{"id":711,"date":"2010-02-26T04:00:25","date_gmt":"2010-02-26T11:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/?p=711"},"modified":"2010-02-25T20:17:56","modified_gmt":"2010-02-26T03:17:56","slug":"dear-book-thieves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/index.php\/2010\/02\/26\/dear-book-thieves\/","title":{"rendered":"Dear Book Thieves:"},"content":{"rendered":"

posted on Friday<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

It’s simple, really. \u00a0I know people try to make it complicated, but it’s not.<\/p>\n

If you want the books–the high caliber submitted-chosen- edited-professional books–to exist in the first place, you’ve got to contribute to the writers who create them and the publishers who put them out there.<\/p>\n

That means buying the books, not taking stolen freebies off the ‘net.<\/p>\n

Oh, everyone’s got their reasons for taking<\/em>. \u00a0Some are philosophical, some are tangled with the frustration of the floundering emarket as it tries to find good working business models, some are pure entitlement. \u00a0Some have no thought behind them at all, but just want.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em>The thing is, those reasons don’t matter.<\/p>\n

The bottom line for me is the same. \u00a0You’re stealing from me. \u00a0You’re making it harder for me to buy food while I write the next book. \u00a0You’re enjoying (I hope) the fruits of my labor without offering anything in return.<\/p>\n

The bottom line for you is the same, too. \u00a0You’re making it harder for this business to find its way through a world of changing technologies. \u00a0You’re narrowing what the publishers can afford to offer you. \u00a0You’re pushing authors out of the business and putting publishers closer to the edge.<\/p>\n

Do you think \u00a0it doesn’t matter, in these days when publisher\/retailer\/device provider squabbles are big news? \u00a0When new authors\/new series have no leeway to build an audience, but must perform out of the blocks? \u00a0When established series stutter and die, already tangled in distribution and warehousing issues? \u00a0You’re wrong. \u00a0It matters.<\/p>\n

You<\/em> matter.<\/p>\n

You may not care. \u00a0You may say, “Hey, throw the ‘net open to whoever wants to put their work out there! \u00a0That’s the way it should be, and then we can read it all!”<\/p>\n

But hey…are you paying attention?<\/p>\n

Because\u00a0I<\/em> am. \u00a0And I’m more than just a writer, I’m a reader. \u00a0I’m as greedy as any thief, in my way. \u00a0I want more than any old book–I want good<\/em> books! \u00a0I want to see my favorite authors survive and thrive and have the chance to write what their heart tells them to write.<\/p>\n

Because you see, whether or not my own work is published, I’ll always write. \u00a0You can’t take that away from me. \u00a0But my opportunity to read the kind of amazing work that’s produced by stable publishers supporting the mature brilliance of a writer so driven that s\/he’ll do this work with the discipline it takes to reliably turn out a book worth savoring? \u00a0That, you can mess with. \u00a0That, you have<\/em> messed with.<\/p>\n

Oh, yes. \u00a0You matter.<\/p>\n

Please stop stealing my books.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

posted on Friday It’s simple, really. \u00a0I know people try to make it complicated, but it’s not. If you want the books–the high caliber submitted-chosen- edited-professional books–to exist in the first place, you’ve got to contribute to the writers who … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[155],"tags":[29,28,27,34,33],"class_list":["post-711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writing","tag-jaguar-night","tag-nocturne","tag-sentinels","tag-wild-thing","tag-wolf-hunt"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pb2lc3-bt","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3171,"url":"https:\/\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/index.php\/2010\/12\/29\/concatenating-coolness\/","url_meta":{"origin":711,"position":0},"title":"Concatenating Coolness","author":"Doranna","date":"1012.29","format":false,"excerpt":"Unbelievable!\u00a0 The Coolness goes on and on! This week it's something for everyone--ebook readers and hardcopy readers alike. So guess what!\u00a0 Backlist eBooks is having an \"It's Still the Season\" Sale! So to all those hungry new e-reading devices, it's feast time!\u00a0 All formats, all DRM free. With 25% off\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Backlist Ebooks"","block_context":{"text":"Backlist Ebooks","link":"https:\/\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/index.php\/category\/backlist-ebooks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Making the Rules","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/doranna.net\/ecovers\/c.making.the.rules.pr2.SM.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4873,"url":"https:\/\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/index.php\/2011\/09\/14\/beyond-the-woo\/","url_meta":{"origin":711,"position":1},"title":"Beyond the Woo","author":"Doranna","date":"1109.14","format":false,"excerpt":"There's always some woo in my books.\u00a0 As in, woo-woo.\u00a0 I suppose also as in \"wooing,\" but I swear I wasn't trying to be punny when I started this sentence. (Was that convincing?) 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Like this. No doggie pics, no videos, just a bit of cold wrath. It goes like so: Dear Amazon Authors Whose Books I Reviewed: I'm\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Backlist Ebooks"","block_context":{"text":"Backlist Ebooks","link":"https:\/\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/index.php\/category\/backlist-ebooks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6747,"url":"https:\/\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/index.php\/2012\/07\/25\/the-last-days-of-the-smashwords-sale\/","url_meta":{"origin":711,"position":4},"title":"The Last Days of the Smashwords Sale","author":"Doranna","date":"1207.25","format":false,"excerpt":"Because you should buy ALL the books! Well, it would be possible to buy all my books on sale at Smashwords, anyway.\u00a0 But only for another week, and then it's over! This is where you can go to find all the books, all the descriptions, and all the links. And\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Backlist Ebooks"","block_context":{"text":"Backlist Ebooks","link":"https:\/\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/index.php\/category\/backlist-ebooks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/dwtr67e3ikfml.cloudfront.net\/bookCovers\/6b52c91e0c15d6043879c647f40d5dc90cf988d6-thumb","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10347,"url":"https:\/\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/index.php\/2014\/03\/17\/writing-process-me-me-me-a-blog-hop\/","url_meta":{"origin":711,"position":5},"title":"Writing Process: Me, Me, Me!","author":"Doranna","date":"1403.17","format":false,"excerpt":"I\u2019ve been tagged! Tagged, that is, to participate in a blog hop for writers, which I think is actually supposed to be called \"My Writing Process.\"\u00a0 But, you know, what fun is that? Every Monday authors blog about their own writing process, using this format. This is definitely a multi-genre\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Behind the Scenes"","block_context":{"text":"Behind the Scenes","link":"https:\/\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/index.php\/category\/snippets\/behind-the-scenes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/glasses.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=711"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":722,"href":"https:\/\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711\/revisions\/722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}