[Worldwalker]

Originally Posted by buxton-arts

... reading thru clearly the majority of posters are readers rather than authors (I'm both, search john fitton on Kindle Store - niche area of publication of maps n calendars n stuff) ... I understand the issues of 'I've bought it so why cant I (and all my family and friends and people using upload sites) read it on anything' ... but maybe you should see it as 'I've bought it (usually alot cheaper than the paper option) to read it on my Kindle'

Please explain to me how $10 or $15 is a lot cheaper than $8, or $4.80 with a coupon? I'm sorry, but I just don't get this "new math".

No, you don't understand the issue if you think the question is one of why a reader can't give a book to "people using upload sites" instead of one of just being able to freaking use the book they just bought.

The extreme view is 'why isnt everything $0.0 cost'

And you really don't understand the issue if you think that's what people are talking about.

As an author ... why should I spend hours and hours ... to then give all that toil away free?

You're already giving that away for free. That's not the question. I'll say it again: You are already giving all that toil away free. Once again, I'll trot out my Harry Potter example: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows has never existed as an official ebook. Never. The author likes paper books. However, it was available as an illicit ebook before the paper version hit the stores.

DRM does not stop the "bad guys" from putting your ebook on any download site they want, giving it away through any torrent they want, or anything else. It not only doesn't stop them, it doesn't slow them down.

Does it stop Joe Blow from giving his mother a book he read and enjoyed? Maybe. If Joe doesn't care enough to learn to use a de-DRM script, anyway. Are you going to make more money when Joe's mother doesn't know about anything you wrote because she didn't read that book Joe was finished with? Doubtful. Sarah Graves made the royalties on 10 pbooks because I bought one of the series off a charity book table, though. Are you going to make more money when Joe buys a Nook instead of a Kindle and has to pay for your book again if he wants to keep reading it? Doubtful. He's highly unlikely to pay you twice for the same book. Are you going to make more money because Joe doesn't buy the book at all because he doesn't want a book he can only rent, not buy? Again, doubtful. More likely he just won't buy it at all. Hurting the "good guys" isn't helping you at all.

Many authors of course do publich freebies ... but also have to make a living by charging for some of their output.

Point to one post on MobileRead where someone says authors should not charge for books. Please.

Whilst DRM can be a pain it does decrease the dissemination of 'hacked' publications and free circulation which decreases an authors income - and hence willingness to write and publish.

No. It doesn't. See above regarding Harry Potter.

DRM doesn't hurt the bad guys.

DRM does hurt the good guys.

That's exactly the opposite of what an author wants. You want to be nice to your customers so they keep on giving you money, turn the non-customers into customers if possible so they start giving you money, and the people who will never be your customers can go hang. With DRM, you're screwing over your customers in an attempt at inconveniencing the people who will never be your customers, while discouraging your potential customers. That's backwards.

If you want free books read Charles Dickens and no contemporary books - your choice. Or just buy from Smashwords not Amazon.

I buy from DRM-free publishers. Smashwords is one, yes. So is Baen. So is O'Reilly (I use a lot of tech books). Etc. Is this making you more money?

As I say - perhaps you should see the cheap ebook purchase as a purchase to read on your kindle?

By "cheap" you mean "more expensive than a paperback" and by "purchase" you mean "rental", right? I'm just trying to get the terms straight here.

By the way, I searched the Kindle store for "john fitton" and didn't get any hits. I even cut and pasted it to be doubly sure.