Do you want to sell something? Do you want to convince someone something is
cool? Then don’t be a douche—this is not
swearing, this is a metaphor. A douche
goes somewhere private and claims it is good, but in actuality, it is harmful
and unpleasant, but still somewhere private.
E-books versus print books has raged since e-books became
assessable to more than just people who got bored with burning money. Now that they’re accessible, unfortunately,
they’re popular, which means the douches that come with them. They needs to stop (so do douches that come
with print).
Some e-book authors are clinging to any news about resale,
including Scott Turrow’s recent argument and digging up his e-book hate, and
claiming this means pirates are everywhere.
Ignoring that Scott is arguing over legal sales, they’re claiming
pirates everywhere on ebay, amazon, amazon’s patent on e-books resale, and even
certain country’s internet. They decry
anyone who uses these as ‘they could be pirates’ and ‘they help pirates’. Douches.
They are sticking themselves into what is private. If you buy resale, that’s no one’s business
but yours and maybe taxes. If you work
in resale, that’s also private. If you
sell resale anywhere legally, even online, that’s private. If you don’t do those things, that’s still
private. If you can do those things,
that’s legal. Rights are private and
it’s your choice to make them public. No
one should associate you with anything illegal if you’re not doing anything
illegal.
They are harmful. Not
only do these people want to take away resale rights—an essential right in all
markets, including the digital one—but they want to take away resale rights
purely because they think they are special.
They don’t like any resale because they could be hurt but resale of
their product. Could. COULD.
Will they? Who knows? Ask around, even to companies and experts and
you’ll get a range of ‘we can’t tell’
and ‘probably not, but we’ll do our best to fix it.’
But the damage goes further.
As an author, you’re claiming ‘never resell my book, I am above the
law’. Legal resale is, well, legal. You own it now and they don’t. You can sell it. You can break it. You can ignore it. But do you want it in the first place? Not only are you told ‘it’s not really your
property’, but it’s followed up with ‘you scumbag, thinking about resale’. You may not even be buying their book. E-book authors don’t seem to care about their
personal books short of ‘I’ve been pirated!
How dare they patent resale’. But they’d still scream bloody murder over
thinking you might own something and want to sell it. It’s starting to look like you’re buying more
than just something to read on your tablet now and it’s getting unpleasant.
Worse, they say you lack intelligence and sense for resale,
even if no one ever got hurt (which they don’t think is a realistic
option). You’re hurting business, as
they assume the book was bought twice and paid for once. They also ask why would anyone resell a book
at all (even print).
Lastly, they demand money from those sales and think they
deserve it. They ignore all models of
resale, even digital, claiming they need it and no one else does because they
are entitled and they deserve it. They say resale steals form their
profits. Can you imagine if someone said
that about a pair of pants or dishes?
They can’t, because they say they’re a completely different situation
because they’re e-books and pirated.
Do these attitudes paint a good picture of any e-book
authors? When they’re noise covers up
others’ silence or facepalms, they’re not just being douches, but they’re
soiling people who aren’t douches. What
metaphor is appropriate for those who make innocent people look as bad as them
by association the innocents never signed up for?
On the lighter news, they’re wrong. Resale keeps stock rotated. It keeps many companies strong, including
future e-book resales. Resale means it
is sold twice (or more).
Here’s an e-book author (June solstice) who promotes strong
and protected resale stores. Go buy one,
even if it’s not mine. Go buy it where
you want, I trust you. I trust all of you.
You’re a customer to somewhere and I believe you’re perfectly legit.
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