Sunday, February 26, 2012
Pirates
Interesting. There's been lots of discussion here and elsewhere about E-books, pirates and DRM. Whenever I go ego searching I'm often coming across sites where my books can be downloaded, but often no sign of how they are to be paid for. Thus far I've had three people contact me to tell me how much they've enjoyed the books but, ahem, they didn't pay for them. A recent email was from someone in Japan who finds it difficult to get hold of my E-books legally but wanted to contribute. He sent me $50 by Paypal and, at his suggestion, I've now put up a donate button on the right here for those who have downloaded my books illegally but feel the need to salve their consciences.
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14 comments:
What I don't like that in a world as globalised as it is now there are still some hindrances to buy electronic content online. I, for my part, am gladly rebuing everything for my kindle. First, every book on kindle is now so cheap and second, I gladly pay more for a good read.
Neal, on a side note. I'm reading Gridlinked again on kindle - good read but it is a scandal on how many typos are in there. Clearly some OCR errors like Carn is mostly called Cam and stuff like this. Even when it is cheaper then the real book it should be typo free. Even I'm from Switzerland and English is not my native tongue (I'm sure you can tell *smile*) I don't wont get the feeling like Amazon has taken the eBook from a "free download site" from a amateur scan or such... Just as a side note ;-)
I think publishers, writers and readers are all still on a learning curve, Roger. I imagine that a few years down the line the problems will start to be sorted out.
I've passed on your comments about the kindle version of Gridlinked to Macmillan. Cheers.
Must love those people that pay you directly because they feel guilty about downloading your books without paying for it, still lots of good people around ;)
A slight restorative to ones faith in humanity, Chris. But then, how many are not paying?
I don't think it's really a case of people wanting to 'salve their consciences', but rather a legitimate buyer who turned to piracy in frustration due to geographic restrictions being enforced for their country.
I've largely returned to printed books after having far too much hassle in buying the ebooks I wanted because of my location. There's nothing as frustrating as adding an ebook to your basket (after registering on a site), or coming up on the listing of the book you want only to get a 'Sorry, this book isn't available to your location' message.
there's a ton of SF books NOT in print in Japan that we can get easily in the states. i know some collector/critics over there.
the SF books that are available over there usually have a lame text cover or some anime illustration. saw a K W Jeter (i think it was his) book cover and screamed 'whaaaaaa?' before doubling over laughing at the giant hair cartoons on the cover.
all Spinrad, Bradbury & PKD books are in print there pretty sure.
This brings to mind this comic from The Oatmeal.
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/game_of_thrones
I wouldn't say people are "forced" to pirate media, but sometimes it does seem to be the only way. For instance, over here in the US...Amazon STILL does not sell a Kindle version of "The Departure", and US customers cannot buy Kindle versions through Amazon UK. WTF?
I'm sure there are reasons, but long story short, I have not bought your latest book yet. Hopefully, one of these days, it will be available.
I got into your books through reading a dogeared copy of Gridlinked that I found in a Breton Campground's bookshelf.
I didn't pay for it then but have bought most of the subsequent books.
or used the Library..
"The Departure" is a case in point. Here in the U.S. I had to buy a U.K hardcover (from amazon.co.uk) and have it shipped over. Can't get it in print here in the U.S., nor on Kindle. All the listings for it on Amazon are from third party sellers shipping the U.K edition. WTF?? At least it's a true "first edition" as far as I can tell.
You're the first author whose work I've purchased mostly in electronic form; got a Kindle 1.5 years ago, discovered your work ("Gridlinked") and proceeded to buy everything I could. Had to get "Prador Moon" in hardcover (not UK first edition, I think; it's from Nightshade Press here in the US, 2006), which I'm reading now; it wasn't available in Kindle.
I suspect availability, or lack thereof, in many areas is a function of publishers or distributors not agreeing to deals unless they can control the terms of the deal. Power games, wherein the consumers lose. I suspect piracy may actually *decrease* if works were quickly made available in all possible formats in all markets, simultaneously, as rapidly as possible after initial release.
The Donate button is a good idea. For myself, I've legitimately paid for (and most thoroughly enjoyed!) every piece of your work in my possession. I can't say the same about my copy of Game of Thrones, however...
I recently finished the Kindle version of The Departure and that, too, was dotted with formatting errors/typos here and there.
It's not just your books, Neal, I hasten to add... most Kindle versions I read seem to suffer from the same issues.
I don't know all the whys and wherefores of books appearing or not appearing on Kindle, though I suspect Anderson is hitting the nail on the head.
Glad you've all enjoyed the books when you can get hold of them anyway! Incidentally, again for American readers: the Book Depository does free international shipping...
And does anyone want to include themselves in anything from the previous post? Like that 'Who reads my books?'
UM, some possible good news: it might be that the whole Owner trilogy has just been sold to the states...
This is from Barry Arrowsmith who didn't post this on the blog because "cos I've cancelled my google account until it becomes clear just how intrusive their new, 'helpful' privacy policy is." I think is point about vinyl & cassettes etc is a good one:
However, a couple of observations. It's a given that any commercial publication in digital format will be hacked sooner or later, either for profit or just because it's seen as a technical challenge.
Meanwhile, publishers see a lot of benefits in ebooks: they're a lot cheaper than print books to produce and issue, there's no cheap (and uncontrolled) second-hand market where a legal but used copy can be re-sold, and by tweaking the formatting it's possible to limit international sales to restrict use to within agreed geographical sales zones. All of which publishers would claim 'protects the product'.
Er, no.
It protects the publisher and to a certain extent the author. (But would you be losing anything if ebook editions the publishers intend for the UK could also bought and read by US readers? Sales is sales. The only loser is the US publisher - and the publishing groups consist of so many interlinked international subsidiaries that any supposed loss in one zone would be balanced by increased sales in another.)
Reminds me of the old days when publishing agreements forbade the import of foreign print editions - and we can all see how successful that was; the only people that suffered were the readers. One difference though. Once you own a print copy, that's it. Done and dusted. Potentially not so with ebooks, IIRC Amazon has in the past deleted paid-for copies from their customer's readers (because of supposed copyright problems). So you probably don't totally own that ebook, even if you've paid for it.
Then there's the future. I'll bet that 'technological advances' will result in wonderful new devices with even more book-related whistles and bells. Lovely. Except that I'll also bet that they won't be backwards compatible with the current digital books. Think vinyl, cassette, 8-track, CD, podcast followed by whatever comes next. Sales, innit? (Cynical? Nope, realistic.)
In the short term I suspect that it will get very messy and even more complicated as interest groups gear up to protect what they perceive as 'their' patches.
Meanwhile I'll stick with old-fashioned paper and ink. A lot less hassle.
Death to e-books. That's constructive criticism my style.
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