Free isn’t really free, is it?
I got an email back from my college friend who writes fantasy novels for one of the “the majors.” I asked her why there seemed to be so much controversy about eBooks vs. print from established authors. Here’s what she told me:
I think publishing is threatened by far more than a new format. I think fear of piracy followed by fear of not getting paid are the two biggest reasons many writers react as you saw. Although a print book can be pirated (as anyone who has dealt with Russia or China knows), it’s hard. Breaking the code on an e-reader is much, much easier (and people hack calculators for fun, without profit).
As for paid… Contracts usually base pay on a percentage of the cover price. If a $25.00 book is sold for $5, even if there is a huge raise in percentage, well… You can do the math.
Basically, I think you ran into a lot of fear over what may be a dying industry. Fewer readers, more competition from writers past whose estates are delighted to sell for a pittance, more spin-offs. And electronic books have added to that in a big way. I’ve read numerous columns that basically boil down to, “why read a new book that will cost you, when you can get a free classic on Google?” I don’t know if I’ll be making a living in a few years…
That’s an interesting bit of commentary from the trenches — especially in regards to the last part. The part about “free.” What is our obsession with “free”? I see this more and more, and it baffles me.
It costs money to provide services, to build things. Right now, in the Portland metro area, there is a huge controversy over a proposal to expand the main bridge that crosses the Columbia River and joins Washington State with Portland, Oregon. Everyone agrees the bridge is old and can’t handle the current volume of traffic — let alone manage future growth. It needs to be replaced and expanded. But, no one wants to pay for it.
The Federal government will kick in a good chunk of change, as well as Oregon and Washington. But some fundraising is going to be required. And for a bridge, that means tolls or taxes. When they built the other Columbia River bridge in the 70s, they added a temporary toll until the bridge was paid for. But now, if they toll the new bridge, they’re afraid everyone will try to use the other bridge, so they want to toll both bridges until the new bridge is paid off. That has people hopping mad.
Then, there are the people who commute over that bridge, twice a day. The bridge will serve the entire region. It will help move freight and create jobs. It should be paid for by a bond measure, because if tolls are used they will never go away, etc. Everyone wants the bridge… as long as someone else pays for it.
Give me police and fire stations, build the roads and bridges, give me my social security check and my medicare, but give it to me free, please. I don’t want to pay no &$&#! taxes.
Ridiculous!
Intellectual content takes time for someone to create… and they deserve to be compensated for their efforts. Otherwise, how can they make a living? If everything is supposed to be free, then how do people earn a living? I have to assign some of the blame to the Internet. So much is offered to people for “free.” Why buy a newspaper, because you can read the news for free online. Why buy a book? You can do research for free online.
Right now in the US, goods that are ordered online through Internet-only stores are not taxed. Yet, Barnes & Noble has to charge sales tax for the books it sells online, because they have brick & mortar stores. Joe’s Online Books does not have to charge taxes. How is that fair?
But people will say that they want to use Joe’s, because they don’t see why they should have to pay any taxes. Let Barnes & Noble pay the taxes. Anyone but me. I want it free, and if it can’t be free, I want it for nearly free.
This mentality is great news for China. But’s it bad news elsewhere, because if we all loose the ability to make money from our labors (intellectual or physical), well then, isn’t it great that everything is free?
1 Tim 5:18 — For the scriptures say, “You shall not muzzle the ox that treads out the corn.” And, “The laborer is worthy of his reward.”
Sheri
December 1st, 2009 at 2:27 am
Couldn’t agree more with your whole take on this topic, Sheri. It baffles me that people want and expect things such as basic services but don’t expect to pay for them. Where do they think the money comes from? When people moan about paying taxes they make it sound as if they’re simply shovelling money down a drain. It’s actually depressing to hear people interviewed about their voting intentions in general elections who base their decisions exclusively on how much policies will cost them rather than how necessary the policies are and how effective they might be. I think enlightenment is still a long way off.