” It doesn’t help the author any but when it comes to e-books. I’m cheap. If it’s a new release and IF I really, REALLY want it. I’ll go as high as ten bucks. That’s it… I absolutely refuse to pay the same price for ebooks that I would for a hardback. I’m pretty cheap when it comes to hardbacks too. I VERY seldom buy first run books. But if I do, I can be convinced to go all the way to twenty-five dollars- but that’s only if it’s really nice and so new the ink isn’t dry yet.
I never pay that much for authors I don’t know. If I’m following an author, sometimes I open my wallet.
I haunt the bargain bin at used bookstores- no money for the author in that…
I do book swaps- still no money for the author in that…
and I also… HUSH… download- no money for the author in that – oh and it’s technically illegal but that little detail doesn’t bother me much.
If these avenues of cheap books weren’t open to me, I still wouldn’t be buying a lot of books. What I would do is use my public library more often. That’s what we did when I was a kid we were poor. We went to the library. I’m a taxpayer. If I couldn’t download it. I’d get it from the library. If I couldn’t download it, swap it, buy it used or get it from the library, I wouldn’t read it.

Very, very seldom would a new author ever get any money from me.

That said. I started to wonder how I do find new authors. These days this site turns me on to a lot of different authors. I see what other people are reading and try them out.
The other big way is short stories in anthologies. I do buy anthologies and sometimes nice, pretty new ones in big bookstores.
Product placement works. If another book is in the same pile as a book I already know I like.
Endorsements work. If one of my favorite authors has a blurb that says this book is great, I’ll take a look at it. But it has to be an endorsement from some author I know. An endorsement from Joe Smith Magazine weekly doesn’t work for me.
When I used to shop Amazon a lot, they had a cool sales pitch. They’d say “customers who bought this product also bought THIS product…” Sometimes that would get me to take a look.

I ALMOST bought several books recently. Ah but I didn’t… I was able to get all of them from other people.
I ordered another ereader instead.

Every author ought to let it be known that “sharing” is not cool, even if they aren’t much affected.

I know of authors who lost contracts to sell rights-reverted works because publishers discovered that a book they were initially eager buy had been widely pirated

I know of authors who sold a dozen or so legal copies on their new book’s release day, and who found thousands being shared on pirate sites at the same time.

There are parasite sites that make money by telling the public that the books are “freely available”, and charging a download fee, or membership fee… of course the “complimentary” books were not given away with the consent of the authors.

1) Is the book available legally in digital format? If the answer is no, my decision is to borrow from the library or look in one of our used bookstores. Some people would go to the darknet. No one is making any money off of either of these decisions.

2) Is the digital book available in a format my e-book reader supports? I did not buy a Kindle because I wanted to borrow electronically from our library–and Kindle file formats are not supported. However, some books are only available in Kindle format (for example, novels by Saul Bellow). My choices are to buy from Amazon, strip the DRM and load onto my e-book reader, (something of a gray area in my country), buy a second device, or read on my phone or computer using Amazon software. I could also visit the darknet for a version I can read on my e-book reader.

3. Book is available digitally in a format I can use, but geo-restrictions prevent me from purchasing it. I can violate the terms of use of the electronic bookstore, pay my money, and buy the book anyway using various techie tricks. I can visit the darknet. The library/used bookstore analog option also exists.

All I want to do is read a great book. I do not use the darknet, Why does the current system make that so difficult? Why does it force honest people who are more than happy to pay for e-books navigate through all these hoops in order to do it?

That’s an interesting point that not having an e-edition available actually promotes piracy. Time I got my backlist digitized!

For instance in NZ we cannot download an eBbook from amazon because of the DRM – thye won’t work in NZ. Are publishers going to make DRM that can be used world wide?

Four things are against authors and publishers:

1. The mentality of “digital is free”.
2. The unavailability of an ebook when the paperback or hardback has been released.
3. Price.
4. Author and publisher apathy.

As far as the mentality of digital being free, could someone please come up with a Digital Doesn’t Mean Free banner and small logo? I’d post it all over my website and blog and I know other people would, too.

I think we need to wage an advertising campaign. Digital Doesn’t Mean Free seems like a good place to start.

Ebook Not Available

I’ve read, many times, (from the pirate’s mouth) that they’re scanning printed books. It doesn’t matter if the ebook is available, there are commercial quality scanning programs available for free or a nominal cost. Oh, and they congratulate each other on what a good job they did at “editing” the books.

Pricing

Another problem is pricing. If, as I’ve read from many sources, an ebook is only licensed to a reader – and it’s not possible to share or sell it – then why is it the same price as a paperback? Or higher?

The last thing that’s against authors and publishers is the fact that not every author fights piracy. My life would be a little easier if I knew there was an angry hoard of authors behind me. That’s not the case. A great many authors ignore piracy, I think. Or tell themselves that it doesn’t affect them. I see the download numbers – every day – and I cringe for them and can’t imagine how it isn’t affecting them. And some publishers contend that it isn’t affecting sales.

If digital reading grows to be 25% of the market, as it’s projected to be, you can bet that piracy is going to impact everyone. I just hope, by the time every author and every publisher realizes it, that it isn’t too late.