[Hitch]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I will say that your argument is less than convincing. I could fertilize my garden with it (if I had a garden and cared to fertilize).

Glad you think so.

In the end, you are arguing that you should be able to read for free and pay only for those you like. That is an argument pirates occasionally use and is a surprising attitude coming from someone in the book biz.

No, that's absolutely not what I said. I said, if I find a book unacceptably bad, I should be able to return it. I never said I'd finish the cursed thing and THEN return it. If I finish it--I don't return it. You should have asked before you made that assumption, although I think that was implicit earlier that I only returned those that I didn't complete.

Just like I don't buy the argument that so many authors make, that they would "never" return a book, because they know how much blood, sweat and tears the author put into it, how hurt their feelings will be, etc. Really? What, that's somehow different for other people who work? If someone makes something and sells it, does that mean that the buyer can't return it, because the builder/carver/whatever put their heart and soul into it? Or is it ONLY authors that bleed for their work? It's WORK.

I can just imagine--if I hired some new bookmaker and an author came to me for book design. New Bookmaker--we'll call her Suzie--puts her heart and soul into it, but, meh, the layout is bad. Should the author keep the layout, because poor little Suzie will cry? Or, do you think that the author will rightly demand that I bloody well fix it? That author's book, and my work, are the same thing--commercial service products. No damn difference. If an author writes a book and puts it up for free, on Wattpad, A03, etc. then I will be exceedingly gentle with any critique, because that person is not saying to me that they've done everything possible--that this product is commercially ready to be bought. Once an author chooses to launch their own small business--become a publisher, NOT an author--then s/he has an obligation to those that buy his/her service, to make it a commercially-viable product. Not schlock or dreck.

Incidentally, I don't remember seeing an answer (and if I missed it, I do apologize): Do you walk out of a theater demanding a refund if the movie you saw sucked? Did you return your copy of CCR's Mardi Gras after realizing there were only two good songs on it? In the days of paper books, were you in the habit of returning your half finished paper books, explaining your problems with structure or murkiness of themes to the cashier in order to justify your demand for a refund?

You didn't get an answer because the last time I was in a theater was literally decades ago. Mr. Hitch has tinnitus, so movie theaters are out for me. Have I returned movies that I've rented, for a refund, when I get 10% or 20% through them and find that they awful or repugnant, etc. You betcha.

Don't assume that I'm finishing those books and returning them because I'm cheap. I'm not a) finishing them and b) the pricing has nothing to do with it--most of them are $0.99-$1.99 or thereabouts. It's that, or I'll leave a review and honestly, I still think that they'd rather refund that $0.66 or the $1.20 or whatever, than get a bad review. When I've polled my customers, that's their overwhelming response.

I just see no good purpose served, other than throwing my money away, in buying a book that's lousy and allowing the author to assume that you loved it. You're hardly doing him any damned service.

Hitch