sickPoint the First: "Not everyone who illegally downloads your book would have bought it, so you shouldn't act like they would have."
True! That being said, I know enough people who have illegally downloaded books and then bought them, or have told me to my face (or via email) that they were planning to buy the book, only then got it for free, that I feel some consideration of the number of illegal copies is warranted. Just going off what I do know, I tend to assume about one person in ten represents a "lost sale." This accounts for new readers only, not people downloading copies of books they already own.
Point the Second: Downloading copies of books you already own is a morally gray area.
True. I completely understand and sympathize with people who download virtual copies of books they already own. Unfortunately, a) I don't own the e-book rights to my books right now, and thus can't say "sure, have a PDF with proof of purchase," and b) the methods for getting those downloads are non-legal. There's not a private literary speakeasy where you have to send in a photo of yourself with your legal physical copy before you get the download link. And so while I can understand the moral ambiguity of it all, I can't endorse the practice.
Point the Third: It's not piracy, it's copyright infringement.
Okay, true. For precision of language, I should call it copyright infringement. But the people who sometimes post intentionally inflammatory things on message boards aren't actually trolls, they're just being mean. In some cases, the prevailing language of the land is going to win out over precision. I apologize for any confusion.
Point the Fourth: "Does this mean you don't like me because I initially read your book in a sub-legal format?"
Did you buy the book? I mean, really, that's where my concern is here: In whether I can feed the cats. I first discovered the X-Men because my friend Lucy had an older brother who wasn't careful with his comics, and I didn't pay for those, either. As I said above, I can't condone illegal downloading, but once you've paid for the material, I lose all personal animosity.
Point the Fifth: Books and music aren't the same.
Most the research on illegal downloads has been in the music arena, and the numbers aren't the same. According to iTunes, the single song I have listened to the most often is the cover of "Livin' La Vida Loca" by Spork, which I have listened to 342 times. The single book I have read the most often is IT, by Stephen King, which I have read, if guessing generously, eighty times in the last twenty years. Many people don't re-read, or do so only sparingly. So saying that illegal downloads increase sales when you're only looking at music is like saying that breeding mice increases the elephant population.
Point the Sixth: Cory Doctorow does it.
Cory Doctorow is also recognized by my spellchecker, which doesn't recognize my name. He chose to distribute over the Internet, and it worked out awesomely for him. He's also doing Internet-savvy fiction, with a keen edge of interest for the online crowd. I write urban fantasies about women with silly names. We don't have the same target audience; it's mice and elephants again.
I'll come back and participate in the discussion more one on one later. Now? DayQuil and sleep.
Re: Pardon, but you are missing the point
November 5 2010, 04:50:13 UTC 6 years ago
When did that become part of, "What if the people who were okay with reading a novel on their computer screen were asked to give you money directly if they had downloaded the book and liked it enough to keep?" Nothing in that question suggests that Seanan would be sending the person in question a book.
Re: Pardon, but you are missing the point
November 5 2010, 14:14:11 UTC 6 years ago
Let's see.
Complete collection of all FOUR published books.
Copy of every song Seanan has ever recorded.
Seanan McGuire songbook (I've never heard her, but I'm told she's a songwriter).
Cat Hairs - look, I have cats, and it's impossible to keep the damned hairs out of things. I have dogs too, one of which is part husky. Our house is a hairy place :)
Personally signed pieces - I'm sure Seanan would be happy to write:
Rudy,
Love from
Seanan
to someone who'd just sent her lots of money in the mail. If she wouldn't, Alice would. Cats are very mercenary.
Maybe as a joke toss in a 34A bra, and say that Toby left it last time she slept over. Print Toby on it using indelible marker.
Now I'm just brainstorming. Problem is, that I've never meet Seanan. Since my body started falling apart I've stopped going to filk cons, so I don't know her as well as I'd like. She's probably got other neat things that she could throw in a package, or could come up with them, that would make people willing to send her money. I mentioned the compact discs, because I know the economics of filk. If Seanan could sell an extra hundred copies of her latest CD, that would be found money. If the package sold for $100.00, that would be $10,000.00 before costs. If she could keep the costs below $60.00, that would be a $40.00 net, or an additional $4000.00 per year. If she could sell a thousand copies within a year, well, Seanan would probably then be making enough money to write full time. Which means she could write more neat books for me to read.
See, I'm doing this for purely selfish reasons.
[EVIL GRIN]