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Dec. 29th, 2008 04:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mmegaeraThe author of this article, which has been bouncing around my FL the last couple of days, needs to have hir head examined. With a sledgehammer.
The publishing industry, instead of taking responsibility for its own imminent demise, is scapegoating. Yes, I really did want to make my living writing. I don't think it's going to happen any time soon, if at all. But the recent meltdown does not suddenly make choosing to buy used books a moral issue.
1) Used book stores (or as my romance reading lists refer to them, UBSs) have been around forever. Yes, they're easier to access these days, and have been for some time. What isn't? I don't know about the rest of you, but I've been buying from abebooks.com for at least six years now.
2) Most of what people buy this way is stuff that's out of print, so they're not biting into new sales, anyway.
I resent, with all my heart, the concept that spending my limited budget in a way that stretches it as far as I can, or to purchase things that I can't get in any other legal way because they're not available new, is in any way shady or immoral or something to be ashamed of. Or a moral issue at all.
The publishing industry, instead of taking responsibility for its own imminent demise, is scapegoating. Yes, I really did want to make my living writing. I don't think it's going to happen any time soon, if at all. But the recent meltdown does not suddenly make choosing to buy used books a moral issue.
1) Used book stores (or as my romance reading lists refer to them, UBSs) have been around forever. Yes, they're easier to access these days, and have been for some time. What isn't? I don't know about the rest of you, but I've been buying from abebooks.com for at least six years now.
2) Most of what people buy this way is stuff that's out of print, so they're not biting into new sales, anyway.
I resent, with all my heart, the concept that spending my limited budget in a way that stretches it as far as I can, or to purchase things that I can't get in any other legal way because they're not available new, is in any way shady or immoral or something to be ashamed of. Or a moral issue at all.
