How do we save the author without going broke?

December 30, 8:48 AMSeattle Books ExaminerDanielle Dreger-Babbitt

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Yesterday I talked about how it was a "bad time for books, but a good time for bargain hunters."  The current economic crisis is hitting booksellers and publishers hard, forcing many to downsize or even close their doors.   But bookstores and publishing giants aren't the only ones suffering, authors are getting the shaft as well.  With publishers like Houghton Mifflin Harcourt not accepting any new manuscripts at this time, many aspiring authors are getting shut out and published authors are having more trouble getting their work accepted.

Consumers are buying fewer new books which means publishers and authors are earning less than they used to.  Authors and publishers only receive royalties when a new copy of a book is purchased.  When someone buys a book secondhand only the bookseller earns anything.  After my post yesterday, a few authors and booksellers commented on how bargain hunters were hurting them and pleaded for consumers to buy new books. 

The best thing you can do for writers is to buy as many NEW books as you can afford, no matter the retail source. To do otherwise denies them even the tiny sliver of the take that is normally theirs.  I buy used and remaindered books, too, but we buy a LOT of books in our household, and a goodly percentage are bought new. - J. Steven York

My question to you, readers, is how do we continue to support the authors without going broke ourselves?  We should obviously do something so that our favorites aren't on the street corner panhandling.  Booksellers and authors want us to pay full retail for books.  Imagine how expensive it would be if I only read brand new books that I bought from bookstores.  Let's say I read 200 books and paid $20 each for them (based on the average cost of new paperbacks and hardcovers).  If I did this, I would have spent $4,000 (plus that lovely 9% Washington State sales tax).  Now I know not everyone is as ambitious as me when it comes to powering their way through books, but say you're an avid reader who devours a book a week.  You're still spending $1,040 on books a year.  Granted, that's cheaper and healthier than a pack a day habit, but it's still pricey.

So what's a reader to do?

Here are some ways authors can be saved (all in good fun):

• Stop buying lattes at Starbucks (and brew your own bad coffee!) and buy new books each week.  Starbucks will go out of business and will no longer be able to introduce people in need of a caffeine fix to books like A Long Way Gone:  Memoirs of a Boy Soldier.
• Stop going to the movies and dropping $20 a pop on a ticket and large popcorn.  Use the money you saved on a new book instead.  The books are better than the movies anyway.
• Self publish.  Sure it's risky, but why not cut out the middlemen (publisher, copy editor, editor) while you're at it and save a few bucks.  No one will care that there are grammatical errors because they'll be so happy there's a new book out. 
• Publishers could save money by not publishing crap (like meaningless celebrity memoirs) and can give quality written books the dough they deserve.
• Better yet, authors should sell out and write Harlequin romance novels.  Those babies are recession proof. 
• Join the rewards programs at big box chains like Borders and Barnes and Noble and wait for the coupons to hit your email inbox. 
• If you're strapped for cash, buy used books for yourself (or use the library) but buy new books to give as gifts.  Better yet, buy new books for yourself and give used books as gifts.  It's the though that counts!