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jabberwock_11 · 03-24-2010, 03:52 PM

I don't believe that the publishing industry owes me personally anything, but it should be beholden to its authors and its customers to provide what it claims as its territory.

It harms the authors a great deal more to hold out on publishing back catalogues of books and to take a flippant attitude toward the publishing of current books in all available formats than the use of the darknet ever could. Most of us only went to alternate sources because the legitimate ones were lacking. A good portion of us download ebooks versions of books that we already own. We are not asking for a revolution, just some common sense.

The example of Baen, in establishing their free library, should point to the fact that when you make things easier to access you INCREASE your readership and sales rather than decrease it. As I have said, word of mouth publicity is an amazing force.

I am a freelance writer myself and have struggled to make enough dough writing to pay the utility bills, so I do understand how difficult it is to make anything resembling good money as a writer. I have written articles and short stories for years and even worked as a playwrite for an independent house for a while. I have never considered making writing my full time profession because there simply was not enough money or stability in it, but the rise of on line markets and epublishing has actually increased both my income and my target audience. If an independent freelancer can see the value in this, then I am not sure why large corporations and otherwise educated folks can not.

The bottom line is this: there is a whole lot of wrong to spread around and none of us are angles, hell even the removal of DRM is illegal in many places, but we still do it with little to no concern for the moral/legal implications. The only way things change is by forcing those who have a vested interest in the status quo to change their attitudes. Is my downloading an otherwise unavailable copy of a book that I already own earth shattering protest? Nope, I just wanted to read the book on my ebook reader, but if I can use my annoyance at having no better alternative to help beat some common sense into folks then all the better.

03-24-2010, 03:52 PM	#76
jabberwock_11 Addict Posts: 231 Karma: 1591305 Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Savannah, GA USA Device: Kindle Paperwhite 2, Aluratek Libre Pro	I don't believe that the publishing industry owes me personally anything, but it should be beholden to its authors and its customers to provide what it claims as its territory. It harms the authors a great deal more to hold out on publishing back catalogues of books and to take a flippant attitude toward the publishing of current books in all available formats than the use of the darknet ever could. Most of us only went to alternate sources because the legitimate ones were lacking. A good portion of us download ebooks versions of books that we already own. We are not asking for a revolution, just some common sense. The example of Baen, in establishing their free library, should point to the fact that when you make things easier to access you INCREASE your readership and sales rather than decrease it. As I have said, word of mouth publicity is an amazing force. I am a freelance writer myself and have struggled to make enough dough writing to pay the utility bills, so I do understand how difficult it is to make anything resembling good money as a writer. I have written articles and short stories for years and even worked as a playwrite for an independent house for a while. I have never considered making writing my full time profession because there simply was not enough money or stability in it, but the rise of on line markets and epublishing has actually increased both my income and my target audience. If an independent freelancer can see the value in this, then I am not sure why large corporations and otherwise educated folks can not. The bottom line is this: there is a whole lot of wrong to spread around and none of us are angles, hell even the removal of DRM is illegal in many places, but we still do it with little to no concern for the moral/legal implications. The only way things change is by forcing those who have a vested interest in the status quo to change their attitudes. Is my downloading an otherwise unavailable copy of a book that I already own earth shattering protest? Nope, I just wanted to read the book on my ebook reader, but if I can use my annoyance at having no better alternative to help beat some common sense into folks then all the better. Last edited by jabberwock_11; 03-24-2010 at 04:01 PM.