What is your personal e-reading philosophy? Buy(from where?)or Borrow?

[spindlegirl]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

I'll make this short:

I buy ebooks wherever I want to buy ebooks - if it is something I want to read, of course..

I could care less where it comes from.

You said it more succinctly than I did haha.

[spindlegirl]

Originally Posted by Flaneurette

It seems there is much screeching online about how kindle books are a lease and not true ownership but I’ve known this forever? It is the price to pay for convenience of digital goods I guess and won’t likely change anytime soon. I don’t agree that piracy is justified because people didn’t understand the terms of service for all these platforms.

I used to be one of those screechers. I don't agree with downloading a car, but I used to be greatly offended with the terms of service. I've now decided to pick my battles, and just roll with it when I use my Kindle.

Edit: It's a cheeky reference to the Preamble I used to see against pirating movies. "You wouldn't steal a car..."

[Gormagon]

Originally Posted by hildea

If your book has an important character who is a rocket scientist, you might want a real rocket scientist to take a look, to help identify things which are embarrassingly wrong or actively harmful.

That doesn't follow the definition of a sensitivity reader I linked. What you seems to mean is checking the facts. Feelings (like feeling offended) aren't facts, they are just subjective feelings.

Originally Posted by hildea

(And if you don't think this kind of consultancy is useful, take a brief look at some Men writing women-list, as very obvious examples of things that can go laughably wrong when authors don't know where their knowledge ends and their ignorance begins )

I only see that there are people out there that design websites that really show nothing in a modern browser with JavaScript and cookies disabled, see attached screenshot. They really should have consult someone who know something about webdesign.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by hildea

(And if you don't think this kind of consultancy is useful, take a brief look at some Men writing women-list, as very obvious examples of things that can go laughably wrong when authors don't know where their knowledge ends and their ignorance begins )

Bwahaha. While lots of those examples were pretty yucky, I almost fell off the sofa laughing at some of the comments.

[salamanderjuice]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Pragmatism says buying books and supporting authors is simple self-interest. After all, if we all pirated books, who would be writing our next read?

People wrote and created stories for thousands of years before copyright, if it vanished overnight they'd continue to write and create stories. Already there are thousands and thousands of free novels and stories all over the web.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by salamanderjuice

People wrote and created stories for thousands of years before copyright, if it vanished overnight they'd continue to write and create stories. Already there are thousands and thousands of free novels and stories all over the web.

Most of those creating those stories were supported by the wealthy. Nowadays, most of them seem to be supported by a day job, spouse, etc.

As for copyright, that has little to do with being willing to pay the author for what they produce. Very few of the authors I've met are writing just for the money with many ranking the egoboo higher but money does help convince them to continue writing.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by hildea

I'm pretty sure that you can find plenty new books with offensive content, stereotypes, and bias, if that's what you want to read

Sensitivity readers aren't all that different from any other consultant an author might hire. If your book has an important character who is a rocket scientist, you might want a real rocket scientist to take a look, to help identify things which are embarrassingly wrong or actively harmful. Same if an important character is blind, trans, a Norwegian with Pakistani grandparents, or anything else which might have a strong impact in how they the experience life, and is different from the author's experience.

(And if you don't think this kind of consultancy is useful, take a brief look at some Men writing women-list, as very obvious examples of things that can go laughably wrong when authors don't know where their knowledge ends and their ignorance begins )

Men Are Calling Out The Things Female Authors Get So Wrong When Writing Male Characters In Their Books, And Some Of These Are Surprising

https://www.buzzfeed.com/pernellquil...ting-men-badly

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Men Are Calling Out The Things Female Authors Get So Wrong When Writing Male Characters In Their Books, And Some Of These Are Surprising

https://www.buzzfeed.com/pernellquil...ting-men-badly

From the comments:
"A lot of these examples are bad, poorly written stereotypes, for sure. But I think it's worth pointing out that the majority of offenders on this list are pulled from romance novels, often even self-published ones.
Meanwhile, if you look at examples of male authors writing women poorly, you will find many who have won literary awards for their work. I doubt that anything related to 50 shades of grey or dating Xi Jinping will ever be taken that seriously."

That was the first thought I had reading this. Romance novels are often meant to be wish-fulfillment fantasy and deliberately written that way. Whereas most examples in Men Writing Women were from mainstream fiction.