DruidicCupcakes t1_jduqclc wrote
Just a reminder that your average author is not wealthy, and if you enjoy a book series, pirating it can actually hurt an author’s chance at getting more work published if sales aren’t high enough.
Further if you take a book out from a library, the author still gets paid, and while ebook licenses obviously need to be thrown out the window like the garbage they are, IA’s model isn’t the answer either.
Consoledreader t1_jdutmoe wrote
Exactly. As a librarian I believe in more access to knowledge, information, and books, but at the same time I have some published authors as friends and when this story about the potential lawsuit first broke, they went to check if their works were available through IA, found out it was, and they were livid about e-copies of their books being available to borrow for free by unlimited amounts of people.
Negative-Net-9455 t1_jdvhq4v wrote
You should tell them to get Neil Gaiman to explain it to them.
ngpropman t1_jdw73wo wrote
Step one be incredibly successful and wealthy like Neil Gaiman.
Negative-Net-9455 t1_jdw7h1n wrote
I'd say step one is to be a good writer, like Neil Gaiman.
ngpropman t1_jdw7rbc wrote
Tons of good writers don't reach the level of success he has and he is my favorite author.
Negative-Net-9455 t1_jdw9wmr wrote
Yup, and tons of not very good writers become successful and wealthy. The point being, whilst piracy might affect direct sales of a particular book, there's good evidence to suggest it leads to people going and buying more books by that author. This in turn leads me to believe that piracy might piss off the publishing industry when they heavily market a particular book(s) but there's probably a net financial gain for individual authors across all their work.
albertnormandy t1_jdv2x32 wrote
Reddit hivemind says piracy isn’t stealing and that authors are asking for it by making ebooks.
Sad_Objective_9394 t1_jdvhgwl wrote
So much this.
How would you like to have your work stolen and not get paid for it?
None of us would want to work for free, why do we expect authors to?
Arctic__Fox t1_jdv3ytb wrote
Huh. I always was under the impression that royalties weren’t earned on library lending. Interesting to learn about this.
hawkxp71 t1_jdv5njz wrote
They don't ON the lend. They do ON the single library purchase.
Arctic__Fox t1_jdv7pip wrote
I’m referring to the UK Public Lending Rights Scheme of 1979 which supposedly does lead to royalties per loan.
hawkxp71 t1_jdv9aey wrote
OK. I was talking in the US, for printed books. Since this article was based on a us lawsuit
smallstuffedhippo t1_jdvh4e6 wrote
As I’ve commented up-thread to someone else, the IA made books available worldwide, so they defrauded authors globally, as the UK isn’t the only country to pay authors per loan.
VirusTimes t1_jdvhc3t wrote
I’m sure this still holds true, but finding books online has certainly resulted in me buying more books. If I enjoy a book I’m reading I almost always buy a hardback copy. I don’t think I would have bought many (realistically almost all of them) without having read them partially before. It feels like the digital equivalent of reading part of a book in the bookstore.
Suprematic_Cube t1_jdzg18h wrote
It's alright. Not only an average author from my personal library isn't wealthy, poor fella is as dead as a doornail too!
CptNonsense t1_jdurixk wrote
>Just a reminder that your average author is not wealthy, and if you enjoy a book series, pirating it can actually hurt an author’s chance at getting more work published if sales aren’t high enough.
Attacking the ability to resell products you own is some take.
DruidicCupcakes t1_jduvaai wrote
That’s definitely not what I was saying, nor is that what IA is doing.
CptNonsense t1_jduxsy1 wrote
It's not what the IA is doing or what you meant, but is 100% what you said and another major bugbear of the publishing industry
DruidicCupcakes t1_jdv1jde wrote
Username checks out.
CptNonsense t1_jdv2ifk wrote
Why? Because I pointed out your entire argument applies to the resell market? Ok, penguin & Schuster.
hawkxp71 t1_jdv5utz wrote
Only if you exclude their second paragraph.
They acknowledge the author only gets paid once, but that is better than zero.
The resale market is not the same as the piracy market.
CptNonsense t1_jdvpluc wrote
>Only if you exclude their second paragraph.
No, including the second paragraph. The author never makes any money from resells or the used book market.
>They acknowledge the author only gets paid once, but that is better than zero.
But not as good as "every sale", which is what publishers want.
>The resale market is not the same as the piracy market.
According to other people crying about the money authors aren't making (ie, publishers), it totally is
DruidicCupcakes t1_jdy7gzt wrote
I’m just a bit confused where you thought I was talking about the resale market at all.
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