The concept of 'fair trade' is best known with regard to things like coffee. Coffee is grown largely in third world countries whose climate is suitable for the crop. Coffee farmers tend to be poor. It takes four years for a coffee plant, a small tree or shrub, to produce coffee.
Corporate coffee retailers use their buying power to bargain down the price of coffee to a level that makes these small farmers income much less than a living wage.
According to fairtrade.org.uk, "Fair trade is about better prices, decent working conditions, local sustainability, and fair terms of trade for farmers and workers in the developing world. By requiring companies to pay sustainable prices (which must never fall lower than the market price), Fair trade addresses the injustices of conventional trade, which traditionally discriminates against the poorest, weakest producers. It enables them to improve their position and have more control over their lives."
The Publishing Industry
Traditional publishers take the lion's share of the profits made on any given book. The publishing company itself takes a chunk of the proceeds. Another percentage goes to the expense of laying out and printing the actual book. The distributor gets a large percentage.
Authors fortunate enough to have their books published by one of the four large publishing houses will typically get a $25,000 advance for a first novel. Authors must earn out this advance before they will get royalties. Authors whose works are published by smaller houses may get as little as $3000 to $5000 for a first novel. The author's agent typically gets twenty percent of the author's share.
In the traditional publishing model, a 'good deal' means the author gets five percent of the cover price of the book. A 'bad deal' means the author gets five percent of net. In other words, after all the expenses have been taken, the publisher gets ninety-five percent; the author, five percent.
Multiply published authors commonly still have to take on some other work to make ends meet. The idea that most published authors are living on what they earn from book sales is a myth.
A New Publishing Model
The advent of ebooks, and in particular, the Amazon Kindle, has created an opportunity for authors to make a much larger percentage of book sales. Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other internet booksellers offer seventy percent of the cover price for ebooks to authors or publishers with some caveats. (For example, books must be priced between $2.99 and $9.99.)
Authors can publish their work to Kindle and other e-publishershttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif without going through a publisher. This has led to an unfortunate glut of badly written, often unedited or proofread ebooks. (For an example of a reviewers exasperation with this situation, see
http://josephsreviews.wordpress.com/2009/07/31/our-book-review-rules/) One of the benefits of the traditional publishing model
for readers is that books are screened and only the best books, the ones likely to be read and liked by known audiences, are printed and sold. These books are edited, proofread, distributed, and marketed through the publisher. Readers know that books published by known publishers will be of high quality.
Fair Trade Applied to Publishing
New, smaller publishers that specialize in ebooks are offering options. They provide substantive guidance to authors in polishing their novels. They ensure that readers will not be disappointed in book quality. Still most small publishers take a bigger share of profits than they offer to the authors.
Fair trade as a concept is now being applied to ebooks. This is possible because of the low overhead costs of e-publishing. The actual books are transmitted to buyers through internet downloads either directly from the publishers website or through internet booksellers like Amazon. There is no cost for materials as there is in paper books.
The publisher brings a benefit to both readers and authors, by providing screening of books (so the reader doesn't have to spend money on badly edited, poorly written novels), editing, proofreading and showcasing these books. The benefit to the writer is that the publisher takes a much smaller percentage of the profits than in the traditional publishing model.
When you buy a book from a fair trade publisher,for example,
Ghostwood Books, you are showing support for an equitable company and a working writer. You are also getting a bargain in terms of price. Fair trade publishers pass on savings of their reduced overhead to their customers.
Writing for a living: Fair trade makes writing a sustainable career again
Getting a large publisher to accept a novel is extremely difficult. One typo in the first few pages can cause a agent or editor to turned a book down. Books submitted to agents or directly to publishers have about a one percent chance
not of being purchased by a publisher, but of being read by an agent or editor from start to finish.
Most books submitted are badly written. Publishers and agents are looking for any mistake to make them stop reading. Obviously good books are being turned down in this process. J.K. Rowling's books were turned down many, many times before someone accepted them.
Small publishers have smaller slush piles. They want to find good books and are often willing to overlook minor mistakes and make suggestions for changes that larger agencies and publishers won't. So the opportunity for authors to get their work in publishable shape and then to get it published is much greater with a fair trade publisher.
Support writing as a sustainable way of life. Buy a book from a fair trade publisher.
