For a little while I actually followed today's little flare up and found it rather interesting, in a been there done that sort of way. Authors jump to conclusions and readers get annoyed. There's a new concept *rolls eyes*
Fifteen years ago a friend (the owner of our local UBS) went to an RT convention and was blasted for selling used books by a VERY popular author at that time. Not exactly the same thing, but it sounds rather similiar, doesn't it?
Can anyone take a middle of the road approach to this?
Authors need to realize readers share books, whether it's print or ebook. Isn't it more important to be read by more people, hopefully this will guarantee more sales in the future.
And readers need to realize that authors especially mid-list ones rely on book royalties to pay their bills, writing is their job, just like being a bookkeeper is mine.
In this case it seemed the authors in question were over reacting, but a little sensitivity on both sides would go a very long way.
7 comments:
OMG - so with you on this one. By the time I saw the DA post, there were already like 50 bajillion comments (OK, so it was more like 60-something *g*) and honestly I didn't have the energy today to wade into the fray.
Authors are always going to want readers to buy their books new. That's just the way it is. Hell, if I was an author I'd feel the same way! But readers love to share books. We just do. And none of us really want to give that up. I've long felt that until that issue is "resolved" in terms of e-books, digital publishing will never take off.
I should rephrase that last bit. Certainly digital publishing HAS taken off. It's grown by leaps and bounds in just the past couple of years. What I meant to say is that I doubt any kind of world domination until the issue of "sharing" and "swapping" is somehow resolved in a manner where readers can do it legally without being labeled as scumbag pirates.
Wendy, I'm not sure any of this is resolvable. Honestly, I think it's great that Amazon allows more than one person to download on the same account. We do share books, this is going to happen and they recognize it.
There was one author who posted a comment that instead of thinking she lost 5 sales, she appreciated she had 1 sale. That was nicely done.
And I also think we, as readers, need to be more sensitive to the published authors' situation. Wasn't it Sara Donati/Rosanna Lippini that had to go back to work inorder to help support her family. How many published authors work and write?
Holy Cow the post is up to 209 comments--LOL
The author with the classy response and the very nice apology (even though I don't believe she was involved in the initial name calling) was Susanna Kearsley. Very nicely done!
I agree - it's the polarizing on both sides that I find frustrating. Some authors overreact - so what - we all do on something that's close to us. Readers jump on them as if they themselves have never done the same thing. Bad feelings are held all around. Instead I say concentrate on the things we have in common - love of romance - writers for writing it and readers for reading it.
Kristie--when I look at almost all the brouhahas on-line, I'm ususally left wondering in the grand scheme of life is this really that important??
Susanna Kearsley is one classy woman.
Post a Comment