Quote:
Originally Posted by PKFFW
Maybe I am assigning those things.
It's just to me, the argument of "creators will always create", especially when coupled with the argument "the author needs to find ways to add value to their book" seems to indicate that the person making those arguments does not place any inherent value on the creation of the book itself.
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Have a look around Smashwords and Lulu, and all the blognovel sites (
http://online-novels.blogspot.com/ ). Do you really think all those people are writing stories in order to make profit from them? "But they are all crap writers" you might think, but the next superstar writer will almost certainly come from there, for the reasons below.
Quote:
Originally Posted by PKFFW
Having said that, every time we hear the arguments of "I would never have bought it anyway so no sale is lost" or "I'm downloading this one for free but fully intend to buy something else by the author in future" or "most downloaded books are never read so no sale is lost" or "it is digital and therefore easily copyable and therefore should be free" it makes the person making the argument seem like they just want free stuff.
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I think some of those came from me, I certainly agree with them all. At this moment in time, I wouldn't pay for a book unless I was reasonably sure that I would like it, and therefore it would be good value for me. In most cases that means the writer is someone I am already familiar with, through reading other books by them.
So the only way a new (to me, not necessarily completely new) writer could ever make it onto my purchase list would be if I read something for free. It wouldn't necessarily need to be a whole book, half a book from Smashwords would do, but if it ended with "and then he woke up" I wouldn't be too pleased about that.