[wjnc]

A cousin of mine is in film production (think EU teen movies) and one of his movies had a full two minutes product placement segment. I made fun of this (not the kindest move in retrospect) and he explained that this segment pretty much cemented the feasibility of the whole movie. It was a known in advance fixed fee source of income. I have no clue about writers and books but perhaps the publishers (they give advances to well-known authors?) repackage some of the risk via endorsements? That would be finance where you wouldn’t expect it.