New Books versus Used

[bluedolfyn]

Why I think it's important to buy fiction new when I can afford to.One of these things I go back and forth about, because on the one hand, I think reusing and recycling is important, but on the other hand, as I writer myself, it's important to me to do my part to support fellow writers. Nothing really new in the article, just a good reminder and

Comments

[witchchild]

Truth. Though at this point there are not a lot of authors I make it a priority to buy as soon as they come out. Now it's just LJS (why yes I have all the news reprints... oh, cept for the VD with the TV cast on the cover, color me purist), Anne Bishop, Yasmine Galenorn, and for the moment the House of Night series. And then of course there's the music buying.

[bluedolfyn]

Anne Bishop's stuff is weird. Well, no, actually, her stuff is a lot like LJS's stuff, for me: I tend to like the older stuff the best, and it goes downhill from there.

I'm thinking I may need to get a "reading copy" of the Vampire Diaries again. Watching the show has me really wanted to reread the books (which, while will be fun, is sort of amusing too as, you know, I pretty much have them memorized.) Don't really want the show-reprints.

Have you read Marjorie Liu? I almost like her stuff enough to want to keep reading the series, but not quite. May buy it anyway.

Ah, music. I miss music. *sigh* I never seem to make it a priority. It's been years since I've purchased new music.

[witchchild]

I bought one of Liu's books last year, I think last time I saw you and B. Never read it and actually sent it to mandyann last week.

Music keeps me alive. I keep purging stuff then also getting new to me stuff. nice cycle.

[jemany]

I dunno jo. Doesn't that kind of miss the point of the whole thing? I clicked through to Amanda Palmer's blog post (I love Neil naturally but haven't got around to making my mind up completely about her - she may be too out there for my tastes but she's interesting) and her point, along with that author chick's, seems to boil down to the fact that it makes no real difference how you actually experience the material. The important thing is to try and find a way of supporting the artist who produced it if you feel so inclined. A few 5 dollar (or whatever) direct donations from fans who enjoy the material are a lot more useful in providing an income than a bunch of people who buy a new full price or discounted book/cd/dvd in a chain store or online from amazon and their ilk. Neil Gaiman always promotes a slightly different point in putting forward the idea that giving stuff away for free (although in clever ways) will actually promote sales and exposure to the material therefore leading to increased income through the more traditional

[bluedolfyn]

In all honesty, I only read Kiernan's blog in full which is why I linked to her post and not Amanada's. I did try to get through hers as well, but the morning was rushed at that point, I'm not familiar with her work, and the badly structured-ness of her article was too poor for me to read easily. I do think that supporting artists one enjoys in any way that they can is important, and I do love the direct-to-you approach many are taking. Specifically, though, I was talking about writers rather than other types of artists, and the whole new versus used book buying, because it's something that I deal with a lot myself -- which is better to do? While I'm not well off by any means, we're no longer pinching pennies and can afford to buy books new again. While I understand that even going a traditional route with that means the authors don't typically see a lot of that money, I still think it's important for me to buy new books when I can

[jemany]

I know where you're coming from and I realise maybe I sounded a bit rude the way I said about missing the point which wasn't my intention! I must admit I don't have any real personal interest in this issue as I'm not a creative person so while I do consume music and literature and such it doesn't have the same impact on me it would on you for instance. I do find it kind of an interesting issue though. I guess what I meant to illustrate is that in actual fact these days it may make the most sense to buy second hand or rent from the library and then possibly donate, say two dollars or something direct to said artist if that's possible. That way the consumer pays less but the creator still receives more. It was just something it made me think of, especially when it was well illustrated how little royalties the writer gets. Of course, then we could get into the issue of how much of that purchase price typically goes to support other, necessary jobs, like say at the printing presses or ink factories or whatever. I have no idea really. It