WIX Archives
Re: Point taken Paul, ................
Posted by Gregory on Mon Apr 19, 2004 04:01:46 PM
In reply top Point taken Paul, ................ posted by Cees Broere on Mon Apr 19, 2004 12:53:04 PM
Dear Cees,
In one of his immortal "Personal view" columns in the old Air International, the great Ray Braybrook once wrote that "If it isn't worth doing for the advance, it isn't worth doing at all." He was right.
After about twenty years of aviation writing, I have grudgingly reached the conclusion that it is impossible to make a living (raise a family etc.) solely by writing aviation history. The numbers are against you: small market, small pay. In fact, in this business you are better off accepting a fixed guaranteed fee than gambling on royaltees.
And since your publisher can do simple math, the fixed fee will be proportional to anticipated sales. In turn, this means that on average you will not be able to devote to a full size book more than 6 weeks of full-time research and writing. For a long article or monograph, make it a week. And remember that by and large you are paid by lineage or word count, as was Dickens - photocopying, phone calls and travel are on the author, not the publisher.
After this little accounting exercise, you will have an idea of why so many books simply rehash old stories, or why only those with a particularly strong interest will tackle original research, or why many consider writing as a hobby.
Enough cynicism for today. Back to dreaming about recovering Macchis in Russia.
Gregory