ETA: I have said some stupid, hurtful, privilegedly oblivious things in the process of this discussion, the awareness of which was prompted by lots of smart people saying smart things. I'm leaving this post and its comments up, but I'm working on something that'll likely go up in a day or so, and I just want to note that this post is not my final word on the subject.
Hi Internets! My spies tell me that for the first cookie of The Shattering, you want to meet Sione, one of the three narrators, by quite a big margin.
Are you into the shy boys, then, Internets? It's okay if you are, I have a certain weakness for the type myself, although I do hope you will show more appreciation for the ladies in due time.
BUT before we get there, a brief note on e-rights, piracy, and people being totally rude. Some cussing involved.
So yesterday, a woman, let's call her lucyham, was in torment! She couldn't get a Kindle version of a book she wanted because it wasn't available in her country. So she downloaded a pirated version.
Then she tweeted the author to let her know she'd done it. She would pay, she swore, when the publisher got their act together and made the Kindle version available in Australia.
When the author, let's call her Sarah Rees Brennan, woke up in the morning, filled with the promise of a bright new day (or probably not that bright, since she lives in Ireland) that was the first thing on her twitter feed.
Now, as it happens, I also love my shiny e-reader, and I too am often tormented by not being able to get my hands on books in that format, for I, also, live in Australia! It is a situation with which I am familiar!
Things I do in that situation:
- Whine, bitch and moan to my friends about stupid restrictions on e-rights GOD.
- Buy another book for my e-reader. A different book!
- Buy the book I wanted in paper form!
- Oh noes, book is too expensive in paper form? Library, ho!
- Don't read the book in any form, feel sad, get over it.
Things I do not do in that situation:
- Download an illegally ripped version via torrent.
- Tell the author I did it.
- Tell them I'll pay for it when the publishers get their act together.
- Go on to reveal to the author that I am telling her because I want to make her complain to her publisher and effect change!
Because:
- I am not inclined to support people who rip off authors.
- I am aware that authors dearly wish their books available everywhere, in all formats, forever, and seldom have this wish granted*, and that they are henceforth even sadder than me about the book not being downloadable.
- I am aware that authors have absolutely no control over whether a publisher chooses to ask for, or exercise, e-book rights.
- I know I am not entitled to having any particular book, when I want it, in what format I want it.
Lucyham is probably a very nice person most of the time.
That is why it's such a pity she did what she did, because what she did was rude, ignorant, and pointless. All it did was hurt an author (both in the feelings and in the pocket), and make a lot of others furious as we tried to explain why she was wrong, wrong, wrong.
While we were doing that, we weren't writing. You like the writing, yes, Internets? You want the lovely books? For which you would like to give us money, so that we can write more lovely books! It's a circle!
Anyway. Lucyham apologised, the rage has lessened, and when I'm done with posting this, you will get a cookie, which is not bad for a night's work.
But, Internets, be it known. Pirating books bad. Telling an author you pirated, compounding the offence.
Don't be gross! It is a basic guideline for life.
Saundra Mitchell does some more explaining!
NB: "Don't be gross" also applies, of course, to not being gross to Lucyham. I have linked to what she said on a public forum, because I feel this is an issue which could do with some robust public discussion. But I trust that you will not threaten, internet-hunt, or otherwise attack her, and such attacks in this space will be summarily deleted.
* Shakespeare, who was not even a "book" writer. Maybe Austen. Anyone else?
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Comments
Lucyham wrote publicly, and I am responding publicly. This is not a matter of a bad review of my work, or one that takes issue with a social justice point in my work, where I do feel it would be unfair to link directly to fans who have an interest in my work. This is a general issue, and one which I feel can be served by general, public discussion.
I do not condone any form of actual attack, and will add a note to that point, thank you.
In re: Everlasting Authors. Leaving aside religious texts, I think Tolkien bids fair to join the Everlasting list. Dickens as well.
Edited at 2011-01-12 02:58 pm (UTC)
For the most part, I think the continued distribution of out-of-copyright works by any means is excellent. Out of copyright means the author (or their estate) isn't getting anything anyway, so go for it!
err, yes, yes they do. Nobody holds a gun against a writer's head to sign a contract (well, not round here, anyway). Writer can retain rights and territories and the publisher can agree or not agree. The final contract is an agreement between the two parties and will contain what is acceptable to both.
Authors have no control over whether a publisher chooses to ask for, or exercise, e-book rights.
Nope, that's still quite clear.
We can control what rights we hand over (even if it just comes down to saying "No, you will not publish my books", although it takes a lot of guts to so do, for thereby lies the end of one's career). We can have agents negotiate on our behalf for what will and will not go into the contract.
We cannot control what rights publishers ask for, or exercise.
Edited at 2011-01-12 03:12 pm (UTC)
Everyone one who does that ensures it's not going to BE available because the intended market already has pirated versions of the books.
Eformats are really interesting in the sense that (a) readers usually think they should pay significantly less for eformats than hard copy, refusing to accept that the lion's share of the cost of publishing is not the printing and (b) right now, you only break even on an Eformat when you sell about 100 of them. So while every publisher would love to make everything they publish available in every format, it doesn't always make economic sense to do so. Which sucks, but it is true.
