From: Pia
I have read some of your recent Ask Nicola blog entries which support epublishing. I have become inseparable from my Kindle and imagine that if I were an author I would be inclined towards self-epublishing. Yet the demise of the recording and music industry with the growth of the web is a worrisome development as the web and reading gadgets become more common devices for exploring, sharing, and stealing content.
Have you written on the publishing industry, protecting content, or how laws fit into or should be changed to preserve ownership and would you please share the link to that writing? If you haven’t shared those thoughts, I encourage you to disclose them and look forward to reading your ideas.
Oh, under the the topic of the law, would you share the docket number or link to your immigration ruling? I don’t disagree but I am curious how you got the State or an ALJ to hold that it is within the national interest to have you live and work in the US. Does that finding apply forever? If not, what do you have to do to maintain your interesting status?
My opinion of epublishing are pretty straightforward. I believe ‘epublishing’ will soon be simply ‘publishing’, the way ‘horseless carriage’ became ‘car’. In other words, there’s no way I can encapsulate my views in one short blog post. Publishing, like the automotive industry, is vast and varied. (You might try searching this blog for terms such as digital publishing, publishing, ebooks, and so on. I’ve written about this stuff a lot.)
I love my Kindle, too. I buy and read more novels because of it. I think digital publishing will end up being very good for the industry. As I say, I think it will be the industry.
However, I loathe and abhore digital book piracy. Those who use BitTorrent protocols to share my novels are hurting me, personally and directly. To those who have made my work available on a P2P site, those who have downloaded any of same: you are not my friend. If I catch you, I will hurt you.
I earn my living from writing. When a reader downloads one of my novels free of charge, I don’t get paid. If I don’t get paid, I don’t eat (I don’t pay my mortgage, I don’t get medical attention when I need it). It’s a simple equation. Those who steal my work are killing my ability to be a writer.
As for self-publishing, I’m pretty sure I’ll end up doing it at some point, for something, but I doubt I’ll do it for any major novel. For writers like me, trade publishing is still the best route to a decent living. It’s a lot of work and expense to hire an editor, to hire a publicist, to hire a book designer, an artist, a flap-copy writer, to buy ISBNs, check the conversion platforms, sort out distribution.
If I had an out-of-print backlist, I would be finding a way to republish them myself–because all the work of book design, proofreading, getting blurbs etc would already be done. But all my books are still in print. (Though Always is currently only available as a hardcover and ebook; the paperback will be reprinted soon–though I don’t have a firm date.)
I do think some parts of current US copyright law is extreme, particularly the ‘lifetime plus 70 years’ provision. I can’t imagine a scenario where plus 20 wouldn’t be reasonable for individual copyright holders, and, say, 50 years total for corporate holders.
With regard to my immigration case, I don’t have a clue where to point you for legal information. I had no idea I’d made new law until the Wall Street Journal contacted me. (They heard about my case because it was written up in some law journal; I don’t know which one.) It all happened long ago–1994 (right around the birth of Netscape, that is, before most people even knew there was such a thing as a browser, never mind a link). But, yes, it’s a permanent decision. Unless I break one of the important rules (for example, stay out of the country for a year or more), I’ll have the right to live and work in the US for the rest of my life.
As for maintaining my interesting status, well, I’ll just have to stay sharp…
Nicola Griffith 
Interesting commentary. I really enjoy your blog (and books), Nicola.
Any idea if and when the “Writing Her Body” and “Blending the Landscape” collections might be available for the Kindle?
Thanks,
Janie
Janie, With Her Body won't be coming out as an ebook. However, I'm planning to release a full-length collection of short stories sometime soonish–I just need to get my novel finished first (well, not finished finished, just the first draft completed) and that, most definitely, will be available for Kindle.
As for the various Bending the Landscape anthologies, I honestly have no idea whether there are plans to release those as ebooks or not. They were published so long ago, and the legal and admin situation is so complicated (I will never, ever co-edit and anthology again) that I took my hands off the wheel ten years ago. Someday, I know–for the sake of my conscience if nothing else; those authors trusted me to take of them and their work–I'll have to re-engage with BtL. But today is not that day.
Thanks for the info. (Getting old here and can't bring myself to read small-print paper books anymore.)Good to know about more in the works.
Will look forward to the new short story ebook and, eventually, the novel (“Hild,” is it?), which I assume will be available in an electronic edition. :)
Janie
The novel will be about Hild, yes, though I haven't decided on a title. And, yes, she will be available everywhere, on everything.
I've downloaded all your books that I could find from those filthy torrents so feel free to hate me.
But I also own them, and more, in paperback or hardcover. I just wasn't ok with paying for them all again (sorry) just to reread them on my e-reader instead of walking down the hall and picking up the bound version from my shelf.
