Let's pay authors directly

[PuxyYunm]

Originally Posted by Tome Keeper

Well the library doesn't get the books for free, they pay for a copy of the book (unless it's donated by a patron/author) and lend it out to you and me. So the author will get paid for a copy of the book, just not for the additional people reading it.

Sorry, I should have been clearer. In another thread there was the implication that in the U.K. the author receives "a few pence" each time the book is borrowed from a library. Assuming I understood correctly (which I don't) , then I should have asked "Does anyone know if the author is paid for each loan from a library in the U.S. and Canada?"

If the author is not paid each time in the U.K., then I've lost all interest in my own question.

[carld]

I agree Ron. Sales are the thing.

[GreenMonkey]

Originally Posted by Worldwalker

Why should people buying a used book give money to the author? He already got paid once!

If I buy a used car, I don't send money off to Detroit. If I buy a used bookshelf, I don't hunt up the original manufacturer and send them a check. Why should I pay the author again for his book and not the manufacturer of the shelf I put it on or the car I brought it home in?

Once you sell something, whether it's a car or a bookshelf or a book, you've sold it; there's no obligation on anyone's part to pay you again every time it changes hands.

The same is true of lending; if you borrow my car, you don't have to pay the manufacturer, either. I can even rent out my car without having to pay anyone off.

The idea of paying every time you read a book, whether it's bought, borrowed, used, whatever, is another step closer to "one book, one set of eyes, one time" which is, in turn, another step in the decline of reading.

Exactly. It's the DIVX format all over again, practically. This is what all industries want - to be paid every time anyone uses their media, each time. DIVX tried this (basically pay per view DVD format for those unaware of it...google it).

If one-book-one-person was substantially cheaper (say half or a third the price) of a normal book...maybe it could make some kind of sense (maybe).

But one-book-one-person + DRM-locked to single device + full p-book MSRP is ludicrous.

This kind of thing will do to the book industry what it did to the music industry. But I actually care about the book industry

Donating is a nice idea. I'd rather be able to buy a DRM-free book on an actual free market (no agency price fixing) though. But that's not going to happen any time soon.

[J. Strnad]

We need to let go of the notion that every pair of eyeballs equals either a sale or a sale lost. Paper books have always been passed around. Authors have never been paid for every pair of eyeballs, so why should we expect ebooks to be any different?

The big problem we face is keeping people from reading over other people's shoulders. How do we force these parasites to buy their own copies???

[BillSmithBooks]

On the other hand, I'm an indie author who publishes DRM-free, who explicitly authorizes reasonable sharing (i.e. loaning to a friend or two is cool, torrenting and reposting entire novels is not), and who actively accepts donations via PayPal or mail.

My reasoning is simple: I hate DRM -- and it only frustrates honest readers.

I want readers who will love my work to be able to find and enjoy it. That means open formats, non-DRM crippled...despite the risks of having a book copied over and over again without payment.

And I do think this could well turn out to be a valid business model. I am not looking at this as a "give it away and pray" hobby effort.

I have always felt that being DRM free with authorization for reasonable sharing encourages readers who enjoy my works to tell their friends and be supportive of my work. Some of them may have limited financial means now...but at some point in the future they may have the means to buy my books and I hope they remember that I was trying to be considerate and reasonable to my readers.

I explicitly encourage readers to donate in whatever amount -- so, $1 is too much for you...get nine other friends to each chip in a dime, etc. Buying a copy and sharing is cool with me, just please be reasonable. I remember what it was like to be a broke kid, a broke college student, still am a broke author... (Paraphrasing a great line from the old Spin City TV show: "An author? You've got to be kidding me! That's just an actor who's too lazy to wait tables.")

For me, "sales numbers" are just a number--I turned my back on trying to impress traditional publishers a long time ago. Sales numbers are irrelevant.

Readers who enjoy my books DO matter. Especially those who are thoughtful enough to say "Thanks, I liked that...so here's a $1--less than the cost of a candy bar or a soda or 1/4 of a gallon of gasoline. Here's a contribution so you can write more. And I'll tell my friends that your books are cool." That's what I'm hoping for.

So, to me at least, a donation is just as good (even better) than a sale through a third party.

As for why one would want to support an author like me, even on a used book book sale or a loaned copy --facetious nature of the question aside-- well, it's a simple matter of encouraging further works to be written by the authors you like. If a person does not understand the social contract I'm speaking of, well then, they don't get it. But I think most people get it -- "I love this artist, I want to see more, here, let me help you with a donation/contribution so you can keep on creating cool stuff for me to enjoy."

We all have bills to pay. If you enjoy my work, enable me to spend more time writing and less time doing other things I may not particularly like but must do in order to feed my family.

[carld]

Bill, I agree with you up to a point sales numbers are not that important, but for authors from traditional publishing houses, sales numbers mean a lot. Donations are fine, I agree, actually buying the authors books is better and should be the first choice.

[elcreative]

If it was the thread I'm thinking of then it wasn't an implication, it was a statement of fact... UK has PLR (Public Lending Right) and payments accumulate per borrowing (up to an annual limit of £6,600 @ 5.98p/loan) paid annually for accumulated amounts in excess of £1.00 - authors need to apply/register.

