[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Perhaps everyone responding to this thread is a writer (or potential writer) for whom writing is merely a fun hobby... something to do instead of vegging in front of the TV, making pottery for your garden, or knitting humorous cummerbunds. Some of the responses I've seen clearly belong to the "who cares about money?" concept, as well as the "As long as my work gets read" party... though, if you think about it, that party really isn't so big as to amount to much more than your close circle of friends, in most cases.

But there are those--like, yes, me--who saw an opportunity to finally get in on the racket that had been denied us by the Publishing Castle, shutting out newbies without so much as looking at their material, and maybe managing to earn an honest dollar from our labor (no, not necessarily enough to live on, but some monetary amount that served to indicate that our efforts are worth it--since the majority of us aren't being told by more than 2 or 3 people, if we're lucky, that our efforts are worth it at all).

And since, last time I checked, the world still runs on money, and my local restaurant won't take positive reviews to pay for my meal, it seemed that being able to profit monetarily from my efforts wasn't unreasonable. (Someone really needs to let me know when coin is no longer coin of the realm.)

It seems to me that it would be a shame if no fiction writer could make money anymore. And not just because my personal income will get smaller (believe me, it wouldn't be that much of a loss): There are other writers, some great, great writers, for whom money really is the only reason they write... and if they cannot make money, they won't write anymore. That means a lot of writing, great writing, that will never be seen by anyone. If I had the choice to pay for a book, to make sure a favorite author would be able to keep writing, or to deny him a dime and watch him give up writing for insurance adjusting, my choice would be to pay him. It surprises me how many people at MR believe that those writers are completely expendable, simply because they like my money more than they like my personal handshake. Am I really in the minority in that thinking?

Now, I never said that "everyone is stealing from me." In fact, as others have pointed out, all it takes is one... and suddenly, any hope I might have entertained to pay for my next lunch forever goes down the drain. And though no one wants to say it here, society has demonstrated time and time again that, if they know they can get away with something illegal, they'll do it... and often go out of their way to do so.

Prohibition is a perfect example, since it was brought up: Enough people were in on dodging the law and getting liquor, that it was easy at any level of society to do so; so, everyone did. What no one discusses these days, is the fact that the law was intended to prevent the existent problems caused in society by drunkenness and alcohol dependence, and whether that goal was worth making an effort--any effort--to curb alcohol usage. They also don't discuss whether we are really better off, because we are allowed to get drunk, climb into motor vehicles, and run other people down.

I did say that, historically, when technology or society changes, laws are written or amended to rein in chaos. What I have not seen or read is a clear example of why reining in chaos with laws is a bad thing. We are not, I repeat, not talking about locking people up, putting the world's IDs in underground government databases, or setting up a government person to shadow every other person in the world. Anyone who thinks we are is severely overreacting to the issue.

Of course, I admit that maybe I am overreacting when I consider theft of an ebook "chaos." True, I think of it as more indicative of a deeper societal problem: Ignoring laws, right or wrong, simply because it's so easy to do so. But if that moral issue is unimportant to others, I am willing to stand apart from the crowd in that respect.

So, I think that writers who are of like mind may very well wonder how today's society serves them. After all, if society can serve others, why not us? Or should all writers simply accept the status of third-class citizens--mere media-whores to society, without even the benefit of a whore's wages? I'm one guy, with a mild talent for storytelling, a mortgage that the bank is not going to conveniently forget about, and a number of people responding to my thread as if I am Evil Incarnate. Am I really that unusual?