Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
I must, with the greatest possible respect, beg to differ. If the person you "share" it with would otherwise have bought the book themselves, the author has lost a sale.
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Just to play Devil's Advocate: consider the person you "share" it with who would've otherwise
never bought the book themselves. If they didn't like it, little was gained/lost. But if they
did like it, the author just might have sold another copy of every single one of their books--past and future.
I'm not saying casual friend-to-friend sharing of an ebook is "right," by any means (or that it can
never be harmful). But rather that I believe there are much
worse things that could happen to an author than a fan attempting to instill their love of your (the author's) work in one of their reading (or even non-reading) friends.
There's no question the new medium has changed the rules--and very suddenly at that. Perhaps a little
too suddenly for a society of readers whose favorite authors were likely brought to their attention in a similar (similar in spirit, if not practice/execution) way. Pretty hard to change that sort of cultural mentality overnight. *shrugs*