If i am unable to get to the library and im also not able to afford a book, how does pirating it hurt the author? I was unable to afford the book in the first place so they would never have gotten the revenue from that sale. Also im not trying to like. Twist your words or anything but you seem to be implying that poor people without access to libraries shouldnt read books.
Right. This is the last post Iām making on the topic, because honestly, I have far too much going on in my life right now (to fill in new followers: one dying relative, three recently dead ones, grief coming out the wazoo, care duties for other relatives, a damn PhD) to dedicate any more mental or emotional space to this discussion. I appreciate that people have questions on this, and I honestly think I answered most of them in the post thatās being referenced here, but in the interests of having it all in one place, here we are.
Second disclosure: this ask was not initially sent on anonymous, but Iāve copied and pasted it and sent it to myself anonymously so that I can answer it publicly without people knowing who OP is, because Iāve noticed that some people have been sending incredulous messages to people whoāve defended book wankery on that previous post, and I donāt want to be the cause of that.
So, on a point-by-point basis:
If i am unable to get to the library and im also not able to afford a book, how does pirating it hurt the author?I was unable to afford the book in the first place so they would never have gotten the revenue from that sale.
Because itās theft. Plain and simple. And without meaning to sound unkind, that argument is simply fatuous, because if you apply it to literally any other form of property - letās say a car, because why not - then itās not an argument anyone would make. āIf I wanted a car but wasnāt able to afford it, and I stole it instead, then how does that hurt the car dealership? I wasnāt going to buy it anyway, so they havenāt lost revenue!ā Yes, they have, and yes, an author loses revenue from a stolen copy of their book, because itās a copy of their book in someoneās hands that that person did not pay for. If you just donāt buy it and then donāt steal it, then of course the author hasnāt lost revenue; Ford doesnāt lose income every time I look at one of their cars and donāt purchase it. They do, however, lose income every time I look at one of their cars and drive it off the car lot without paying (please donāt come for me, Ford, this is a hypothetical and I canāt drive).
In fact, for authors it tends to be even more the case, because most people will get a stolen copy of the book from a pirating site where the ebook or pdf has been shared. You arenāt the only person downloading that file, I promise you. Itās never just one lost sale. Itās dozens. Hundreds, even thousands, for more popular books. Thatās the thing about creative work, such as books, art and music. It can be stolen over and over and over again. And it is.
And here is the other thing that most people canāt grasp. Authorsā income is directly, inexorably tied to the number of books they sell. This is not up for debate. Authors are not salaried. We donāt get, say, Ā£4k a year regardless of how many books we shift. Let me explain very briefly. A traditionally published author, i.e. an author who has signed with an agent and / or sold their book to a publishing house, will usually get an advance. This is a one-off payment based on approximately how well the publisher thinks the book is likely to sell. These advances vary wildly in amount. They used to be much bigger. Celebrities can command huge ones, because itās a broken system. A debut author will probably get in the four figures. Thatās all they get until the book āearns outā the advance, i.e. it sells enough copies that the advance has been recouped. After that, the author earns a percentage of sales (royalties).
A self-published / indie author, like me, is someone who doesnāt have a publishing house. We use a print-on-demand or ebook service, like Amazon KDP or Lulu, to make copies of our books. We then get a percentage of each sale, with no advance, and the āpublisherā (i.e. Amazon, Lulu) takes a cut, and the rest of the sale goes towards printing the physical book or delivering the ebook. Our only income comes from each copy of the book sold. This is why we lose income when you pirate a copy; because itās a copy you get from which we get absolutely nothing. Diddly squit. Our hard work is in your hands for you to benefit from, enjoy and consume, and we see absolutely nothing for it.
But wait! I hear you cry. You get exposure, donāt you? Someone new has heard of your book! To which I pat you very firmly on the head, so firmly that your eyes start to water, and I whisper softly in your ear yes, child; an audience who steals from me, and then I walk away. In all seriousness, the āexposureā argument doesnāt hold water. Asda donāt take exposure points when I try and buy milk there. I donāt need to build an audience of people who want my stuff for free. Thatās no use to me whatsoever, unless those people want to do my food shop for me. On the same praxis, donāt repost art without credit, or against the artistās wishes. Itās the exact same principle.
