Music, however, has it easy compared to writing. Musicians have always relied on performance revenue. Merchandise and licensing matter too. Authors don’t have the same options. Dickens engineered a profitable reading tour of the United States, as new-model enthusiasts always point out. But how many authors could do that today? How many could fund themselves on t-shirt sales? And will anyone pay authors to read sentences from their novels over an Audi advertisement? The ringtone market holds limited prospects.
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Tim Spalding, “The downward spiral of ownership and value”, Thing-ology Blog, 24 January 2011
