|
The generation of revenue by giving away an e-book is daily cited by some publishers as a benefit of their site. As a writer whose book is being thus dealt with by a certain publisher, I can state it is not beneficial: what they are doing is using it to promote their company's site, to generate sales---but I get a few dollars a year from this process, and see no added sales. Not only that, they thus hold it 'in print' and thus prevent reversion of rights. This is not a good thing.
Of all the many copies of my books in e-book release, I have yet to see any revenue---and most of them are pirated copies, or copies distributed by otherwise honest sites who have assumed based on their acquisition of a company that e-rights went with the sale. My publisher's legal department is now trying to straighten this out, and many have been withdrawn from sale, but neither my publisher nor I have received revenues from these copies.
Yes, it is publicity, which never hurts, but if no funds ever come through, where is the money going? Not to the creator, certainly. Not to the publisher of record. Somebody is collecting money from these sales. Who, I wonder.
|