[ā¦] but you seem to be implying that poor people without access to libraries shouldnt read books.
I am begging you on bended knee to see the equivalency here. Youāre essentially accusing me of not understanding the needs of poor people, and of therefore being classist. How do you not see that this also applies to people - book wankers, in this case - who steal the meagre income from authors? Youāre a huge part of the reason that hardly any of us get to write full time. Youāre part of the reason that we canāt make a living off our work. Every time you steal a book, you reduce an authorās ability to pay their rent, to buy food, to pay for travel. You are contributing to our financial woes. You are depleting our income.
Most of us, unless youāre Stephen King or JK Rowling, really donāt make a lot of money from our work. I havenāt ever gone into the profit margins of my book before and Iām not super keen on doing so now, but Iāll tell you that I make a very small amount of money off each book sale. That was my personal choice, because as a first time author I was wary of pricing myself too high. I didnāt have the confidence to ask for more, and Iām not going to raise the price 3 years later. As for how I spend the money, I generally use my royalties to pay for travel to university and to writing research trips, because I donāt drive and rely on trains to get to university, which can be costly. I also use it to buy food. I still live at home so rent isnāt a big concern, luckily; I can put my salary towards that when Iām working at another job. Most authors have many more financial burdens than me. If youāre an author trying to pay your rent and bills and pay for your food, then book wankery is going to be much worse for you than it is for me. If youāre an author with dependents? Good luck to you.
And guess which authors suffer most from the effects of book wankery? Iāll give you a clue: it isnāt single working-middle class cis white able-bodied authors like me. Itās authors of colour, disabled authors, trans authors. Authors whose work about marginalised experiences is too niche for big publishers to risk advances on. Authors who canāt take a second job to supplement their writing income because they have health or access issues. Authors who canāt get a foot in the door of the publishing world because they come from working class backgrounds and donāt have the connections. Authors with children who need food, clothes, daycare and stable housing.
Now tell me again how being against book wankery is classist or proof that I donāt think poor people should be able to read. I am against book wankery because I believe that poor authors should be able to earn a living from their work and not have their shit stolen. Iām annoyed when it happens to me as an individual, because it peeves me off to have my hard work essentially waved away with a flick of the wrist and a wry well, I like it, but not enough to pay for it. Thatās annoying, and hurtful, and frustrating, and yes, it diminishes my already small income, but at least Iām not going to be homeless due to it at this point.
Iām livid, however, when it happens to authors who have more to lose than me. Authors who have literally lost publishing deals because they couldnāt prove enough sales to publish the sequel in a planned trilogy, because so many copies were stolen that it looked like no-one read it. Authors who have fallen behind on rent payments. Authors who have to rely on an unreliable net of benefits / social security because their income is being eroded. This isnāt a case of book wankery having no real world effects, because it does. Iām fortunate to be able to avoid most of them simply by definition of my privilege in other fields.
I donāt think that poor people shouldnāt be able to read books (or to rephrase without the double negative, I think that poor people should be able to read books). I just think that within the capitalist society we live in, and with the current (outdated, horrible, unfit for purpose) income model of the publishing industry, we need to consider who weāre actually hurting when we pirate books, because I promise you that itās not the Big Corporate Bosses. Borrow a book from a friend, because at least that copy was paid for initially. Ditto a secondhand bookstore, where you might be able to pick it up for like Ā£2. Heck, wait until it comes on a huge sale and buy it then. There are alternatives. Consider them first.
This is the last post Iāll be making on the topic, because I really need to not keep talking about this for my own sanity. Please donāt defend book piracy on this post. I have had it up to my proverbial eyeballs. I am just one human. I canāt keep having the same conversation over and over again, like shouting into a void. Itās draining. Thanks for understanding.
