Author

For other senses of this word, see author (disambiguation).

An author is the person who creates a written work, such as a book, story, article or the like, whether short or long, fiction or nonfiction, poetry or prose, technical or literature. Within copyright law the term "author" is often used for the creator of any work, be it written, painted, sculptured, music, a photograph or a film.

Role in critical theory

One key issue in literary theory is the relationship between the meaning of a literary text and its author's conscious intent.

The phrase "Death of the Author" was popularized by Roland Barthes in his 1968 essay with the same name. It is used to convey the idea that texts have meaning and an independent existence outside that intended by the author, depending on the context and reader. The death of the author is in self-conscious opposition to the New Criticism, a literary critical movement popular in England and America in the first half of the 20th century. According to this movement, the author's intent is assumed to be quite clear to the author and it becomes the critic's task to understand this intent.
Michel Foucault's 1969 essay "What is an Author?" responds in part to Barthes and characterizes the author-function in four main ways. He claims that the author-function is linked to the juridical and institutional system of the discourse, that it is not the same for all discourses, that it is not spontaneous attribution, and that it might not refer to a real individual.

Some historical financial arrangements between authors and publishers

Publishers could purchase a copyright from the author. They would then assume all the risk of publication, and the author would lose complete control. This was common in the UK in the nineteenth century.

Publishers could commission writing from an author for a fixed fee. The agreement may or may not have included the possibility of further payment if the work was reprinted or reissued.

Shared- or Half-Profits: Publishers and authors would share profits (not necessarily in a half-half division) after production expenses had been paid off. This occurred in British publishing in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; they were widespread in the US, beginning in the 1830s.

Royalties: Publishers covered all expenses of publications, and the author was paid a percentage (calculated on a wholesale or a retail price) or fixed amount, on each book sold. Publishers, at times, reduced the risk of this type of arrangement, by agreeing only to pay this after a certain among of copies had sold. In Canada this practice occurred during the 1890s, but was not commonplace until the 1920s.

Commissioned: Publishers made publication arrangements, and authors covered all expenses (today the practice of authors paying for their publications is often called vanity publishing, and is looked down upon by many publishers, even though it may have been a common and accepted practice in the past). Publishers would receive a percentage on the sale of every copy of a book, and the author would receive the rest of the money made.

Free exposure: [Online Publishers] like [Xuzo.com] post the author's work on the Internet for fee. Publisher profits from advertising revenue and author gets worldwide exposure that could lead to recognition and possibly professional assignments. If the author has a website he can also get a back link from the publisher's site and benefit from Google [page rank].

Author

Role in critical theory

Some historical financial arrangements between authors and publishers

See also