How to bypass paywalls

[Eurostar]

More bullshit!

 

[vernon]

They commissioned an article from me without telling me this until I'd written it and submitted my invoice. I received less than the legal minimum wage and decided not to write for them any more,

You must be a slow writer then.

The quickest route to a pay rise would be to up your wpm.

Er, thanks. Unfortunately I was writing technical articles which required much more research than writing time. But there's no allowance for research.

Isn't it standard practise to pay by the word and not by the hour?

Yes

Then I suggest a speed reading course to cut your research time.

I'll not charge for the advice.

 

[Eurostar]

There's a little more to decent journalism than cutting and pasting!

 

[vernon]

There's a little more to decent journalism than cutting and pasting!

You're the aspiring journalist not me.

 

[Aperitif]

 

[Eurostar]

Not aspiring any more...gave up, mostly due to poor health. The long term decline of the newspaper business means you can't earn a living as a freelance until you've been a bit of a star for at least 3 years. That's how long it takes to get enough commissions to work full time. While you are making your name you'll be earning 5 or 10 thousand p.a. - and that's if you're a success. There are lots of people who earn nothing. They keep trying, they often have a blog, now and again they might do a freebie for a paper, i.e. a paper publishes their work without paying for it. This is especially true in 'fluffier' subjects, such as cookery, lifestyle and travel. Freebies give the writer renewed hope, so they scrape some more money together and give it another year. The few who stick with it through the early years are usually supported by partners or parents or they have a lump sum, perhaps a redundancy payment or a remortgage. Many of the ones who have financial help carry on receiving it throughout their career - it's the banker's wife syndrome. They help to keep a lid on wages for everyone else. I had my moments in the sun, nearly everything I wrote was published and praised, which is unusual. If I can get my health back I want to give writing another proper go, but it'll be a book.

 

[vernon]

If I can get my health back I want to give writing another proper go, but it'll be a book.

Don't hold your breath if you expect to make a living from it. I was courted by a couple of educational publishers after I won the £10k Microsoft Road Ahead prize back in 1998. I looked at the projected returns for the time invested and decided I valued my time more than the publishers did.

From an article in the Guardian:

According to a survey of almost 2,500 working writers – the first comprehensive study of author earnings in the UK since 2005 – the median income of the professional author in 2013 was just £11,000, a drop of 29% since 2005 when the figure was £12,330 (£15,450 if adjusted for inflation), and well below the £16,850 figure the Joseph Rowntree Foundation says is needed to achieve a minimum standard of living. The typical median income of all writers was even less: £4,000 in 2013, compared to £5,012 in real terms in 2005, and £8,810 in 2000.

Commissioned by the Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society and carried out by Queen Mary, University of London, the survey also found that in 2013, just 11.5% of professional authors – those who dedicate the majority of their time to writing – earned their incomes solely from writing. This compares with 2005, when 40% of professional authors said that they did so.

For Self, who wrote in the Guardian in May about how "the literary novel as an art work and a narrative art form central to our culture is indeed dying before our eyes", because "the hallmark of our contemporary culture is an active resistance to difficulty in all its aesthetic manifestations", the new statistics were no surprise. "My own royalty income has fallen dramatically over the last decade," said the award-winning author of novels including the Booker-shortlisted Umbrella. "You've always been able to comfortably house the British literary writers who can earn all their living from books in a single room – that room used to be a reception one, now it's a back bedroom."

Mal Peet, whose children's novels have won prizes from the Carnegie medal to the Guardian award, said his income from books had "dwindled really significantly" over the past four years. In the past, he said, he received royalty cheques of up to £30,000 for a six-month period. In the last half of 2013, his royalties for all his novels were just £3,000.

"My direct income from sales is abject – literally abject. There's been an absolutely radical decline in my income over recent years," said Peet. "I do live by writing, but that's because I have got a backlist of educational books which keeps on selling, and I have a pension, and I have to go on the road. Because I've a certain reputation, I can ask for a £25,000 advance, but then you spend a year writing the book, and £25,000 is a loan against sales and you can easily spend five years earning out. So that's £25,000 for six years."

 

[Markymark]

Biggest load of bollocks I've heard for a long time!

