Being officially "semi retired" to cover a crisis of faith in the industry after a spinal problem nearly trashed my mental composure, and because of experiencing memory problems after quitting the painkillers [0], and consequently buying into Apple for the first time since 1987, I came to this discussion expecting to find reasons why I shouldn't commit to publishing the apps I've been working on [1] via the Apple Store.

But 15% of gross?

I have been thinking it was 30 percent of gross for the longest time and I can't believe myself for getting this so wrong.

I worked in advertising sales when the industry was freaking out over losing the universal 15% gross "agency fee" [2] for a multitude of hopeless performance contracts [3] and on the other side, when I sold space for a major publisher my own commission was 15% of gross.

A good salesman is worth 15%. At least to me.

The thing that's drawing me, now far more strongly, to publishing via the store is that although vexing problems exist, this looks like the most transparent platform to my eyes because the developer community is surfacing the issues and not burying problems with FUD and MVP-speak. Credit obviously to the community above all. But even giants struggle with enabling any community.

[0] Gabapentin. 2016: "NOT addictive don't worry John." 2019:"can I have you signature and ID?" - the UK government classified Gabapentin Schedule A along with heroin and cocaine. 8 months of dystopia and another 5 remembering how to think later the top "user reviews" found in the wild still praise Gabapentin to high heaven. Yes it does temporary wonders for concentration. I never took my full dose which was the minimum adult dose and broke regime regularly for at least two weeks a time and I don't even know how to describe the 8 months of "hell" because they were just too messed up. Gabapentin probably has amazing off label potential but now it's scheduled forget about intelligent prescribing.

[1] deep into the data structures for a advertising scheduler with fun like network flow limits (since we discussed on Shannon, if this is enough to tickle you I'd love to hear from you, I've got man decades in this needing fresh eyes.

[1] gross percentage fees wreck trading advertising simply. Google plus all mighty consortium wrote off $350MM in 2004 and AdAge said they were stuck on things we solved early. We hadn't solved lots they had. My Cofounder tragically died before the close of a critical stock placement and key man (that I insisted on afraid to ever lose a wonderful friend as well as Cofounder - replying to a snark about business and friendship he snapped (to a old friend of his no less I learned) "I don't know what kind of person you want to be in business with then but I hope you think better of your investors")

[2] my original paper of 1995 cited the total economic capture of the agencies to be 60% of the gross total industry budget. I didn't hear anything similar until in 2018 the former chairman of Mediacom the UKs biggest buyer pull the exact same figure out of thin air.

[3] the recent highly acclaimed book "Manslaughter On Madison Avenue" explains how the problems that made me light out for the territory in 1995 remain not only not fixed but not even addressed. Briefly I felt terrible pangs for trying to help the agencies who threw vexatious criminal copyright breach torts in the High Court at us within days of opening. Then I realised that anyone who can tell the problems just ran for the hills. Only being a partnership let us survive. A limited company requires professional counsel. I learned IP law the hard way with my entire net worth and that of the one person who believed in me on the line. Still a partnership but a Limited Partnership. The 1907 act is only 7 pages long and protects your wealth from rogue partners creation of severality.