Reading, Writing and Moolah

[rachel_west]

There’s been a bit of a discussion going on among some Dreamspinner authors lately about people who find ways to read our stuff for free, either by downloading it from P2P filesharing sites or by visiting mainstream sites that make a significant portion of the books available online prior to purchase. To be honest, neither of these phenomena have

Comments

[noelleleithe]

See, I'm mostly with all of this. My issue isn't that filesharing exists; as you said, it's really no different from passing a hard-copy book along. Or making someone a mixtape. (Hee.) And yeah, I used Napster back in the day, like everyone else did

[rachel_west]

My primary problem is with the level at which mainstream businesses (like Google, which started the discussion, as well as brick-and-mortar bookstores that let people read unpurchased product) are allowing people to use the media they're selling for free. That's someone's work, and often their livelihood, and they deserve to be paid for it.Sure, but again, that's something that has gone on forever. Musicians allow their songs to be played on the radio for free even though someone might record it and then not buy the single. Because the promotional advantage of getting the music heard outweighs that risk. I guess I just have trouble viewing it as a zero sum game, as though x number of people getting the book (or part of the book) for free means x fewer purchasers. Because it could be that those folks never would have read it at all if it weren't free, and now that they have, they're interested in more. You know? I'm never going to know the actual numbers on this, but my money's on this stuff being a benefit overall. And even if it

[noelleleithe]

Musicians (well, songwriters and music publishers) do get paid when songs are played on the radio. Not much (and the amounts vary), but it adds up over time. :)

And yeah, like I said, it may be a benefit overall. It still grates on me to see it being done on such a large scale. (And that goes along with separate issue of Google Books claiming they only show 20% of the book when we've found at least some where most of the book is available.)

And I still won't read books in bookstores. :D

[rachel_west]

Musicians (well, songwriters and music publishers) do get paid when songs are played on the radio.

Quite right, poorly stated on my part. What I meant was that it's free for the listener - that musicians allow a situation to take place in which people listen to their music without paying for it. Even though they know that some might record that music and not buy a single that they otherwise might have. That's all.

I'm so enjoying your icon for this conversation. I feel very at peace. :)

[josephine_myles]

Thank you for this. I too was a Napster user back in the day... and I've got to admit to having downloaded the odd torrent of British tv shows. I would love to be able to buy everything on DVD but I really don't have the budget. However, I have definitely bought the DVDs of shows I've really loved, despite already having them on the pc

[rachel_west]

Glad to hear I'm not the only one who feels this way! We should form a group or something -- Napster Vets Unite On Generally Okay but Kind of Conflicted Feelings About Filesharing. Or something. :)

[rachel_west]

What a sweet thing to say! And it's great hearing that others feel the same way I do. Thank you so much for letting me know.