Stephen King's net worth is reputed to be somewhere in excess of $200 million. Yet whenever the subject of money is mentioned to anyone who has written a book on HEMA they never hesitate to tell you that they didn't do it for the money, in fact it cost them money to write it.
This makes me wonder.
If they are telling the truth and the royalties they get from the worldwide sales of their books really are so poor as to actually cost them money, why then did they bother writing it in the first place?
There must be a reason, it's just that I can't figure it out.
It can't be because they want to share their interpretation with the rest of us. HEMA is pretty unique in that it is, and always has been (at least for the last 15 years), closely linked to the internet. So sharing of information is a doddle. It can be acheived in seconds. One moment you are sat at home looking at a word document, the next you are sharing it with everyone in the world who cares to look.
So it's clearly not about money, and it's certainly not about the dissemination of information.
Surely it can't be something as base as respect? By publishing a book people will respect me? I find it hard to rule this one out even though I think it is very wrong indeed. I respect people who work hard, people who share their work and people who are open to changing their ideas in a truly scientific manner.
I don't have any respect for someone who sets out to stroke their own ego by hiding their interpretation inside a glossy cover and trying to force people to pay them to view it.
Perhaps it is simply the continuance of a longstanding tradition. The sources we study exist because they were written down, and so setting our own work down is simply following in the footsteps of those martial artists who came before us. However this doesn't hold water.
At least not quite.
If you want to set your interpretation down for everyone to see, to gain respect and to enter into the age old tradition that we are striving to be part of then open source is the way to go. It gets you work far more exposure than it would if you put it in a hard cover and set a price on it. You might not make it onto Amazon.com but if your work is any good then you will stimulate interest in yourself as a teacher. That way you really can start to make some money.
Not that many teachers earn as much as Stephen King.
So maybe it is about the money after all...
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7 comments:
Stephen worked very hard for his money and contributes a lot of it to others through a foundation he and Tabby set up.
Work hard, be proud and do what ever it is you do to the fullest and hopefully you too will make the world a cooler/better place and be able to share the wealth with others as Stephen has!
Best to you Stpehen and Congrats on DUMA KEY,..I was overwhelmed with the book,..loved it!!
~ L.A.Borguss
It is just possible you missed my point.
I suspect a little false pride and and a desire for the kind of credibility that comes with publication might be the cause here. Open source is fine for the dissemination of knowledge...but when students write on the subject, citing your book as opposed to your website (even though subject wise they contain the same data)is what is desired.
Perhaps, it has more to do with academic tradition than ego. After all, only articles published in peer reviewed journals or books/book chapters have any standing in that world and our hobby is, arguably, reasonably closely related to academic research.
There are a lot of things that you, Hema Boy, as usual don't get. First any book is easier to read than a screen. Second a book with a decent layout is easier to read and the content is grasped faster than with any word doc or pdf or anything else.
The book is still one of the best ways to transport complex information. It is transportable, doesn't require electricity and can be read everywhere. It is also more durable as any other suitabel medium.
Apart from that - you get royalties, but not that much. Basically you earn more by doing some simple work than by writing such a book, the sales are simply too less.
Of course you feel some pride when you hold the finished book in hand but what is wrong with some pride of a well done work? Pride in the own work is a strong motivational force and most things in our world came into existence because of this.
So once again you are attacking people you don't know, making statements in general to a whole group of people (which is a sure sign of lack of intelligence)and all under the cover of anonymity. The author of a book has at least the guts to put his name on the cover and face the critic.
That is something I have respect for and something your personality is obviously too weak for.
Again a masterpiece of Hema Boy...
Herbert Schmidt
Ars Gladii
www.arsgladii.at
Aside from the obvious fact that it's easier to expound a position in a few hundred pages than in a blog or forum post, no matter how well organized, if and when I am finally able to publish my notes and interpretations it will be because museums charge thousands of dollars for permission to distribute scans of a manuscript in their collection. Even if they'd be willing to license images for free distribution over the internet, I don't have any means of raising that kind of cash and will have to work with a publishing company to do so. I suspect others are in the same position.
At last a worthwhile reason.
Thank you.
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