Originally Posted by PuxyYunm

Sorry, I should have been clearer. In another thread there was the implication that in the U.K. the author receives "a few pence" each time the book is borrowed from a library. Assuming I understood correctly (which I don't) , then I should have asked "Does anyone know if the author is paid for each loan from a library in the U.S. and Canada?"

If the author is not paid each time in the U.K., then I've lost all interest in my own question.

[BillSmithBooks]

Originally Posted by carld

Bill, I agree with you up to a point sales numbers are not that important, but for authors from traditional publishing houses, sales numbers mean a lot. Donations are fine, I agree, actually buying the authors books is better and should be the first choice.

Absolutely, should have made that clearer.

I was speaking from my own position as an indie author who sells directly to readers and who is planning on Smashwords (B&N,Apple,Kobo) and Amazon.

Anyone who is working within traditional publishing sees their career live and die on sales numbers...even though they are only working for 10% royalty rates and I am working for anywhere from 35% (Amazon) to ~85% rates (direct sale minus Pay Pal processing fee).

[Tome Keeper]

Originally Posted by elcreative

If it was the thread I'm thinking of then it wasn't an implication, it was a statement of fact... UK has PLR (Public Lending Right) and payments accumulate per borrowing (up to an annual limit of £6,600 @ 5.98p/loan) paid annually for accumulated amounts in excess of £1.00 - authors need to apply/register.

It's not quite that simple. Payment is calculated first on a regional basis in the UK based on a sample of libraries in that region and the total book loans of that region, then combined to form a national estimate. So it's not 5.98p/loan, but varies significantly per year, although the max is £6,600. Simply the total loans of a book are ESTIMATED then the author receives that amount multiplied by the rate of pay. Only books count, no digital media including e-books, and payments are only made to authors in the EEA. The sample only covers about 17% of loans, so there is a large margin for error, and as elcreative said authors have to opt in.

The US does not use a PLR system, so only pay for the copy purchased not per loan. The UK pays twice, for the book and for the loans.

[taustin]

Originally Posted by PuxyYunm

I don't quite see how it would legitimize piracy since the intent is to compensate the author; I see piracy as trying to get something for nothing. Note that my suggestion also includes books that have been borrowed.

Your premise seems to be based on the idea that nobody but the author contributes anything whatsoever to the production of the book. No editing, no layout, no marketing, nothing. And therefore deserves no compensation whatsoever for the book.

I have never, once, ever, seen anyone propose splitting their contribution between the author and the publisher. By rights, any such contribution should be split equally, because the publisher contributes about as many man-hours to the average book as the author does. According to at least one professional author, Charlie Stross.

[Worldwalker]

Originally Posted by taustin

I have never, once, ever, seen anyone propose splitting their contribution between the author and the publisher. By rights, any such contribution should be split equally, because the publisher contributes about as many man-hours to the average book as the author does. According to at least one professional author, Charlie Stross.

If it's a paper book, shouldn't we pay the bookstore that sold it, too? After all, they contributed to getting that book to the reader.

And then there's the truck driver who delivered it from the distributor to the bookstore, and the one who took it from the publisher to the distributor. Why are we leaving them out?

Then there are all the employees of the distributor, without whom the book would never have made it from the publisher to the bookstore to the shelf you borrowed it from. We need to pay them, too, every time a different set of eyeballs looks at that book.

If you borrowed the book from your brother, who bought it at a yard sale, where the seller got it from a used bookstore, who took it in trade from an elderly professor, who had it left behind in his office by a graduating student, who got it from a put-and-take shelf, where it came from a guy in the next dorm, whose mother bought it for his birthday (and read it first) ... how many of those people do you need to pay?

And if you got a bookshelf that went through a similar set of hands ... borrowed from your brother, bought at a yard sale, sold by a used furniture store, etc., etc. ... shouldn't you do exactly the same thing for that bookshelf?

Isn't this getting a little ridiculous?

[L.J. Sellers]

Interesting discussion! It never occurred to me to set up a "Donation" button on my website and, truthfully, I'd be embarrassed to do so. I sell my digital books so inexpensively, it's hard to imagine people downloading them for free...yet they do. All I ask is that they tell someone if they like stories. Same with people who borrow from libraries. Just spread the good word.
L.J.

[apbschmitz]

I have to agree with LJ, above. Writers are always struggling to hold on to a few bits of dignity. The idea of a donate button seems a little too tragic. Though if my car mechanic were willing to accept whatever I wanted to pay him, I'd go for it in a heartbeat.

[abookreader]

It might work for an Independent author but I can't imagine any Publisher who holds the distribution rights for a book would sit back for one single second and allow an author to collect funds for that book outside of the normal sales process.

And any author who tried it would likely be forced into being an Independent author for any future books - because who'd give them a book contract after a stunt like that? It's about like the employees at the music store selling bootleg copies of the merchandise out of the trunks of their cars in the store parking lot.

[J. Strnad]

I don't maintain a PayPal account for donation purposes, but you can leave change with the homeless guy who sits outside the Walmart. He's my agent.