Publishing Terminology Problem #27
I just noticed something. Author and agents say "I just sold a book to X." We publishers say "I just bought a book from X."
No. We. Fuckin. Didn't.
We licensed it.
One of the things we might do with that license is use it to create a product, called a book, which we the sell directly or through intermediaries. Whereupon someone sometimes does in fact "buy a book." But the consumer is the only one doing that. We publishers, we do not buy books and you authors and agent you do not sell them. We're just licensing. From you.
Repeating that to ourselves a millions times could actually help us understand how we need to change out business model in the 21st century.