Being on the product side of the product/distribution/audience chain certainly teaches you a lot. I feel quite ashamed at some of the idiotic (I thought, helpful) comments I have directed at writers etc in the past.
¹ Mind you, there have been a few cases where shops enthusiastically tell readers that the mag sounds awesome and they'll totally get it in, then tell us they don't want to stock it, then tell readers that we wouldn't let them stock it, or something similarly gobsmacking.
And that's why I continue to buy paper books and (to a lesser extent) actual CDs. I suspect many readers will continue to be unwilling to pay the same price for eformats as long as eformats have less value to the reader, regardless of whether they understand that the publishing costs are similar.
Markets are not about what something is worth on the labor end. They're about what the consumer is willing and able to pay. That's why, for example, hand quilting is not a very practical way to make a living in the developed world--the consumer is not willing to pay what the labor is worth.
If publishers want people to happily pay the same for ebooks, they need to make ebooks as beneficial to the consumer as paper books. No amount of explaining how they're almost as expensive to produce, so readers should be willing to pay the same for (in most cases) less, is going to help.
I'm truly not trying to be a troll here, but genuinely curious, so I would like to ask you about something.
I'm reading for a couple of book clubs this year and many of the books are only available in paper. Therefore, I will be buying them in paper rather than ebook, which I would prefer.
How do you feel about someone buying the paper book because they want to do it right and support the author (and the people who work for the publisher because they deserve their money too), but actually reading a torrented ebook because it's about a 100x more accessible?
Now, I haven't done this and I'm not saying I'm going to. It's just that as I checked out what I could buy electronically and what I was going to have to buy in paper, the thought crossed my mind.
The problem is that the more support people give torrented e-books:
1) the easier they are to torrent
2) the more people will create them
There is no way to tell the other people you are leeching with that you have bought a copy of the paper book, for honest! Or to tell the torrent creator that torrenting hurts authors, and you disapprove of that, but you are just going to download this one for accessibility purposes.
So that is kind of the end game. You may be supporting the author in other ways, and I have a lot of sympathy for the accessibility issues paper books pose, but in the end you will be supporting a practice that hurts us a lot.
I have since found a way to strip the DRM so I can read my books but was not happy. I buy books for a living, from all over the World for the City Library. Nobody tells me I can't buy a book because I live at the bottom of the World!
I hope publishers get their business models sorted so we can continue to support wonderful authors by buying books, regardless of format.
I am sticking to aquiring titles out of copyright and out of print for my personal collection until this is sorted.
But this is a very good question! I want to emphasise that I am answering this on my own behalf, not on that of any other authors nor of my publishers.
Readers with disabilities obviously face considerable challenges in acquiring electronic copies, and there are, as the threads above suggest, resources dedicated to helping them find them, even in less-than-legal versions.
I think it is totally okay to suggest to currently-abled readers that they could just read something else, because there are lots and lots of books available to them (at least, in comparatively affluent areas). There are more good books in paper form than anyone could read in a hundred lifetimes.
But for readers with disabilities, this is not necessarily true. There are thousands of e-books available, many for free, but in terms of reading heartbreak, for example, I cannot think of much worse than getting two thirds of the way through a series you love and then discovering that the third volume is only available in a format you can't read.
Obviously I would prefer that readers pay for my books, even through the convoluted efforts of getting a friend to download an American copy and strip out the DRM/enable text to voice. But if this is not an option, then, yeah, I am provisionally cool with readers with disabilities downloading torrents of my works, for personal use only.
I would prefer they explore other options first, of say like emailing someone they might know who might have the .pdf*, because I think supporting the people who make torrents is a Bad. But I can understand that the spoons are not always available for this.
So, that is my answer! The best possible solution, of course, is for publishers to electronise everything, and I do believe we are working towards that. Slowly! Publishers are made up of many people with many opinions, and like any such body they often take to change slow. Moreover, this is a complex topic, with many things to be worked out. But I have hopes for a bright new electronic day.
* True story: Guardian of the Dead is not yet available in ANZ in electronic form, though it will be. So I .pdf'd a version and stuck it on my ereader. I haven't actually read it there yet, because I have a searing terror of reading my own books in published form, but I have it!
- Buy another book for my e-reader. A different book!
- Don't read the book in any form, feel sad, get over it.
That is not getting any more money to the author than reading a pirated copy is.
You can complain all you like about pirated copies, but at least try to make sense about it.
Why, thank you for your kind permission, I believe I shall.
It is perfectly logical if you accept that the premises of an ethical reading experience involve 1) acquiring a book in a manner that will 2) compensate the author of the book.
Getting another book and getting money to that author is fine. Not getting a book and not getting money to the author is fine. Getting a book and not getting money to the author is not fine.
In short, I do not believe I am entitled to any book in any particular form, and I especially do not believe that I am entitled to any in-print book where the author is not compensated.
It is possible that you are not as good at logic as you think.