SubscribeThe filmmakers left in Hong Kong are no less pessimistic. Sitting in the lobby of the Hyatt Hotel in the Wanchai neighborhood, Gordon Chan, a top Hong Kong director who has made movies with Jet Li (''Fist of Legend'') and Jackie Chan (''Thunderbolt''), has all the time in the world, a fact that's very depressing to a director who once cranked out three films a year.
Gordon Chan's most recent movie, the police action drama ''Beast Cops,'' is generally acknowledged as one of the best Hong Kong films of 1998. But that apparently isn't going to do him any good. ''I just talked to the company that released it, and they said they lost money on it,'' says Mr. Chan, a skinny man with a thin black goatee. ''They told me it wasn't my fault, I did a good film. But still it lost money. So what's happening? It's really alarming.''
''We're already cutting staff salary at a very quick rate,'' he continues. ''I cut almost 75 percent of my salary. Remember the scene with the car chase between the Hummer and the bus? We're so poor that we borrowed the Hummer and we borrowed the bus, and there was no budget for any car chase and especially no budget for any car crash. So we had to use special effects to do the scene.
''We finished a film at a little more than 10 million Hong Kong dollars'' -- $1.3 million in American dollars -- ''and still it lost. It's very disappointing, especially when everybody came to me and said, 'Wow, that was great, I saw it on pirate VCD.' That really hurts.''
In 1992, Hong Kong movies took in about $153 million in American dollars at the box office. Though ticket prices have practically doubled here since, annual income has dropped by more than half, to just under $72 million in 1997. As a result, average film budgets have shrunk from several million American dollars to as little as $200,000 or $300,000.
There are a few reasons: first, book sales are declining, and second, because of piracy. ...Charles Petzold, who's been writing programming books since the 1980s:
There are many reasons that book sales are declining. In his blog entry, Jeff Atwood says that technology-specific books are dead because everything's online. The plethora of information available online definitely has made it easier to quickly find an example of how to fill out a DataView. For quick and simple things, no book can compete with the immediacy of Google. ...
What I think Jeff has glossed over in his blog entry is that superficial usage certainly does not equal understanding. I have always tried to write my books and columns with a focus on showing the technology, but also discussing all the trials and tribulations as to why I chose the implementation I did when using the technology. A good technical book will give the reader the tools to make informed decisions about the technology after they put the book down and head into implementation. ...
At this point, I have to make a confession. As a company who debugs other people's toughest problems, we don't mind that developers are not buying books and slapping any random code they find on the web in their application. It just means lots more opportunity for Wintellect to grow. However, as a member of the development community and a computer user it worries me. I don't want to sound like a curmudgeon, but I have the distinct feeling that fewer developers have a solid understanding of the technologies they are using than in the past.
The final issue is the one that bothers me the most, piracy. Writing deeply technical books is hugely time consuming and I know that it's crazy talk, but content producers deserve to be compensated for their time if they so choose. For some reason, the bank that holds the loan to my house doesn't accept the argument that since I'm not being paid for some of my work because of piracy, they should let me slide on some of my payments. ...
The piracy of my books is quite stunning. I haven't released an electronic version of the last two books because of it. Frustratingly, that hasn't stopped the pirates. Someone took my second book, scanned in all 850 pages and went to all the trouble of recreating all the screen shots in color! I guess someone's time is free. Mine is not.
Because of fewer developers buying deep technical books, and many people feeling that pirating my books is perfectly legitimate, I've come to the conclusion that writing a native C++ debugging book, or any other book, really isn't in my best interest.
For a $50 book, the royalty might be $2.50 to $3.75 a copy. ...Petzold on eliminating the middleman.
A programming book might require 6 months to a year of full-time work. (That's my experience, anyway). These days, sales of 10,000 copies over the first year is considered cause for rejoicing. A few years from now, the rejoicing benchmark might be much less. You can do the math yourself. It's pretty bleak.
Those of us still writing programming books often feel increasingly foolish for doing so. The money has dropped so low that the act has become financially irresponsible. Most programming books these days are written by people who have real jobs, either working for someone else or owning their own consulting firm.
I was one of the few exceptions to this rule. Since the summer of 1985, I was able to call myself a "full-time freelance writer." But that's no longer the case. For the first time in 22 years I've been doing some consulting to supplement my ever-dwindling royalty income.
The list of signatories is found on this page under the link:
> Signataires de l'accord (pdf)
The report itself is revealed under the link:
> Le rapport (pdf)
Both are (obviously) in French.
posted by three blind mice at 1:00 AM on June 24