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Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks
Well, there's simply no point in an author saying, "If you don't buy it, don't read it." Even if an author feels that way, they gain nothing by saying it. People who are going to download are going to do it anyway and making a reader angry doesn't serve much of a purpose.re enough authors writing that you can always go find something else to read.
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And yet they do.
I really do think that for many midlisters, at least in certain genres, people relying on used books
is a much bigger problem than piracy.
I don't have anything to back this up with, but I'm going to guess that midlist romance and cosy mystery authors belong to this group - the majority of their readers (those who can't/won't buy new) are the used book buyers/readers, while fantasy/scifi/YA midlist authors are probably indeed increasingly feeling the effect of piracy.
But of course it's not generally considered acceptable for an author to rant in anger against people buying used books or borrowing from a friend, while it's acceptable to rant against piracy, even if it may not be the actual reason why a particular author's sales are declining.
Quote:
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Is it your problem? Only if it happens to be an author you love.
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I guess this is really the crux of the matter in a lot of cases. Honestly, with an author I love... well, I don't have to speak theoretically, because if I'm in a position to buy (can afford / the author&publisher are willing to sell to me) and it's an author I love, I buy their work. In multiple versions, sometimes.
If it's an author I know nothing about... well. We get back to the "unless I'm fairly certain I'm interested, I'd want to try before I buy" thing - and that's if I'm even allowed to buy.
Seriously though, I'm not actually trying to give excuses here (and I know how feeble this sounds), but if I lived in a country where (a) I was allowed to buy most books for a reasonable price, and (b) I had access to a library with books I might want to read, I very likely wouldn't look at darknet at all.
It's a constant struggle between my personal ethics, trying to find the best balance between desire and what I can afford to buy,
always weighing each individual decision against the question of "
would I buy this specific book if I couldn't get it otherwise? i.e. is this a lost sale for the author or not?" - and yes, much as I hate to admit this, there's also the not-at-all pleasant sense of envy there as well, the sense of "people in rich English-speaking countries can just walk into a used book shop or library and get it legally for free/cheap/without having to jump through hoops, while I'm expected to buy absolutely everything, at a much higher price, if they deign to sell it to me at all".
Yes, it's entitlement, pure and simple. I'm not under any illusions here. At least I can live reasonably easily with my conscience as long as I follow that personal ethical code - and knowing that "borrowing" via darknet has, in fact, led me to buy many more books by those authors.
On the other hand, I've only ever bought used books when they're out of print and a new copy (from a bookshop, as new, not "in new condition" from a used book seller) isn't available to buy.
(And as I've said before, I buy
considerably more books than I get by other means - if I can buy an ebook legally for $6-7 without jumping through hoops, I'll likely buy it even if I'm not entirely sure I'll like it. Kobo coupons have had an amazing effect on making an honest person out of me - well, except of course for that pesky illegal DRM removal bit...)