Wednesday 1 February 2012

Why paying writers matters

Because otherwise they might not bother.

To make a change from plugging my own books, I'm going to plug someone else's work. Evan Rail's, to be precise. And it isn't just because I get a mention in it (flattering as that might be).

Oh yes, what is it I'm pushing? (Getting this all twisted around again. That's what happens when you start writing and only bother thinking after the first two paragraphs.) Evan Rail's essay Why Beer Matters. That's it.

What's it about? I would have thought that was pretty effing obvious from the title. OK, I'll spell it out for you: it's about why beer matters. He didn't need to convince me. I've thought that since, well, a few seconds after that first pint of Barnsley Bitter hit my lips.

On a purely (and extremely selfish note). I'm intrigued to see how he gets on flogging stuff through Amazon, Might be worth considering myself.

7 comments:

zgoda said...

I might consider buying your books if they are available in electronic form. While I prefer paper over screen, shipping to Poland is ridiculously expensive.

Alan said...

I asked a similar question and was quite surprised by one theme in the responses being that it was my duty to write for others for free: http://beerblog.genx40.com/archive/2012/january/whatifiposteda

Good for Evan to try this new format and good for him for writing, as usual, something worth reading.

Bailey said...

You should get your books on the Kindle store, definitely. Very easy to do, especially as you can delegate the work to your kids...

The only downside is that people expect to pay a fairly low price for an intangible product, but then you will get a bigger share of the proceeds.

@zatytom said...

I really didn't like buying through Lulu as I had to set up an account which took loads of irrelevant (to me, as I'm not going to submit them content) screens, all of which were nearly unusable on mobile phone.

That said, apparently it's been delivered today, which is great service.

Getting your books onto the kindle store could be awesome, but it depends a lot on how they're formatted - I'd check how the tables and so forth come out. I've had some kindle books which are just dreadful as table/image placement was all wrong and made the book unusable.

Anonymous said...

Yes, please get your books in electronic form. I haven't bought a paper book in months, and I'm hoping I won't have to again. Besides, shipping to Japan is crazy.

Mike said...

There are clearly some writers whose work deserves special recognition. However, by the same token, the majority of beer bloggers, as well as a number of published authors (one whose name begins with the letters Hors..., for example), are not worth the time it takes to read their output.

Russ said...

Have you looked at lightning source or amazon's createspace? It would make it easier for us to get your books and give you a little extra cash (which is always good). They also give you the option of different formats. Check out this guy: http://www.fonerbooks.com/pod.htm He breaks down the costs and give some charts. He's from the US so I'm not sure how different it would be for you, but I think your ISBNs are cheaper than ours.