Comments on: On stealing books….

By: Taylor

Taylor — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 09:47:31 +0000

I will pass this message on. I have actually made my friends and myself, start buying books all together and stop borrowing from the library because we want more books! I will blog about this to get the message out there and completely agree with your points.

By: kimpauley

kimpauley — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 04:00:52 +0000

María — Thank you for stopping by and for apologizing. I appreciate it!

By: María del Carmen

María del Carmen — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 00:49:39 +0000

I write only to apologize for the damage caused by the publication of your book. One person sent it me one week ago because it was published on several blogs and it got on mine. I’m sorry if I have troubled you, the post was deleted. We hang the books because in my country is very difficult to get it, do not consider for publication of books, we are not taken into account. Again I apologize for the inconvenience caused, if anything I can do to compensate I’m at your disposal.

I write this apology sincerely, I really regret what happened.

María del Carmen

By: kimpauley

kimpauley — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 20:18:18 +0000

Exactly, Ari, thanks! I think people would be really surprised at some of the authors who still have “day jobs” — very successful authors! Unless you’re either wildly successful (which most of us aren’t; most of us are very happy that we’re selling enough books that publishers will publish our next ones) or you’re able to write (and get published) multiple books a year, you just plain can’t support yourself on writing alone.

And besides the time it takes to write, we also put a lot of our own money into promoting our books. If we’re lucky our publishers also help promote our work, but we have to promote our books as well. I think my first two royalty checks actually went directly into promotional stuff like ads and t-shirts and fangs and books to give away and what-not.

By: Ari

Ari — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 20:11:28 +0000

I know. And it hurts even more knowing that there are so many of us out there *like me* who spend hundreds of their baby sitting money on buying these books meanwhile there are others out there who see FREE and immeadiately get it. Everyone thinks every author out there has boatloads of money because of movies and things like James Patterson, and JK Rowling. When in reality they really dont have that much money from any of those things. Authors like James Patterson and JK Rowling earned all that money from several books and hard work put into effor through out years. JK Rowling really didnt start making money until Harry Potter was put into the US. Meanwhile James Patterson only does because all he has so many books that have been turned into so many different things and into so many different languages. I think it will stop happening so often if people broaden their horizions with books and realize not all authors are as well know which means they dont make a ton of money.

By: kimpauley

kimpauley — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 19:02:35 +0000

Thanks! And thanks for passing it on. I really do understand since I can imagine myself as I was when I was a teenager. I might have done the same thing. It’s just painful now when you’ve spent literally months and years on something, to then have someone steal it.

By: Malissa

Malissa — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 18:25:53 +0000

Thanks for this post! It has been RTed on Twitter. I think often when people think of authors and money they think of people like Stephen King or of things like J.K. Rowling’s rags to riches story. Not that it is right to steal from those authors either, but it makes it easier to justify to yourself. We need to be reminded that not all authors, not even all the good and recognized ones (like you =) ) have made a fortune off of their work and that it is *your* work and your livlihood.