Another day, another pirate site deciding that they're entitled to distribute my books for free, and that adding a "tee hee, leave an Amazon review, it's the right thing to do after you get a free copy" disclaimer makes it all better.
You know...this really chaps my cheese. Because these sites, they always want to make themselves out to be the heroes. They are Robbing the Rich to Feed the Poor.
I am not the goddamn rich here, people. I am the "shop at Target, wait for sales, get super-excited when London broil drops to $2.88 a pound, save all year for anything bigger than some nice new dice" lower middle class.
(I have been the poor. I have eaten the part of the bread where the mold isn't yet, and made the decision between deodorant and toothpaste, because you can't buy both. I will not claim to be the poor.)
And I guess you could go "well, your PUBLISHER is the rich," but my publisher is also a BUSINESS. If no one buys my books because everyone is downloading them illegally for free, my publisher will decide I am no longer a viable commodity, and stop publishing me.
THAT'S HOW THIS WORKS. Publishers publish books they think will make them (and the author) money; the books sell, everyone gets money, everyone is happy; the books don't sell, the publisher tries something else.
"But Seanan, what about those studies that prove illegal downloads don't hurt sales?" You mean the studies that, by sheer volume, focus almost entirely on visual and audio media?
When I was in high school, in the baby days of Napster and file sharing, everyone I know downloaded music illegally. They fell in love with music illegally. We didn't really understand why this was different from the radio.
But--and here's the thing--the repeat value of music is different from the repeat value of a book. The single most-listened-to song in my iTunes right now is "Mr. Jones," by the Counting Crows. 503 listens.
503 listens just since I started using this specific iTunes library file. That is...so many. On the flip side, the book I have re-read the most, IT, by Stephen King, currently stands at somewhere around thirty complete repeats.
Thirty vs. 503. And I have well over a dozen songs with listens in the high 300s. I do not have well over a dozen books with re-reads in the high twenties. The repeat value of books is different.
If someone gave me a mix tape or a download link with a single awesome song, I really WAS likely to try to buy the album, because I didn't have the rest of the awesome. No one downloads just a single illegally posted chapter of a book.
And yes, some people who download illegally were never going to be customers anyway. That is absolutely, totally, 100% true. Books cost money; people have different priorities for their money; the world is a dumpster fire right now.
Why should people be worrying about artists getting paid when the world is a dumpster fire? I mean, isn't art too important for that?
No. No it is not. Because my cats don't know that the world is a dumpster fire. They know that they're hungry when I don't feed them, and cold when I don't pay the electric bill to heat the house.
Please. If you can't afford the books you want to read, do everyone a massive favor and use your local library. Using the library helps them to keep their budget, and is a free, viable way of reading damn near anything you want.
"Tee-hee leave an Amazon review it's the least you can do after getting a free copy" can eat my ENTIRE ass. "A free copy" is a book I, or my publisher, gives away on purpose. An illegal download may be free, but it's jerk-move free. It's uncool free.
Remember that the artists whose work you love are often living on the razor's edge of financial ruin, and please, seek another way.
Thank you.
Thank you.