I don't seed them, though. Well, not knowingly. Makes me want to double check…
Anon@2:29, in the future, probably, books will be bundled. But right now they're not. When you pay for a paper book, that's all you're paying for.
If you want to avoid walking three meters down the hall, your choice is between paying for the privilege or accepting the label of thief.
Redemption, though, is easy: don't do it again, and explain to everyone you know that downloading pirated books is taking food from starving authors. (While I'm not actually starving, I could very well be soon if people don't stop ripping off my work.)
I'll admit that money being tight, I usually check your books out from the library before I can buy them. I have bought my own copies of the Aud series, Ammonite, and Slow River, though (As well as Kelley's Solitaire), and have requested that my local library buy your books when it doesn't have them.
If DDD ever pays me for the aide work I did in June, and if they include my client on more task forces in the future, I may someday be able to afford a Kindle. Can you adjust screen brightness on a Kindle? That's a major consideration for me since screen glare gives me migraines.
There is no screen glare on Kindle; it's e-ink, not a backlit LCD. I think it would be great for you.
I'm officially a fan of libraries. I use them all the time, especially for the kind of academic text that costs $150 and I'll only read once, or of which I'll only read one segment. Those prices make me grumpy–and the author doesn't even see any of it. It's the publishers who get all the profit on those things. Mutter mutter.
Good to know, thanks :). I do have a birthday (40!) coming up, now that I think about it . . . now I know what to ask for $ towards.
This seems like, well actually it is one, such a touchy subject. This buying versus bit torrenting versus ebooking versus reading them all in the library/bookstores for free, but I'm going to put my two cents in anyway. Remember mix tapes? Yeah, those wonderful little story ideas we made of random samples of musical works, kinda like the mashups of today. Say you never made one, got one, and I'll drop the comparison.
I loved putting them together for people as gifts. And I loved getting them even more because they always introduced me to new art/artists and gave me reason to want to go and get more of their work.
Ever see the cover of a book someone was reading and ask, “Is it good?” Don't all readers (Kindle/Nook/whatever) look the same?
To me it's all a vast flea market. We buy, trade, steal, borrow, lend. We move the product/book. In the long run, taking it personal just aggravates without relief.
Do I look forward to the wonderful corporate libraries of Jonathan E? Hell no. I want all my choices available.
terrisberries, consumers used to buy albums. They're buying print books, still.
But when consumers pay for mp3s and ebooks, they're licensing the intellectual property for one-time use. Legally, very different.
At some point, pricing will catch up to the licensing structure, i.e. the cost of use will fall. When a novel costs $3 (say), there will be zero need to steal it.
If you can't afford $3, borrow the book (digital or print) from the library–which is a kind of licensing. At least you won't get to keep the whole thing for free without me getting paid.
I have no problem with anyone paying for my downloaded novels, then give them away to friends–by friends I mean those whose homes you have spent time in, those whom you would trust to not seed torrents. Seeding torrents is not giving to friends. It's stealing wholesale.
Feel free to give away a snippet of my work as a taster, to all and sundry. Feel free to give away a whole ebook to, as I say, someone whose house you've spent time in, and who promises to not seed it as a torrent–because then you'll be approaching roughly the same conditions of the days of mix tapes.
As for taking it personally, how could I not? It's my livelihood. Without sales I don't pay my mortgage, I don't get my teeth cleaned, I don't get to eat. It's personal.
You without teeth, I can't imagine.
Only if I leave them sunk in someone :)
Because stealing online is mostly anonymous, it's easy for people to forget that it's really no different than walking into a store, picking up something, and walking out without paying for it. This is called stealing no matter where/how you do it!!
I'm not sure what's worse — the stealing itself or stealing and feeling no remorse.
It certainly is personal when you are basically taking food out of someone's mouth or money out of their bank account. And in the case of books or music, you are stealing from an author or a musician. A person.
It does annoy me that I cannot loan an ebook. But if I had the B&N version I could. I wish the Amazon would do that.
Thanks. I am surprised by those unwilling to respect ownership or pay for artistry. I had been wondering if you considered these issues to be about the legality of ownership but I think you see them, primarily, as policing issues. Generally, I fear that until uniformity of access to the web is legislated, the market and its goal to satisfy human desire will reign and make enforcing ownership impossible.
About Amazon loans, I have found that I can download a book to a friend's gadget, I understand that 5 are allowed, (which, I know, opens my Amazon library to them) then I rush home and cut them off by computer under “Manage my Kindle.” I think if I cut them off at their gadget, the gadget is unable to show them the book.
Pia, I think of the issue from both sides, but have just been through a difficult week from the POV of illegal torrents and so am temporarily focused on, as you say, policing issues.
