Howard Hughes Against the World Crime League

[greygirlbeast]

Nobody knew what to do with Buckaroo Banzai. There was no simple way to tell anyone what it was about — I'm not sure anybody knew.

Yesterday was. Sometimes, isn't it enough to say no more or less than that about any given day? After all, this is what most days of any given life are. That day....was. A life is a compilation of days that mostly just are. So, yes. One of the pitfalls of a blog that's being written for other people to read is that there's the feeling you have to make each and every day, in some way, interesting. Though most of them truly aren't. Most days just are.

That said, I spent yesterday tweaking Phase One. The oscillation overthruster was running a little fast, too many RPMs and all that. Someone could have gotten hurt. Oh, and speaking of secret and cool things, I am told that sometime in late November or early December, the cat will likely be allowed to leave the bag. So, we only have to wait that long.

---

The last couple of days, I've been engaged (along with several other authors and agents) in what ellen_datlow described to me as an endless game of "whack-a-mole," trying to stop various pirate sites from illegally selling copies of our ebooks. Or, as I would prefer to say, electronic copies of our books. Yes, not giving them away, but selling them. And every time we whack one, another pops up. But, like Mr. Jefferson said, eternal vigilance is the price.

No, it's not like buying an analog book and then, when you've read it, selling it back to a used bookstore (or anywhere else). Not unless it's a magical book that endlessly produces identical copies of itself, or unless you have some sort of magical book-pooping device that performs the same function. If you are selling copies of my books, which you have made, you are in violation of US Copyright Law (which, I admit, I am often not fond of, but it still applies) and, more importantly, you are stealing from me. You're not taking a quote. Or a few lines. Not even a preview chapter. But a whole goddamn book, which likely took me a year or two to write and edit.

And that's money my publisher loses, and when my publisher loses money on my books, they lose interest in publishing additional books by me. And if I can't make a living off my writing, the novels and short stories will, I assure you, cease to be created. Oh, there might be one or two very short stories a year, maybe. But I'd be too busy trying to get by with some other shitty job to write. And that, kittens, is why, if you actually enjoy what I write, you should never, ever steal one of my books.

Oh, and if you steal my books, I'll cut out your motherfucking heart and feed it to you, still warm and beating, if I ever get my hands on you. I will not even use a knife. But that's just a trifle, compared with all the other possible consequences. So, pretty please. Don't do this shit. People who pirate books waste the time and money of people who write those books.

And don't even get me started on Amazon and Google again.

Actually...to answer a question posed in yesterday's comments (and thank you, thank you, thank you for all those comments, even if I wasn't able to respond to all of them): lilith_333 asks, "I try to consume ethically when I can and I want to make sure authors get their fair due when I buy their books; what do you suggest?"

There is no easy answer. Like most authors, I live off advances, not royalties. I have seen only a tiny handful of royalty checks (one, to be specific) from the novels Penguin has published, beginning with Silk. This is over a period of time spanning most of two decades. One check. But set that aside a moment, because that's not the question being asked. The question is one of ethics, and there is nothing ethical about Amazon or Barnes & Noble or Penguin or any of those corporations, not when the bottom line is involved, the bottom line being profit margins. They fuck us all over. No, really. These are evil empires, even the ones which, like Penguin, are struggling to stay afloat. Still, the most ethical thing you can do (if I skip a lot of caveats) is buy the books from a legit online bookseller (Amazon, B&N, Powell's, etc.). Here, I mean the novels. As for the subpress books, I'd say buy them directly from Subterranean Press. And, by the way, Subterranean Press does a pretty damn fine job of actually behaving ethically towards authors, and, in this day and age, that's a rare and precious oddity.

I am, occasionally, called "greedy" for worrying about being stolen from. But, consider, is an author, a writer, who feels guilty for buying books, is that a greedy person? If so, fine. I'm greedy. I expect to be paid for work, as do you.

But now! I must away! There are...things to be done.

