I get whatever the contract calls for. Percent of revenue is not a meaningful number. Nobody calculates it.
But it is always more than zero, which is what I get from pirates.
I absolutely agree with you. I’m the same way, actually. I pick up a new author, and then want the rest of the books, so I go out and buy them at Barnes & Nobles or something. Same with some software, actually, at least the old stuff. I’ll buy the new versions because I tried the old version and liked it.
Oh, sure, it’s more than zero. But haven’t you ever heard of that economics concept that it’s not the money you receive, it’s the money you could be receiving? Heck, that’s the same concept applied to pirates. And why not apply it to publishers? If you honestly tried, you’d see that the money you could be receiving from publishers if they paid you fairly is much more than the money you’d be receiving from pirates if they couldn’t pirate.
Why do artists and authors get Stockholm syndrome?
This is sheer, utter nonsense. Since it comes from somebody who’s already proven that he knows nothing about how the system works in the first place, that’s probably not surprising.
It’s like all those people who can’t write out an equation trying to persuade Chronos or Stranger that their version of physics is more right. You can’t be taken seriously trying to make a correction unless you show you have some expertise in the subject at hand. What you’ve shown so far is zero. Why would you think that’s persuasive?
That works in general as well. So far in this thread people have shown that they know nothing about copyright, bookstores, book distribution, publishing, licensing, and intellectual property. That’s not an issue if you’re asking questions and trying to learn more about those subjects. It is a big issue if you’re trying to push your viewpoints on them. Why would anybody listen? It doesn’t work in physics threads. Whether you realize it or not, writing is a profession, just like physics. Not everybody agrees about every issue, just like physics. But you don’t get to join a physics discussion unless you’ve at the very least mastered the basics of physics. It would be nice for you to give the same courtesy to writers.
A few years back, a local bookstore went out of business. Before they closed up, they let people have any of the paperbacks for free, they just had to bring them up to the counter so the clerk could tear the covers off. I knew what they were doing, even if most of the “customers” didn’t.
I don’t think they do that here (ripping covers off books, or selling them for next to nothing anyway) much for some reason. There have been a few bookshops around close down recently, and I’ve been in there on their last day of business looking for bargains and not had a lot of luck, as apparently they send the books back (with covers) and they either get redistributed to sold off to remainder stores.
A few local “chain” bookshops have started selling “damaged” books very cheaply, though, which is good- it’s not uncommon to get fairly “new” books for $3-8, which is a real bargain here.