Are Libraries Bad for Authors? · 9:13pm Aug 1st, 2019
Before we stumble into a cliche-filled moment of drama where inferences are made off of the title, I’ll be blunt: No, I don’t think so.
Let me say that again. Are libraries bad for authors? No, I don’t think so.
MacMillan, on the other hand (one of the larger book publishers), does.
Remember about … I want to say eight months or so ago, but it may have been longer, when Tor went ahead and decided that libraries were a threat to their business, since they let people check out books “for free” (the library pays for the book at a high price, mind). And therefore, they were going to be barring libraries from purchasing new copies of their books until a set time after release so that readers would be forced to buy them, rather than reading them at a library?
Well. apparently this idea is catching. MacMillan is the latest publisher to jump on this train. Now normally I’d sort of shake my head at this and move on, because this is just more book drama with publishers trying to recoup a market that’s slowly and steadily slipping away from them, but then in the news release, something else caught my eye. Something that really said a lot to me, personally, about how MacMillan is seeing things.
That's... monumentally awful of them.
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Yeah, they're going on my ban list.
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Tor was already on there (after declaring they didn't want my business during the Puppy Wars), now the whole publisher is.
Anyone that uses the term directly , "The Masses..." is probably an elitist and is going to tell you something like you can't have something.
Libraries are great, they're like gateway drugs.
I borrowed two books and liked their content and bought them.
Bought a book on writing after I saw it in the library.
Now, I just have to find the time to read the books...
Have you tried to contact the NYPL?
The New York Public Library?
Reminds me of that meme template with the kid shoving a stick into his own bike wheel.
Not going to miss those old bats we call gatekeepers when they finally realize that they're outmoded.
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Funnily enough, I left a comment this morning on the Overdrive counterstrike piece agreeing with them and then pointing out that if MacMillan wasn't going to play pool, there were plenty of great indie authors and publishers that would.
The comment sat in moderation for a few minutes and then
was deleted(but had now reappeared). Because despite their turf battle with MacMillan, Overdrive is, as far as I've seen, not greatly supporting indie authors for reasons unexplained last I checked. I get the feeling that they like the big five, but are fighting over the pie.Edit: My post later appeared. No idea what happened there, since it vanished from the queue but it's up now!