[BillSmithBooks]

On the other hand, I'm an indie author who publishes DRM-free, who explicitly authorizes reasonable sharing (i.e. loaning to a friend or two is cool, torrenting and reposting entire novels is not), and who actively accepts donations via PayPal or mail.

My reasoning is simple: I hate DRM -- and it only frustrates honest readers.

I want readers who will love my work to be able to find and enjoy it. That means open formats, non-DRM crippled...despite the risks of having a book copied over and over again without payment.

And I do think this could well turn out to be a valid business model. I am not looking at this as a "give it away and pray" hobby effort.

I have always felt that being DRM free with authorization for reasonable sharing encourages readers who enjoy my works to tell their friends and be supportive of my work. Some of them may have limited financial means now...but at some point in the future they may have the means to buy my books and I hope they remember that I was trying to be considerate and reasonable to my readers.

I explicitly encourage readers to donate in whatever amount -- so, $1 is too much for you...get nine other friends to each chip in a dime, etc. Buying a copy and sharing is cool with me, just please be reasonable. I remember what it was like to be a broke kid, a broke college student, still am a broke author... (Paraphrasing a great line from the old Spin City TV show: "An author? You've got to be kidding me! That's just an actor who's too lazy to wait tables.")

For me, "sales numbers" are just a number--I turned my back on trying to impress traditional publishers a long time ago. Sales numbers are irrelevant.

Readers who enjoy my books DO matter. Especially those who are thoughtful enough to say "Thanks, I liked that...so here's a $1--less than the cost of a candy bar or a soda or 1/4 of a gallon of gasoline. Here's a contribution so you can write more. And I'll tell my friends that your books are cool." That's what I'm hoping for.

So, to me at least, a donation is just as good (even better) than a sale through a third party.

As for why one would want to support an author like me, even on a used book book sale or a loaned copy --facetious nature of the question aside-- well, it's a simple matter of encouraging further works to be written by the authors you like. If a person does not understand the social contract I'm speaking of, well then, they don't get it. But I think most people get it -- "I love this artist, I want to see more, here, let me help you with a donation/contribution so you can keep on creating cool stuff for me to enjoy."

We all have bills to pay. If you enjoy my work, enable me to spend more time writing and less time doing other things I may not particularly like but must do in order to feed my family.