I have noticed some rather strongly voiced opinions lately, and thought I’d take the time today to voice my own, though not nearly as strongly. Before I ever picked up a pen, I was a reader. Now granted, growing up I leaned more toward “real” ghost stories, shark attack files, and at a later time, RL Stine’s Fear Street series and Christopher Pike’s books. Romance didn’t come into the picture until I was in my twenties and a mother, and I’ve been hooked ever since.
The current economic climate has hit everyone hard. As a household with a single “steady” income, with a special needs child in residence and a chronically ill adult, things tend to be tight around here more often than not, meaning I have to be extra picky in what books I do get to buy. Yes, I have a reader, because I have a major tech addition and my husband does his damnedest to feed said addiction, when finances allow. Fortunately, earlier this year was a better time money-wise and I was able to get my new Sony ebook reader. What’s on my reader? Mostly free reads–legally free reads. Note, I said mostly. I do buy ebooks, just not as many as I’d like. I have bookmark after bookmark after bookmark to legal free ebooks. Legal being the key term there. Granted, a lot of those are classics or freebies given out by authors, or the first in a series, but when desperate for something to read, a book is a book is a book.
I buy hard cover books from the bargain tables at the bookstores and from fleamarkets, yard sales, and thrift stores. I get paperback books from my mother, though her tastes and mine vary greatly—meaning she enjoys mostly contemporaries and most of the books I buy are paranormal since she refuses to read them and I have no other way to get my fix. I also get paperbacks from some of the same places I find hardbacks. Yes, there’s a local library, but I do not partake of it. Why? I have nothing against libraries, in fact, I love them, however, I do horribly at reading a book within a certain time frame at times due to a wide variety of issues, super slow reader being one of them. So, in case anyone missed it, I have nothing against sharing books, because as you can see, I swap paperbacks with my mother all the time.
I do try to buy books from my favorite “keeper” authors new, when I can. I’ve put books on my Christmas list that I gave my mother this year, and I’ve asked for B&N gift cards from relatives for the holidays in the past. Granted, most of those books on the list I gave mom are research books, because sadly forensics and criminology books ain’t cheap, even used. There are a couple romances on there, that I’m really hoping she gets me because it’s the first and newest in a series (I won the middle book in a contest and loved it), if she doesn’t then I’ll just have to whine my way into having the hubby buy them for me. He does so love it when I whine. With my birthday coming up, I always get cash and so I’m plotting away at which books I plan to buy with said cash.
Being an author, I do feel a bit guilty not buying books new. I understand how badly authors depend on the new sales, but I also understand how it feels to be broke with an addiction that can become quite costly in a hurry. I have no problem with the sharing of ebooks, as I said yesterday, though there really does need to be a way found to keep the sharing of a handful of files limited to just a handful instead of growing exponentially as can happen when a file can be copied an infinite number of times. I know readers want more freedoms with ebooks. Hell, as I said, I’m a reader, too, so I feel those restrictions just as strongly as the next person, but I think we do have to remember that digital files are completely different entities from print books, and therefore new rules need to apply simply because of the ease with which casual sharing amongst friends can turn into something much, much greater and far more damaging. And for the record, I hate DRM as well, which is why I still buy Silhouettes in paperback rather than in electronic format, even though it hurts to read them.
Sadly, ebook piracy is a hot button for many, many authors. Many equate the download numbers to actual lost sales. I know it doesn’t work that way. You can’t count a free, illegal download as a lost sale because you have no guarantee that person would have bought a legal copy if given the chance. You have no idea if the person who downloaded it even read the thing. Hoarders abound in this world, and many take things simply because they can, because they collect and hoard things away whether they have a use for the item or not. It’s a sad fact of life.
I know many authors rally against piracy and lecture and write long posts about it, but I’m not one of those authors. I do my part where I can, but I do not make it my life’s mission. Why? Because it will suck the life out of you. It will eat up precious writing time and take over before you even realize the power you’ve given it. A leopard can’t change its spots, and I think in asking pirates to suddenly grow a moral code and stop what they are doing is much like asking the leopard to change its spots—it’s just not going to happen. So it’s wasted breath, wasted effort. Now, I’m by no means saying let them have free reign and do as they please. Not at all. I am, however, saying it’s going to take more effort than I can give it. It’s going to take a greater force than I have the power to generate to even get this monster under control.
I write because I love it. Granted, that’s not good business sense, but it’s the truth of the matter. The money is nice, but it’s not the driving force behind why I do what I do. Why else would I have so many free reads available and be working on more? I write stories and I want them to be read. If I’m lucky enough to get a contract and get paid for doing what I love, all the better, but it’s not the be all end all to what I do. Maybe it was at first, but chronic illness does tend to change one’s views on things. Perhaps my views on things make me an oddball, but I’m happy with that. I always have liked to walk my own path. However, keep in mind that I’m just an author. Pricing and marketing and all that are at the sole transgression of the publisher. I’m like most other readers and wish prices, especially on ebooks, were cheaper, especially since it’s my preferred reading format since it’s much easier on my poor wrists to read on my reader.
Which brings me to yet another point, with my health being what it is, my joints are deteriorating. Other than the extra high price of hardbacks which I HATE, I really prefer books in hard cover because it’s easier on my wrists than a paperback. The higher price is why I wait until they hit the bargain tables, because then I can get them for basically the same price as a paperback. I’m currently waiting for two to hit the bargain tables. However, the easiest on my wrists is my Sony ebook reader. I LOVE this thing. No more pain while reading. And doing something you enjoy shouldn’t equate to so much pain. I went months without reading prior to getting my Sony, simply because I didn’t want to hurt. It’s depressing to want to read and not be able to over something like health reasons.
I have noticed that some new Blu-Ray movies are coming out with a “regular” DVD and a digital copy packaged all in one. I would LOVE it if paperback and hardcover books came with a free digital copy. I admit, a part of me still loves a paper book. It’s what I was raised on. I like having them on the bookshelves, but I prefer digital for reasons I’ve already stated. In the case of a paperback with a digital copy, I’d have the copy for the bookshelf with a pretty, unmarred spine to display and a digital copy to read on my reader and save myself unnecessary pain. It would also promote ebook acceptance, if a reader could “try” out ebooks without any extra fees and fears of the unknown attached to them. Meaning, they’ve bought a book by their favorite author at the store for $4 and it’s got a code for this free digital download of the same book. They think, hmm, I wonder what it’d be like to read a book on the computer (provided this is a new to ebooks person) and they download it and try and decide, “Hey, I like this.” New ebook customer. Not only would ebooks for the print published books have easier access, but they would reach a much larger audience. Just a thought. Maybe I’m asking for too much, but if the movie guys can do it, why can’t the publishers?
And I suppose I’ve rambled on about this for long enough. I really need to get back to writing, even though my TBR stack is growing quite large. I want to get Dagger done so I can spend the hectic holidays reading, rather than pulling my hair out trying to get things together for the holidays and family AND trying to write. The colder it gets, the harder it hits my joints, too, which means an increase in breakthrough pain, which is never fun. So, I’m running out of time here.
I’m going to leave you with a question today. What’s in YOUR reader? Or on your TBR pile?