Thread by @DrPetra

Affordable books are important. Having books available in the library so students can access for free is vital. But pdfs of books mean people don't get sales/royalties. Those might not be much but for many authors they mean a *lot*.

There's a huge grift here where academic publishers make £££ whatever but authors are made to feel bad for earning royalties, shamed by privileged academics who can write for a hobby and not notice if they make no income. It's marginalised authors especially that suffer.

But also the huge costs of books students are burdened with is unfair, especially to those facing hardship. Easy to see why students wrongly believe academic authors are minted. The answer is to make books accessible and affordable while fairly rewarding writers for their labour.

While writing books does count as career progression in some fields students are often surprised to learn in many disciplines it doesn't count at all. So when I write books it's to pass on as much information I can to help others. If that work's pirated, what's the point?

It would really help if academics encouraged libraries to stock electronic copies of their books - you get royalties, students get access. And also if we explain why we've set course texts and how publishing works (including why sharing pirated pdfs can be a problem).

btw for all the open access fans out there, we need to have a conversation about how we pay writers for their time, skill and expertise and account for those who are not in universities that can cover access costs.

A lot of our divisions in (and outside) academia would reduce if more people knew how publishing and academia works, making fairer ways to support students, and noting most academics aren't rich. At a time when sharing information is vital there's decreasing incentives to do so.