July 2017 NPD Thread! Switch #1

[Nuvendil]

librarian13579 said:

Nuvendil said:

So it's a courtesy?  I get that but again, it's more a personal principle.

And as an aspiring  author I just have to say that the bolded is so bafflingly untrue.  Not only will authors scale back or stop their writing if it makes them no money, but the overwhelming majority of quality books are published by publishing houses who will, yes, publish low sellers for a time but that will stop.  You can't perpetually underperform on the market and expect, say, Random House to continue to spend large ammounts of money to put your books on shelves.  And independent publishing isn't cheap if you want to have a shot in the market.  You definitely can't keep doing that if your sales are poor.  Authors aren't inhumans who live on creative fulfillment, we're human beings who also have to make a living. And writing takes time and effort that if it isn't making money can only be allowed to take up so much of our days.

I'll have you know that I'm an aspiring author as well, and I write fiction because I have a story burning inside of me that needs to get told. I really couldn't care less if nobody ever reads it. I write for my own personal fulfillment and nothing more. If I get any sort of financial success out of it, that's an added benefit, but I'm long past the point of expecting anything out of my writing.

Countless artists are like me...they hold a day job to pay the bills but their true passion is in their art and will always be in their art. They'll keep writing, drawing, or composing trying to chase their dream, even if it doesn't work out commercially. Just look at famous artists like Van Gogh or Monet who only achieved fame and fortune posthumously.

Companies don't work that way. If companies are financially unsuccessful it's guaranteed that they're going to go out of business and it's guaranteed we'll never see their art ever again. When Neverland went bankrupt we never saw any Rune Factory games ever again. When Lionhead Studios got shut down, the Fable IP got permanently cancelled. When the Dreamcast failed commercially, we never saw another console from Sega ever again and their IP output declined.

That's why we tend to care more about how games sold in the marketplace.

You're now taking the perspective lf the artist.  Your original point was from the perspective of the consumer.  Yes, an artist will often continue on as a hobby if they make no money on their art.  But from the perspective of the customer, they have effectively stopped.  Because those works will never be seen.  Thats what I was getting at.  The whole idea that regardless of sales, we as consumers will always get books from authors we like is just plain wrong.  They may keep writing, but if no money comes of it they will not continue to be published.  And if their publishing house goes out of business, they can be thrown for a loop if they weren't a major success before.