[xhkkffbf]

I'm a writer. I can imagine it. But the landlord, grocer, car dealer and pretty much everyone else dealing in physical things wants me to pay for what I consume. I'm not independently wealthy. The only reason I can afford to write books is because the publisher pays me. The only reason the publisher can pay me is because people buy the books.

I can guarantee you that this type of behavior means I'm writing fewer books. It's very short-sighted.

[wongarsu]

Writers getting paid by the amount of books they sell is a pretty efficient way to allocate their work, but it's not the only way. If book sales vanished over night I'm sure interest in alternative means of financing would surge, and a new "standard" would establish itself.

Historically most art was financed through patronage/sponsors, wealthy people or institutions that sponsored people for the social status, or commissioned works from them. Both of those systems have been democratized by the internet, with people sponsoring artists they like with systems like Patreon, or just straight paying them money to create something. The same is happening with Twitch subscriptions (essentially donations to the streamer). There's no reason it can't work on a larger scale for most literature. Sure, priorities would shift, but it might also enable authors more creative freedom than publishers are comfortable with.

[Markstar]

I understand your point but it is time for the system to change. Most writers in traditional publishing get 50 cents or a dollar for every sold book. My wife wrote a chapter in a science book that is being sold for over $100 and she received...nothing!

Everybody deserves to be paid for their work and I would argue that this is more about preserving knowledge than it is about not having the writers get what they deserve.

[mdp2021]

We do not buy your* books to access them: we buy them with the exact purpose to buy them.

*In general, so quite possibly also yours.

[easrng]

You could do kickstarter-type funding ahead of time.