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Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks
Most of my books are available in paperback, so it's entirely possible to find a used copy.
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And how does that reader benefit you more than someone who downloaded it from a torrent site? In either case, you're not getting paid for the reading. Are fans who read used pbooks better fans than ones who read unauthorized ebooks? Do you think they'll buy more books full-price in the future?
It's my experience that used pbook readers buy more used pbooks in the future; download-and-torrent ebook readers can be enticed to buy new ebooks for full price, if the prices are reasonable & the books available to them.
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I'm not a gestapo about it people downloading for free; Why waste my time over something outside my control.
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I don't gripe about authors who quietly disapprove of downloading; it's the ones who go out of their way to rant about (or at) people who admit to reading without paying for an ebook who bug me. Especially ones who say that every download is "literally taking food out of their child's mouth."
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It has nothing to do with not wanting "poor" readers. It has to do with the availability of a pirate copy that threatens my ability to make a living.
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How do pirate ebooks threaten your income more than used pbooks? More specifically: how do pirate ebooks threaten your income *so much more* than used pbooks, that you actively suggest people seek used pbooks but berate people for the concept of unauthorized ebooks?
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Most authors make their books as available as humanly possible. My books are cheap enough that pricing should not be an issue. If you're in the US, there are at least 3 libraries with copies of my books; you can interlibrary loan them.
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I don't read pbooks for entertainment. I don't do DRM. (This includes library DRM; I have no DRM-reading software on my computers.) If it's not available as a drm-free ebook for under $6, it's outside of my scope.
I'm not saying that authors have to fit themselves inside my constraints; there are plenty of people willing to buy $10 DRM'd ebooks, and authors are welcome to seek their patronage. I'm saying that I spend money on ebooks, I spend *time* on ebooks, and I don't bother even looking at anything outside of my restrictions.
I am *thrilled* to live at a point in history where I can choose which authors to support, by criteria of my choice, and still have an endless supply of excellent reading material.
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Books are a luxury for many, but that doesn't really excuse stealing them.
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"Stealing" means taking something away, not making so many extras that they're no longer profitable to sell.
An uploader may be "stealing profits" but they're not "stealing books." And by that logic, a used bookstore is also "stealing profits"--after all, those people could be buying the ebook instead.
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Side note: These are rhetorical questions, not specifically aimed at you. Your books are available at Smashwords at quite reasonable prices.