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#Post#: 20--------------------------------------------------
File Sharing Discussion
By: Jblaw Date: November 25, 2013, 12:14 am
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This is the only thread where I want to see talk about pirating,
and we will assume that anything posted about pirating in this
thread is theoretical or hypothetical.
There has been some talk about ~obtaining~ ebook files and
sharing ebooks. You can discuss that here.
This thread is also for discussion about sharing of free
material, such as books from the Gutenberg project.
You may NOT post links to copyrighted content or asking for
copyrighted content. Anyone breaking this rule will be banned
for the first offense.
Just so we don't see it asked 100 times, public domain books are
here:
HTML http://www.gutenberg.org/
#Post#: 33--------------------------------------------------
Re: File Sharing Discussion
By: Guinevere Date: November 25, 2013, 11:07 pm
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Ok so pirating is a big no-no. There are a lot of fees
associated with producing a book, authors only see $x.xx per
book, and every time you pirate a copy it hurts the person who
created the thing you are enjoying.
A lot of people distance themselves from the moral issues with
pirating by considering the hit mostly absorbed by the
publishing company. I understand that line of thought, and I
think it's a key factor to controlling piracy.
First of all - production costs. I know that the author's time
goes into writing a book, and I'm sure the better the book is,
the longer the time. Other than that, I'd be interested to know
what costs go into making an ebook. Does the publishing company
distribute them and collect the majority of the sale money? Do
the authors see the same small dollar amount per book?
I think the answers to these questions are probably pretty
frustrating. It probably would make a lot of people question
why we even need publishing companies involved in ebook
production.
If it weren't a publishing company you were stealing from, and
if 100% of the fee for the book went to the author, I have a
hunch that piracy would be a little bit reduced.
#Post#: 34--------------------------------------------------
Re: File Sharing Discussion
By: Harry Woppervottom Date: November 25, 2013, 11:17 pm
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The answer about ebook royalties is probably even worse than you
thought.
An author usually gets somewhere around 50% on the books that
are sent to print. This includes hardcover books, which have
fees including printing, binding, shipping, marketing etc. which
are paid by the publisher out of their share.
This site
HTML http://thefreelancestrategist.com/the-state-of-e-books-compensation-shortfalls/4073<br
/>did a survey of a bunch of authors and turned up a 25% royalty
rate on ebooks. I have no idea why it's so much lower. The
publisher makes almost pure profit on ebooks.
#Post#: 35--------------------------------------------------
Re: File Sharing Discussion
By: Guinevere Date: November 25, 2013, 11:26 pm
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Why do authors let publishers distribute ebooks?? I'm sure
there's a way for "indie writers" to self-publish online and
make a much higher percentage of the fees!
I just did a bit of research and I saw how much Amazon charges
HTML http://www.writersdigest.com/online-editor/how-can-the-average-writer-make-money-self-publishing-e-books<br
/>to distribute a book. Indie authors can approach Amazon
directly and get 70% royalties. That's pretty high, but a
published author may not need a huge company like Amazon to
market their book. They can probably find an even cheaper
method for distribution.
#Post#: 36--------------------------------------------------
Re: File Sharing Discussion
By: P. Moriarty Date: November 25, 2013, 11:28 pm
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Well they need a site where a lot of people are going to look.
That's what they let the publishing companies take care of.
#Post#: 37--------------------------------------------------
Re: File Sharing Discussion
By: Jblaw Date: November 25, 2013, 11:29 pm
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They don't need a publishing company to find a site where a lot
of people go.
Why does it need to be a shopping site? I bet they could direct
people to their own site and set it up to take charges. They'd
just have to get the word out somehow...
What about Goodreads or even Facebook?
#Post#: 38--------------------------------------------------
Re: File Sharing Discussion
By: Chowned Date: November 25, 2013, 11:53 pm
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Book distribution using Facebook?
...Why not? If you look at mostpopularwebsites.net
HTML http://mostpopularwebsites.net
right now, Facebook is listed as
#2. Amazon is all the way down at #11. Facebook knows how to
handle their advertising - that could be worthwhile.
Jason Kong wrote an incredible article
HTML http://www.thebookdesigner.com/2012/10/jason-kong/
on how
authors should be using social media. He writes that authors
should give away their best writing on social media for free.
This sounds crazy, but he says this gets the author a lot of
attention and earns trust from potential readers. He says "When
your words are free, they spread faster and farther."
He also says that social media is a great way to identify
potential fans. He even suggests befriending other authors in
the genre to promote one another and effectively combine the two
fanbases.
If authors can generate all this interest themselves using a
website like Facebook, we really won't be seeing publishing
companies around for much longer.
#Post#: 41--------------------------------------------------
Re: File Sharing Discussion
By: Guinevere Date: November 26, 2013, 2:16 pm
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So publishers might not be as relevant, but what about
libraries?
We can borrow e-books from libraries right now but I'm not sure
what's going to happen as more and more people transition over
to digital literature. Phillip Pullman, the author of Golden
Compass and president of the Society of Authors, has a lot to
say
HTML http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2340789/Philip-Pullman-Pay-library-e-books-writing-commercially-viable.html<br
/>about the library's use of e-books. He says that authors don'
t
get money when their books are loaned out, and that this will
put authors out of their jobs. His points seem a little
melodramatic, but it's clearly an issue if an author typically
gets paid for a physical book loan.
If you scroll down and read the comments you can see there are
readers who want libraries annihilated altogether.
#Post#: 47--------------------------------------------------
Re: File Sharing Discussion
By: tech_junky53 Date: November 26, 2013, 8:41 pm
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I would have to take a bit of a different path on my opinion..
Have any of you ever bought a textbook for a school course these
books go for 100 minimum and most of the time the next year they
become useless due to new versions with one added picture. I
think that piracy of books is not always a bad thing. You say
that a author gets 25%-50% of book sales but consider this A
Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens sold well over 200 million
copies now saying that he got only a dollar from each book he
would still have made a crazy 200 million dollars.
In short to me it seems that authors care more about the money
that they are making then the real goal of having people fall in
love with a story that they write.
Here is a great link from a site called ZDnet about piracy and
books.
HTML http://www.zdnet.com/e-book-piracy-tsk-students-7000022076/
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