A certain blurring of categories, perhaps
I have noticed, over the last couple of weeks or so, outcries mostly on Twitter about ebook piracy. And certainly I have some feelings on this as I have noticed that there appear to be sites out there offering downloads of my own very modestly-priced works, what is this that this is even?
But this has segued, for some writers, it would seem, into getting very aereated over people who buy books secondhand or in charity shops or in some other way do not buy them new in such a way as to impact on the author's sales figures.
And I will concede that I have a fairly short list of authors whose books I will buy when they come out in hardback or at hardback/trade paper equivalent ebook prices.
I will also remark that there are several writers whose works I first encountered via the sixpenny box outside the secondhand bookshop, on the remainder table, as ARCs on the sale shelf, in charity shops, as free offers, etc etc, whose subsequent works, or back catalogue, as a result, I then went about to acquire at full new price or who I put on my preorder list.
One may also perhaps allude to those works that people have encountered via such means which have engendered in them a sufficient enthusiasm that the works get republished to a new lease of life.
I can't help thinking that this is a bit like the 'trashy books and guilty reading pleasures' thing and the important thing is actually to get people into the notion of buying books and owning books rather than policing the means of acquisition. This entry was originally posted at https://oursin.dreamwidth.org/2803928.html. Please comment there using OpenID. View
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