Late to the posting today, but better late than never.
Confluence of events:
A conversation in the library today with my seniors about how they are NOT going to download the film/s they are studying for their upcoming essay, but instead they ARE going to spring the $10-$20 to buy the friggin film through iTunes. A complaint: But I’m only going to watch the movie once! My response? Yeah, and you only eat an apple once, but I don’t see you stealing that.
A delightful, amazing facebook message to find, wherein someone let me know they had gotten their local library to order in copies of my books and had them on hold to read, and was I okay with this because they were worried I might not be. (Spoiler: I send them a heart-eyes gif.)
A facebook post of a tweet by Australian author Glenda Larke, who notes that while she used to be able to make a living on her writing, due to piracy she no longer can. Comments from at least two other authors on said post (including the esteemed Jackie French, of Diary of a Wombat fame) corroborating this trend.
A thought:
It’s really easy to get a book for free. You download it from the internet and the author doesn’t get paid, the publisher doesn’t track the sale, the author’s sales look bad, and the author isn’t offered future contracts from other publishers.
It’s really easy to get a book for free. You walk into a public library, sign up for a free library card, and ask them to order it in. At least in Australia, you can even do this with ebooks – yes, our public libraries have ebook lending programs. The library buys a copy, the author gets paid, the publisher tracks the sale, other people can read the book for free in the library and potentially go on to become fans of the author’s work, the library might track the popularity of the book and ask the author in for an event, generating more readers, more sales, and more interest, all of which the publisher tracks, and the author gets offered future contracts for books.
I think you see where I’m going with this.
The summary:
If you downloaded it for free off the internet (and not through a paid subscription service like Kindle Unlimited), the author didn’t get paid. You’re stealing it. If you’re the kind of person who does this, STOP, and get yourself a library card. If you’re not the kind of person who does this, THANK YOU, and please make sure your friends know that downloading things free off the internet means the author doesn’t get paid.
<3 <3 <3 <3 <3