The Market from Hell¶
The supply side could be reasonably compared to a high-pressure fire-hose:
A new poll for YouGov of almost 15,000 people found that 60% would like to be an author. The news may come as a surprise to the bestselling and critically acclaimed novelist Sebastian Faulks, who this weekend expressed his wish to find a job, writing in the Spectator that he has “now spent almost a quarter of a century alone in a garret staring at a blank wall, and I think it has driven me a bit mad”. […] … According to a survey carried out by Digital Book World earlier this year, almost a third of published authors make less than $500 (£350) a year from their writing.
Here’s the demand sink they’re feeding into:
Who reads books? Hardly anyone. pic.twitter.com/v6xYwgTm4L
— P. D. Mangan (@Mangan150) April 5, 2016
ADDED: Relevant musings of Albert Jay Nock.