Miscellaneous Ramblings
Author Alasdair White
On a recent trip to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, I was unsurprised to discover that the city has little or no public transport and the preferred (and possibly the only affordable) method of transport are the ubiquitous Honda oms – the 125 cc cross between a genuine motor scooter and a small motorbike. Around 60% of the market is now in the hands of Chinese manufacturers but the Japanese are still the supplier of choice. The extraordinary thing is that in Ho Chi Minh City there are over 4 million registered motor vehicles of which 3.6 million are motorbikes and the number is growing by 350,000 per year.
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Author Alasdair White
In simple terms, authors own all the rights (Intellectual Property Rights or Copyright) to their published and unpublished work and they generally receive their income from royalties that are paid by those to whom the author has issued a licence for use of certain rights (the publisher). So far, so good!
In a perfect world, the author will have found a publisher (not the easiest thing to do, I might add!) who will take a licence to publish the book in exchange for the royalties to be paid. The publisher will then market the book and booksellers will then sell the book to willing buyers who will take it home and read it (I did say “in a perfect world”). The sale of the book generates the royalties and the author should, in theory, get paid. But this is not a perfect world!
The reality is that writers need readers … Read the rest of this entry »