Hardly Ethical,
Aunt Beast

Comments

[r-darkstorm.livejournal.com]

Once again, I wish you luck. And may the pirates have their reproductive organs wither and fall off/out, then come to horrible unlife and consume their flesh. While they watch.

[birgitriddle.livejournal.com]

I could never quite understand why a person would not buy or pre-order direct from Subterranean Press (unless they are buying a book used), especially after the whole thing that happened when The Ammonite Violin & Others was delayed and Amazon cancelled a whole bunch of pre-orders because of this. I pre-ordered through Subterranean Press and was very thankful that I had done so since that meant I had not lost my pre-order.

And if there's a book I want to read that was published only by Subterranean, but is no longer available, there's always inter-loan. I've done it at least once and that encourages libraries to order from them too, I imagine, if there is a demand.

(I love inter-library loan. Otherwise I would not be able to read so many of the good books that have been recommended to me - our library is not very big and is more likely to cater to a different audience.)

[sovay]

There was no simple way to tell anyone what it was about — I'm not sure anybody knew.

"Why is there a watermelon there?"

[nihilistic-kid.livejournal.com]

The question is one of ethics, and there is nothing ethical about Amazon or Barnes & Noble or Penguin or any of those corporations, not when the bottom line is involved, the bottom line being profit margins.

Oh yes. It's always amazing when I hear someone say, "But how could [big company] do that?!" I laugh and laugh...mostly internally.

[jenjen4280.livejournal.com]

So really, the best thing to do is buy the actual book (not ebook) from a legit online or brick & mortar bookstore?

Personally, I always buy directly from Sub Press. They make such beautiful books.

I don't think you're being greedy at all for wanting the profits from your creations to go to you and not a third party.

The more electronic life becomes, the harder it is for artists to profit from their work because electronic media is so easily pirated. Remember napster?

[jdack.livejournal.com]

I could see someone calling JK Rowling greedy if she spoke about piracy, but a real working-for-a-living non-billionaire writer? That's horse shit.

People can attempt to defend music or movie piracy by talking about how evil the RIAA and MPAA are, but stealing a book just makes you a cheapskate shithead.

Ebooks aren't exactly expensive (most of them.)

[robyn-ma.livejournal.com]

This is why my response to 'Information wants to be free' is generally 'Writers want their rent to be free, but that ain't happening either.'

[martianmooncrab.livejournal.com]

Lectroids!

[corucia.livejournal.com]

The oscillation overthruster was running a little fast.... sometime in late November or early December, the cat will likely be allowed to leave the bag. So, we only have to wait that long

So it's been sined, seeled, but not yet delivered? Okay... I can wait a bit longer. No need to hurry things along. After all, we saw what happened to poor Doctor Lizardo when he didn't listen to Prof. Hikita.

(Just watched Buckaroo with my daughter last weekend, so the quotes are still fresh)

[xanadu-dreamer.livejournal.com]

Maybe I'm dense, but I don't really know/understand something and have always wondered about it. How does me buying your book from a used book store effect you? I've always felt guilty buying used books because I feel like I must not be helping the author. Or how about Paperbackswap.com? How would you benefit from something like that? Could you?

There's a handful of authors whose books I'll splurge on and buy new, but mostly I get things through the library* or buy them used. Oh, and SubPress? I'm glad to hear they treat their authors well. They've always treated me well as a customer, and have quickly and competently answered any questions, sorted things out, etc. unlike big places like Amazon who take so long to answer, then don't even bother answering what you actually asked.

*Are interlibrary loans really that unusual? I must be spoiled, because here, the 20-30 libraries in the area, tiny and huge, are all connected by a universal catalog and it's extremely easy to order things from other libraries. I can even get my hands on more special books, like SubPress signed/numbered copies, beautiful Taschen books, etc. It's great and I'm thankful. I probably would have missed out on finding a lot of great authors if it wasn't for my library.

