In that scenario you are walking into a friend’s room and asking to take a book, and they are answering ‘Yes, you can keep my copy.’ (Let’s face it, you don’t give it back.)
There’s no friend here—there is someone giving away thousands of free copies that the writer and their publisher have not authorised.
Writer writes a book—sells it to a publisher to publish it—publisher publishes it and generates copies to be bought—library buys copy and loans it out because it’s the library’s copy and that’s OK—or person, maybe your friend, buys copy, friend loans it out and that’s OK. It’s her copy.
The writer sold the right to make copies to their publisher, and nobody else. It’s the writer’s book—the writer produced it with a great deal of effort, without the writer it wouldn’t exist.
So pirating a book is more like the pirate going into the writer (who they don’t know)’s house, saying, ‘Hey, this looks cool, I’m going to take it, okay?’ and the writer saying ‘No, please, please don’t’ and the pirate replying ‘I don’t care, and I’m taking it anyway.’
‘Illegal downloads are, indeed, probably eating a small percentage of your book sales. But I don’t think there’s a one-to-one ratio of “books pirated" to “books not purchased" the way many authors seem to assume.’
I agree with you and I never said I assumed that. Some people who pirate the book would never have bought it. Some people would have.
Some people cannot afford to have a percentage of their book sales eaten. Neil Gaiman certainly can. Neil Gaiman, in this situation, may well be saying ‘Yes, you can borrow my copy.’
Neil Gaiman can have one view on the topic, and I can have another. It’s worth noting, I think, that Neil Gaiman is a multimillionaire and does not ever have to worry about his next book not getting published. He can afford lost sales, and to regard them in any way he wants. Neil Gaiman can ask his publisher to give away one of his books free for a time, and his publisher will do it—most people’s publisher would never do it. Neil Gaiman has his books advertised, discounted, put before thousands of people in a way most people’s books never are. Neil Gaiman’s career was well-established before the digital revolution. Neil Gaiman is not speaking from a typical position. Neil Gaiman is in a position of power. Neil Gaiman is very privileged.
And who is more likely to have their book in a library or bookshop, so it is convenient when you ‘need something to read tomorrow’? Neil Gaiman. If it’s a struggling author, they are less likely to have their books in the library or the bookshop when you need something to read tomorrow—so their books are more likely to be pirated. It is something to consider, that it’s much easier to hurt those who are struggling—and that people do it more.
The people suffering most from this are struggling authors, not mega bestsellers. I think that’s something to keep in mind. (Though I also don’t think it’s okay to go to a mega bestseller’s house and take the book if the mega bestseller also says ‘No, please don’t.’)
Seanan McGuire *is* an awesome author. She’s made awesome posts about internet piracy.
http://seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com/288301.html
http://seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com/493792.html
I’m really glad that you have bought ten of her books. I’m really sad about the people who pirated one, and then said ‘wow they’re awesome’ and pirated the rest.
If Seanan McGuire or any author I loved had to stop writing a series that I loved due to poor sales, I’d be mad at those people, because they do exist.
It is a complicated, complicated situation. I would like e-books to be shareable, once someone has bought a copy, among at least a certain number of friends who don’t live close to each other. I would love one of my books to be given away in a special promotion. I have several times, and now again, given free permission to any teen who is forbidden books with GLBTQ content in them—pirate mine away, and I hope they help you, and I wish I could have done better for you, and my thoughts are with you. But those for whom it’s just more convenient to pirate my book, because they don’t have it in the library—well, I wish they would think twice.
Let me close with a quote from Seanan McGuire—‘I am a human too.’ That’s what writers are trying to say: to make people think of the hurt to, and the cost to, other people.
dededos
snowghoul
theartofmadeline
2087
germansingergirl
stormborns
blakekathryn
