Quote:
Originally Posted by Doranna Durgin
Just as a data point, Dennis--and to show the pitfalls of assuming on short data--my Baen webscription books have been consistently and continually pirated, and even though they're finally removed from the Baen site/servers (years past when they were reverted, I might note, including one book that was put up *after* it was long reverted), they still show up. (I think I have several sites to hit with a DMCA even at the moment.)
I have never been happy with that program from an author point of view, which is not politic to say, but I think it's important to remember that appearances can be deceiving (hey, it's 5am my time, I'm gonna use cliches and make typos). I'm sure others feel differently, and have their own reasons. Mine are certainly much deeper than DRM issues.
Just one illustration of how things look unexpectedly different from the other side, sometimes.
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I certainly don't get to see things from the author's side. Speaking as a reader, however, I will simply note that without Webscriptions I would
never have heard of Doranna Durgin. I got some of your books that were included in various bundles. I read them. I liked them. So I went back and bought the rest the books by Dorranna Durgin that were available through Webscriptions. And when your books become available somewhere else, I'll almost certainly buy all the rest of what you've written (assuming reasonable price and lack of DRM).
That's one copy of everything you've written that's available in bits, purchased (or soon-to-be-purchased) by me
solely because one of your books was included in a bundle that contained other books I knew I wanted. The descriptions of your books and their subject matter didn't
appear to be to my taste, so I wouldn't have given you a try without that bundle. It turns out that I was wrong
, and that I really like your writing. But without the bundle, I'd have kept right on passing you by.
I can't speak to issues of royalty rates, or contract terms, or any of those kinds of things. But the bundling is sheer genius! It got me to try out a ton of authors whose books I would never EVER have purchased on their own. There're quite a few I didn't (and still don't) like. More whose books I now check out when I see them, and many who've gone on the "buy it all, ASAP" list. Including you.
Xenophon