You keep that line. Everyone else's fault. Bitter!

I know a film script writer. Pay hit hard due to illegal downloads.

Music industry struggling too. Only money is in live performance.

Journalism is paid by users payng and advertising. If that revenue dries up there's no money in it.

I couldn't give a monkeys either way but to complsin theres no money in something and in the same breath advise on how to get it for free is ridiculous

Finally, I assume you know how libraries and funded and funds assessed?

 

[ufkacbln]

It's shocking how library services are abused. The other day I borrowed Imperium by Robert Harris and I didn't pay a penny. I can see from the library sticker on the fly leaf that at least 70 other people have exploited this shady deal. You'd better write to Random House to alert them.

The companies are already happily ripping off the libraries......... they don't need any help

Another aspect is the way that print and electronic media differ here.There is an interesting document here

This book has been lent 70 times for one purchase, however for EBooks there is a ridiculously low limit. After these loans the "license" expires and the library has to repurchase


These are some of the present issues for libraries and EBooks:

Single user
Loans are limited to one user at a time for each ebook license purchased, thereby replicating the print model. This results in long waiting lists for popular titles.

Limited number of loans
The library must repurchase the same title after a defined number of loans.
Harper Collins metered access only allows 26 checkouts, for example.

Pricing
Some popular titles are offered at prices far in excess of the print price.

Holdback
An embargo period following publication, lasting from a few weeks to several months
or more Random House, who offers ebooks through OverDrive, withholds its front list titles.

On site only check out
Library users cannot borrow ebooks remotely.

So in theory to gain the same circulation the library may have had to buy the Ebook 3 times at an over inflated cost, as opposed to once for the print version, often at a reduced cost as a "trade" purchase

 

[Eurostar]

You keep that line. Everyone else's fault. Bitter!

I know a film script writer. Pay hit hard due to illegal downloads.

Music industry struggling too. Only money is in live performance.

Journalism is paid by users payng and advertising. If that revenue dries up there's no money in it.

I couldn't give a monkeys either way but to complsin theres no money in something and in the same breath advise on how to get it for free is ridiculous

Finally, I assume you know how libraries and funded and funds assessed?

Most library funding comes from councils. What's your point?

Your theory about paywall circumvention is patently false. If it were true, all publishers would use a robust Murdoch-style paywall. The real causes of the newspaper industry's problems are http://bit.ly/1MAj5y6

 

[vernon]

Your theory about paywall circumvention is patently false. If it were true, all publishers would use a robust Murdoch-style paywall. The real causes of the newspaper industry's problems are http://bit.ly/1MAj5y6

Can you summarise the reports for us?

It would save a lot of parallel research.

See it as pro bono work.

 

[Markymark]

Most library funding comes from councils. What's your point?

Your theory about paywall circumvention is patently false. If it were true, all publishers would use a robust Murdoch-style paywall. The real causes of the newspaper industry's problems are http://bit.ly/1MAj5y6

Libraries funded per user.

 

[Eurostar]

Can you summarise the reports for us?

It would save a lot of parallel research.

See it as pro bono work.

What's my fee?

The short answer is that many people blame the internet. Others point out that circulations have been falling since the '50s and the internet has merely accelerated the collapse. New methods of marketing have been stealing the ad money for decades: TV, direct mail, public relations etc. Some say that "people just aren't reading enough." It's all the fault of young people.

Things are getting worse, we haven't hit bottom yet. Fleet Street appears healthier than it really is - lots of our papers are making thumping losses but are kept afloat by charitable trusts or oligarchs. There are a few exceptions. The FT is doing well by selling high value financial information to the rich. The Mail is giving tits 'n bums to Americans and still raking in advertisers' money. The Telegraph is drifting more and more to advertorial - sponsored supplements and favourable stories about advertisers. Everyone is afraid that several big papers will go bust and that the loss-making Times, thanks to subsidy from Murdoch, will wait it out and end up on top.

 

[classic33]

You think they're going to send a bill for a free service? Do you always post such pointless waffle?

If your willing to share the details of that card, what's the full PAN number and PIN number(password) for your debit/credit card?
Same thing. I'll not use it for anything we didn't say I could.