Lots of people writing to ask what I think about Yahoo! News - Online Sales of Used Books Draw Protest.
I think it's mostly a fuss about nothing. No-one's doing anything illegal or immoral. (And, coldly and bluntly, if your book sales are such that the resale of some review copies -- probably less than a hundred copies -- is going to significantly hurt your royalties, then you really aren't making enough of a living from your writing for anything to matter.)
If you buy one of my books (or are sent it to review) it's yours. You bought it (or were given it). You can sell it on. I don't have any more of a problem with Amazon listing the used copies than I do bookstores having used book sections. It's their store.
You can buy a book new, buy it in hardback or wait for the paperback, find it used or as a collectible. I don't mind. What I care about most is that people are reading.
As I said when I discussed this at length in the piece I put up on this journal, that was quoted in Wired, last month, books don't come with single-end-user licenses, and I think that's a good thing.
I think it's mostly a fuss about nothing. No-one's doing anything illegal or immoral. (And, coldly and bluntly, if your book sales are such that the resale of some review copies -- probably less than a hundred copies -- is going to significantly hurt your royalties, then you really aren't making enough of a living from your writing for anything to matter.)
If you buy one of my books (or are sent it to review) it's yours. You bought it (or were given it). You can sell it on. I don't have any more of a problem with Amazon listing the used copies than I do bookstores having used book sections. It's their store.
You can buy a book new, buy it in hardback or wait for the paperback, find it used or as a collectible. I don't mind. What I care about most is that people are reading.
As I said when I discussed this at length in the piece I put up on this journal, that was quoted in Wired, last month, books don't come with single-end-user licenses, and I think that's a good thing.
