Book Swapping, Who Benefits?
Submitted by mwilliams on Sun, 2008-05-04 14:27.Environmentally friendly and guilt free, book swapping sites are hugely popular. Aside from the obvious benefits for the trees, book swapping introduces readers to authors they normally wouldn’t have chanced. Not actually purchasing the book apparently lends freedom to the process of choosing the next read. But some authors, such as Jeanette Winterson, are not so keen on the idea.
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Oh brother! Not the "authors don't get a cut of the sales" argument again! Mixed with the "you can't do this with music" addendum. Authors don't get unlimited ownership of their works, and they shouldn't. If these people had their way, we'd have to pay a cut to them whenever we wrote a paper comparing their writing to someone else's, or even had a thought about them.
Rat's Reading - http://reading.kingrat.biz/
Why not with music? Swapping CDs can be done. You can't prevent people from making copies, but you can swap the original discs as much as you like. I guess albums have more "replay value" than books but that's the way things are.
Authors who think they're morally entitled to getting a cut out of book swapping are greedy assholes! Hear that Jeanette? Don't publish at all if you don't like people reading what you write! What's the next thing, closing public libraries and installing DRM devices in book covers that permanently link a book to the DNA profile of the first reader, huh?
Greed...
With ebooks and digital reading devices, authors can technically kill book swapping. Let's pray those things never come in fashion!
The scary part is, I've read articles about some authors complaining about this that might support that DNA plan. Be careful what you suggest! ;)
Renay - http://bottle-of-shine.livejournal.com
Scratch my comment regarding libraries, she says on her blog that she gets 2 p every time a book is lent there. Apparently she wants to "tax" book swapping networks in a similar fashion. I don't see anything wrong in book swapping sites sharing advertising revenue with authors but it has to be done voluntarily and something the readers suggest, rather than something desperate authors force on them.
Only in the U.K. She doesn't get a cent when libraries in the U.S. lend books.
Rat's Reading - http://reading.kingrat.biz/
I think what I hate most about these articles is that I find out authors I'm interested in reading are more concerned with selling their books and money than with people actually reading and enjoying them, which skeeves me out. I get that they have to make money, but wow, way to turn off readers by basically saying "I really don't want you to read this unless you buy it."
The comparison between digital files and a hard copy of a book is ridiculous and shows an ignorance about technology that's pretty much unacceptable these days. As if people were slaving in their basements over a homemade printing press!
Renay - http://bottle-of-shine.livejournal.com
Also, physical books have a lifetime. You can't read them too many times, the spine will crack eventually. That means books will be sold, not one sale per reader but probably around one sale per ten readers. If that's technically the same as filesharing, Winterson must be on crack.
This is Jeanette Winterson's original post:
http://www.jeanettewinterson.com/pages/content/index.asp?PageID=378