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owlectomyAny business model that relies on getting paid by all of your customers is a business model that might not work out in practice. Retail stores can install security cameras and prosecute shoplifters, but they still need to price their items to take into account that some percentage of people are going to shoplift.
Of the people who read any given book, some are going to buy it used, some are going to get it from the library, some are going to read a friend's copy, some are going to download it from the internet. Legally or otherwise. And I don't believe anything's going to stop that. To me the relevant question is not, "Is it bad to pirate books?" or "How can we get people to stop pirating books?"
Instead, I want to ask: Given the ease of book downloading, what is the publishing industry going to look like 15 years from now?
What kind of accommodation can be reached with the people who can't, or don't want to, pay money for books?
Just like retail stores continue to exist in a world where shoplifting also exists, can the publishing industry continue to exist in a world where piracy exists?
We don't know the answer to those questions, and that's scary.
To be honest, while I'm troubled by publishing being owned by megacorporations, and I'm troubled by the various biases of the industry, I don't want the industry to radically change. I want to have editors, I want to have publicity and marketing people, I want to not have to deal too much with the business side of things. The Brave New World of ubiquitous self-publishing and no gatekeepers is not the world in which I can succeed as a writer.
And a Brave New World where writers don't get paid for their writing is not one where I want to live as a reader. If my favorite writer takes twice as long to write a book because they have to get a day job, or if a talented writer never even starts writing because they know they'll never get enough money for it, we all lose out.
The only thing I'm sure of is that things are going to change.
We can be angry about having our books pirated. I think that's legitimate.
But the picture is bigger than that. And fuzzier.
Of the people who read any given book, some are going to buy it used, some are going to get it from the library, some are going to read a friend's copy, some are going to download it from the internet. Legally or otherwise. And I don't believe anything's going to stop that. To me the relevant question is not, "Is it bad to pirate books?" or "How can we get people to stop pirating books?"
Instead, I want to ask: Given the ease of book downloading, what is the publishing industry going to look like 15 years from now?
What kind of accommodation can be reached with the people who can't, or don't want to, pay money for books?
Just like retail stores continue to exist in a world where shoplifting also exists, can the publishing industry continue to exist in a world where piracy exists?
We don't know the answer to those questions, and that's scary.
To be honest, while I'm troubled by publishing being owned by megacorporations, and I'm troubled by the various biases of the industry, I don't want the industry to radically change. I want to have editors, I want to have publicity and marketing people, I want to not have to deal too much with the business side of things. The Brave New World of ubiquitous self-publishing and no gatekeepers is not the world in which I can succeed as a writer.
And a Brave New World where writers don't get paid for their writing is not one where I want to live as a reader. If my favorite writer takes twice as long to write a book because they have to get a day job, or if a talented writer never even starts writing because they know they'll never get enough money for it, we all lose out.
The only thing I'm sure of is that things are going to change.
We can be angry about having our books pirated. I think that's legitimate.
But the picture is bigger than that. And fuzzier.
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