[Just Joshin] The Currency of Democracy

Information is the currency of democracy.
Thomas Jefferson

Last weekend there was a message on one of the discussion lists I
belong to directing us all to a post regarding the Ebook Reader’s Bill
of Rights -- with the addendum to take our blood pressure medicine. I
read the post, and frankly -- although if this surprises you, you don’t
know me very well -- I agreed with nearly every point in it. Libraries
and librarians are not the enemy, Mssrs. Macmillan and S&S. Far from
it. Libraries are a good and valuable thing, both for readers and for
writers. I support my local libraries in every way I know -- with
monetary donations, with free books, and with my time.

the fact that I need to say this indicates to me how truly confused
matters have become in the publishing world. Blame it on technology.
The reason I’m not linking to that Ebook Reader’s Bill of Rights post,
and that I can’t actively get behind it and support it, all comes down
to one small, but I think crucial, passage. It was an afterthought for
the author (a librarian -- clearly a thoughtful and conscientious
fellow), but it’s kind of an important one for me as someone who makes
a living writing fiction.

My primary concern is less about re-selling and more in regard to
people being given control over their own reading content. While I’m
hesitant to engage in what may be construed as hyperbole, I appeal to
you to consider the emotional connections to your own personal
libraries and the importance of every book that you have selected to be
a part of it. I would implore authors to consider how they would
consider outside removals or modifications on your own book
collections. Ownership matters, quite frankly, and it is an expression
of intellectual pride.

Now the blogger is looking at this as a librarian. That’s not a
criticism, he’s not a pirate and it probably hasn’t occurred to him
that there’s serious money to be made in illegal third party reselling
-- and that it comes at the expense of the author. What I did detect --
what I frequently detect in these discussions -- is a kind of
impatience with authors who have problems with being pirated. In fact,
the post that I responded to was an additional post directed at writers
spelling out for them (in a somewhat chiding tone) why wholesale
sharing of their work was actually a great idea.

I think the jury is still out on whether wholesale sharing -- viral
sharing -- is a good thing or not. Viral sharing that doesn’t
eventually lead to book sales is not a good thing for authors who need
to make a living at their writing. The whole argument in favor of
allowing libraries and readers to share is supposed to be that it will
bring new readers to an author. But if those readers are not -- at some
point -- paying for the work, then it doesn’t actually do the author
any good.

You see, while authors do write for themselves and for the pleasure of
writing, part of the decision to publish -- to put ourselves through
the hell of the publishing process -- is to make money at writing.
Otherwise we would be content writing for ourselves and a handful of
friends. If we are merely writing for the love of writing, there is no
need to share our work with the rest of the world. None. I mean, I’ve
got as much ego as the next artist, and I love to hear from readers,
but I also need to pay the mortgage.

I’ve actually seen discussion threads on torrent sites where irate
pirates say things like (apparently with no sense of irony) if authors
are just in it for the money, fuck ‘em! There are plenty of other good
authors and good books out there.

Yes! Please. Please shower your attention on other good authors and
other good books. Because if all the sharing ultimately leads to more
sharing…in the not-so-distant-end, the only people writing books will
be amateurs and the independently wealthy.

That’s the part that gets to me. I’m not seeing any long term
consideration of what unlimited mass sharing might mean for authors. In
fact, it feels like I’m being told to shut up and get back to work. But
if it affects authors…hello! It affects readers. Whether you choose to
believe it or not, authors are the integral piece of this puzzle. You
remove authors from the equation, and all your other concerns become
moot.

For a long time I bought into the idea that ebook pirating wasn’t
really a problem. And it is true that a large percentage of downloaded
books are never read, the goal is simply to share and acquire. But I’ve
also seen threads where readers are bewailing the fact that my work has
been removed from various torrent sites. As in…my life is over, what
will I do now that I can’t get Josh’s books?

No, I’m not kidding. The fact that my books are for sale everywhere was
apparently not even a consideration. PAY FOR BOOKS????? Why not just
advocate child labor in third world countries and killing baby seals?
I’ve seen my work -- my entire body of work -- carefully scanned and
collected in a digital file and sold on different sites. Sold. As in
offered multiple times on mirror sites.

I’ve seen and heard people boasting that they never pay for books.
Never.

(And that fills them with pride…why? Since when is stealing from
artists a noble act?)

I’m not blaming libraries for any of this, my point is simply that
authors have legitimate worries and that those worries need to be
addressed, not dismissed as the fantasies of over-inflated egos or
paranoid delusions of the misinformed. Just as libraries are not the
problem, neither are authors. I think authors and libraries are on the
same side, even if they don’t always realize it. But technology has
changed a lot of the rules we used to play by, and it’s going to take
some rethinking -- and a little imagination -- on everyone’s part to
get what we all need to survive in this brave new world.