments2024-03-25T09:56:16.164+00:00Comments on An Awfully Big Blog Adventure: Cost of living crisis? You bet - Anne RooneyUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post-50851573144449280572022-12-13T08:23:44.389+00:002022-12-13T08:23:44.389+00:00Thank you for this, Anne. Glad that the book indus...Thank you for this, Anne. Glad that the book industry's lip-service to diversity is being called out. Unpaid/massively underpaid work is sending us back decades.Rowena Househttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11548957772863528477noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post-51896896138569699392022-12-11T08:52:27.776+00:002022-12-11T08:52:27.776+00:00"This is also why you should not ask writers ..."This is also why you should not ask writers to work for free, not ask them to do free school visits, and not ask them to give you books (even for charitable causes)."<br /><br />"Of course, writers can't live on £7000 a year. They need to subsidise their main job...This last means the pool of writers from which publishers can take books is angled towards privileged, usually white, middle-class, able-bodied people...You might want to read a book by a young Black writer, a neuro-diverse older person, or a working-class woman with three children, but they probably can't afford to write one for you to read..."<br /><br />Hear [insert hearty expletive of your choice] hear!<br />I recently refused an offer to write a series of educational books, producing 'first drafts' and 'finished drafts' on a sort of rolling production line over six months. It would have paid me (if everything went well) about £370 a month, which wouldn't even cover my household costs. But wouldn't leave me time to do much else.<br /><br />There was no evidence that the publishers had any idea of the kind of thinking, re-thinking, planning, research, organising and concentration -- in other words, Hard Work! -- that would be necessary to actually do this -- and not even a guarantee that my work would be accepted and paid for! Thanks so much, but no thanks.Susan Pricehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07738737493756183909noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post-310819082861417942022-12-09T14:55:05.242+00:002022-12-09T14:55:05.242+00:00That makes sense. I calculated one of my Book Peop...That makes sense. I calculated one of my Book People titles and thought it came out to 0.02p, so assumed I'd missed a £/p conversion — obviously not! I didn't realise they distributed their catalogues with Guardian and RT<br />Stroppy Authorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16560035800075465845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post-61262549533144180782022-12-09T12:25:35.685+00:002022-12-09T12:25:35.685+00:00I got far less than 2p a copy when the Book People...I got far less than 2p a copy when the Book People took thousands of copies of one of my books years ago. Something like 0.03p. And don't let them kid you they are concentrating on buyers who would never go near a bookshop, not when copies of their catlogue fall out of your Radio Times or Guardian. Everyone involved in publishing a book makes more than the originator does. A sad state of affairs and, as you say, not conducive of diversity.Mary Hoffmannoreply@blogger.com