[kendare-blake.livejournal.com]

Nice post. I'm particularly relieved to hear of future cat releases from bags.

Pirates. I'm particularly annoyed with the badge of pride they seem to be donning these days. Like we should be grateful that they steal our stuff because they're helping us reach a wider audience. Frankly I could give a shit whether I become well-known in pirate circles.

If you're a thief, just know you're a thief, and feel appropriately bad about it, damn you.

Also, thanks for the re-post of the Amazon issue. She did an excellent assessment.

[poesillchild.livejournal.com]

All the unauthorized sales of ebooks again sounds too much like what Leisure Books did last year and earlier this year. No money went to the authors and they continually said they'd take care of that, but as far as I know, they either didn't at all or didn't cough up all the royalties. Midlist authors can't afford to live as it is.

[whiskeychick.livejournal.com]

And this is the career I willingly chose? Psychotic I must be.

ebook vs electronic copy

[everville340.livejournal.com]

Call it my age or my obstinacy (or most likely a frothy combination of both), but to call a book a book shouldn't there have to be actual pages and bindings and covers?

I totally get technology advancing and instant gratification and all that, but with every physical bookstore that goes the way of the dodo I lose a tiny bit more of what always enhanced my enjoyment of reading: getting to actually pick out my own copy!

(Bordering on OCD-levels, my process of choosing a book in a bookstore is not actually too dissimilar from the gentlemen customer examining the eggs in the movie “Clerks”...although I'd never use the floor, block the aisle, or sniff the pages while anyone was watching.)

[opalblack.livejournal.com]

I expect to be paid for work, as do you.

Hear, hear.

Oddly, I and many of my e-book owning friends have encountered situations where we've bought a book in hard copy, and wanted to buy an e-copy for the reader, but been unable to do so because of geographic drm bollocks and other stupidity.

The ebook exists, we *want* to pay for it, but the publisher refuses to sell it to us. The book has been released and is globally available in hard copy, but for reasons unfathomable to normal humans, the electronic version is restricted.

In some instances it's been because of location, in other cases it's been because of proprietary reader restriction (which is to say, only available on whichever particular, proprietary brand e-reader, and if you don't own one of those exact models then FUCK YOU, NO BOOK FOR YOU!).

The only solution we've come up with is to find a pirate copy and send the author a dollar or five on paypal or whatever. Which we do. But, of course, that doesn't help with your sales figures.

It seems some of the anti-piracy measures being used at the moment are turning out to be anti-legitimate-purchase measures. They don't even slow pirates down, and they push people into piracy who actually want to purchase. Converting sales into piracy seems counter-intuitive to me. Wouldn't it be better to go the other way, convert piracy into sales? Maybe?

As the shallower parts of the internet might say, HERP-A-DERP-A-HURR-DURR.

[lilith-333.livejournal.com]

Thanks for your response to my comment; I appreciate it. Just for the record, I HAVE bought a bunch of your books through Subterranean Press and Gauntlet Press. I went temporarily broke to buy the Gauntlet hardcover re-release of "Silk," but it was totally worth it!

I feel completely overwhelmed by the issue of consuming and ethics. I currently boycott Wal-Mart because of their crazy horrible sexist and racist policies and their use of sweatshops. However, I am well aware that many of the places where I DO shop (like KMart and Duane Reade) aren't a whole hell of a lot better. I LOVE the Strand and hope they never close (and spend crazy amounts of money there, which hopefully helps!) but I know that when I buy used books authors such as yourself don't benefit. Yet I have a limited budget and often going to used bookstores means I can afford books I otherwise wouldn't be able to buy. For example, I bought the Subterranean Press re-release of "Tales of Pain and Wonder" there for under $20 (just a note: who the HELL would ever re-sell that?!?!).

I just don't know. Thinking about this too long makes me want to bang my head against a wall.

[docbrite.livejournal.com]

The oscillation overthruster was running a little fast

Is it wrong that this phrase makes me horny?