I haven't explored sharing on Kindle yet.
Oh GRRRR. Serves me write for writing such a long preachy comment.
Hm, ok: I've bought your books for many friends, recommended them to even more, but I've also checked them out of the library (no, that does not generate direct royalties, not in the USA, unlike the UK), and yes downloaded unlicensed copies. I plan to buy more. I do feel bad that this causes such unhappiness and anxiety for you and some other authors.
But insofar as this flows from the decidedly empirical question of whether or not unlicensed downloads generate more or less revenue on net, it is at *least* as likely, on both theoretical and empirical grounds, to go the other way. I'm not sure why you paint the music industry as a story of doom; concert/merch revenue has grown as recorded rev has declined. Whatever the full causal story, it is certainly not “every unlicensed copy is a lost sale.”
I'm trying not to sound concern-trollish, but I have trouble understanding putting lots of effort and concern into playing whack-a-mole with torrents etc, when, again, you get $0 for every (paper; ebook is different) USA library loan. Is the just the legality that makes the (psychological & moral) difference?
(Uhhh, the “GRRRR” was about my previous comment attempt, which was ridiculously long and got eaten.)
X, okay, 'grrr' now contextualised :)
Library lending vs. torrents. What makes the difference (to me) is that library lending does not breed more (unpaid for) copies of the book, and only one person can read the (paid for) book at a time. And there's a certain amount of effort in exchanged for the 'free' reading: walking (or getting in your car) and actually going to pick the book up (print–elending is usually on a timed basis, so the copies disappear once read and can't be replicated, forwarded, etc.).
Books vs. music. Again, pretty different models in terms of merchandise. People buy band t-shirts etc to remind themselves of the almost ecstatic experience of that live-in-a-crowd consumption that is music performance. Books (and book readings) work differently, in terms of individual vs. group experience, and in terms of affinity-signalling merch (the t-shirts).
Who would pay $250 to hear an author read at Madison Square Garden?
Re: “Who would pay $250 to hear an author read at Madison Square Garden?”
My google-fu is weak tonight, so I can't find it fast enough for my patience, but as I recall from the recent film, people did almost exactly that to hear Truman Capote read from the in-progress 'In Cold Blood,' no?
I don't mean that it's a viable business model today. My point simply that institutions, laws, and social mores need to respond to each other in a humane and flexible way. When the incumbent institutions simply dictate the rules that best preserve their current business models, despite changing technical and social capabilities, it's neither ethical nor prudent to insist that mores continue to track those laws.
I agree that there are differences between hard-copy libraries and unlicensed file-sharing; I claim only that if we judge simply on the metric “impact on net sales,” it looks more like a difference of degree rather than kind. When we see a kid staggering home with 10kg of books from the library, we think it's cute and encouraging–but willful copyright infringement carries a statutory maximum penalty of, IIRC, $100k per copy. That's not a reasonable response to whatever differences exist as far as influencing total market demand.
I've been purely critical with these comments, so let me try to be more constructive: my own sense of ethical behavior w.r.t. creative works is that *supporting their production* is an imperfect duty in the more or less Kantian sense. It's unreasonable to attach blame to every failure to compensate enjoyment of them, but we ought to contribute some reasonable amount, with exactly how that gets distributed a matter of reasonable disagreement. I think of it sort of like tithing, not that I'm religious. Or how many people think of duties to volunteer in their communities–it can be done in lots of ways; it's not crucial that it precisely lines up with the benefits one receives from community membership.
So I try to make sure I direct a reasonable amount of my (PhD student stipend) budget towards creators–I've had a subscription to emusic for years, for example, because they never had DRM & their per-song payouts to artists were supposedly quite high–and then basically consume whatever.
It's a problem that, so far, doesn't have a widely acknowledge/accepted solution.
I think all kinds of writers these days are playing with a variety of pay/not pay methods.
The main obstacle is, I think, snobbery. Most of us littateurs are trained to think that we shouldn't grub for money; that's it's better to, say, teach for a living and write for the love and honour of it than to hustle for dollars. This isn't true for musicians–in my experience. I'd love to hear from musicians and other writers on this. Hmmn. One of these fine days I should write a post soliciting this input.
Thanks for the conversation so far.
I'm going to pack for my trip back to the US via Iceland now, I swear, but just a thought on business-model creativity: online comics is one genre where artists and writers have done a *lot* to invent new ways of making money in a world of zero-marginal-cost duplication.
xkcd.com, qwantz.com, penny-arcade.com, and asofterworld.com are all particularly noteworthy in this regard.
(And thanks for letting me show up at your virtual house and rant! & for writing your books, of course!)