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Thoughts on Book Pirating

Sandra Mitchell has a blog up about how illegal downloading affects authors*. She presents some specific numbers that she’s seen from her first book, Shadowed Summer, revealing the clear and discernible effect pirating had on authors. The comments reveal that other authors have had similar experiences in regards to pirating.

Here’s a quote from her blog that paints a vivid picture of just how much pirating has affected her earnings and her career:
“If even HALF of those people who downloaded my book that week had bought it, I would have hit the New York Times Bestseller list.

If the 800+ downloads a week of my book were only HALF converted into sales, I would earn out in one more month. But I’m never going to earn out. And my book is never going to be available in your $region, not for lack of trying.”

This kind of thing breaks my heart when I hear it for a couple reasons. One, because I love book and I love authors, and I want authors to write books that I love and be able to make a living doing it. It would never occur to me to pirate an author’s book. I have too much respect for the work that goes in to it. I firmly believe authors have a right to earn money for the work they produce (in fact, sometimes I even feel a wee guilty about using the library, instead of buying my own copy of a book, but that’s me). If they don’t earn that money, if they don’t get a certain level of numbers, then there is a very good chance they will not be able to publish their next book — what a depressing thought.

Another reason is I am hoping to someday soon complete a book that I will want to publish. When I do so I am hoping to earn money from publishing said book, and I am hoping to be able to publish many, many books thereafter. It’s very disheartening to think that some of the joy of that experience could one day be robbed from me because of illegal downloading. (I know, I know, I’m not there yet to be worrying about this kind of thing, but I can’t help it.)

So, I know I’m probably preaching to the choir, but seriously, don’t illegally download copies of books, people. If you really can’t afford it, Sandra Mitchell presents some alternatives to pirating, such as going to the library or requesting a review copy from the publisher.

*which I found the link for through [info]mizkit‘s rather awesome blog.

[Cross-posted to my livejournal. If you feel inclined, you can comment either here or there.]
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Hello, Monday!

I received an email this morning stating that one of my poems has been accepted for publication. SWEET!

I’ll let you know when it’s posted. (^_^)

(Guess this means I should get send some more submissions out.)

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Books Read in December

1. The Red Fairy Book, by Andrew Lang
2. The Pleasure Seekers, by Tishani Doshi
3. Morning in the Burned House (poetry), by Margaret Atwood
4. Talking Back to Poems: A Working Guide for the Aspiring Poet, by Daniel Alderson
5. Forces of Imagination: Writing on Writing, by Barbara Guest
6. Behind the Mountains, by Edwidge Danticat
7. Island Beneath the Sea (audio book), by Isabel Allende
8. The Good Neighbors: Kind, by Holly Black
9. Post Meridian (poetry), by Mary Rueffle
10. Flight of Shadows, by Sigmund Brouwer
11. Flirting with Pride and Prejudice: Fresh Perspectives on the Original Chick-Lit Masterpiece, edited by Jennifer Crusie
12. Damsel Under Stress, by Shanna Swendson
13. Yarrow, by Charles De Lint
14. The Penelopeia, by Jane Rawlings
15. Taste of Salt: A Story of Modern Haiti, by Frances Temple
16. Breath, Eyes, Memory (audio book), by Edwidge Danticat

Click here to read reviews.

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The Penelopeia, by Jane Rawlings

When Odyseus returns home from his long journeys, he finds that his wife Penelope has not only been steadfast in her defense of her home, but that she has managed to keep secret the birth of Odyseus’ twin daughters — a secret kept to spare them from the suitors ravaging their home.

But the gods are not done with this noble family yet, as it has been decried that Penelope and her two lovely daughters must travel to Pythia to visit the oracle and on from there to visit Helen so that her daughters may learn her secrets of healing.

Rawlings writes this continuation of The Odessy in the epic poetic style of Homer, mimicking the tone and voice of her favorite translation of the work. She accomplishes this quite well, for except for the fact that her poem is in first person, it sounds almost exactly like the Odessy as I remember reading it years ago.

I was slightly bored by it at time, though, because much of the epic poem is spent in convincing Odyseus to allow them to leave and in the sharing of only mildly interesting tales. It takes quite a while for Penelope to even get on the ship, let alone begin her adventures. Further, her adventures, being those of a woman are much tamer than her husbands. There is very little reason for her to use her cunning, which she clearly has as seen in the Odessy. The most exciting moments are those that came more than half way through the book, when she is taken up by the great Amazon warrior women who wish her to join their ranks. My interest was only roused then, and was diminished when she left their ranks.

In some ways Rawlings had to cheat to make this story happen, had to invent and secret in aspects of the story that were not in the Odessy in order to make it work. And even, the restrictions of women according to the time and culture in her characters lived meant that she could have gone further with this story, to delve deeply into strength and potential of women as I had hoped. Any attempt to have women go off on adventures on their own in ancient Greece, unless their were Amazons or in some other way free from men and the burdens of reputation, ultimately results in a story that sounds forced. Or perhaps it can be done, but it came out sounding forced here, despite Rawlings best efforts. In the end I was a bit disappointed with this tale.

[Cross-posted to my livejournal. If you feel inclined, you can comment either here or there.]

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This is the season…

Christmas is past (I got a TOASTER!) and New Year’s has not yet come. This is when it’s natural to assess the previous year and plan goals, hope, dreams for the upcoming year.

Apart of me is like booyah, goals are awesomesauce! And an entirely different part of me is repelled by the whole process, keeps hanging its head like Eeyore and letting loose a moping, why bother? (My mood is very transitory at the moment and will probably be completely different in an hour.)

I don’t really want to present a statistical list of 2010. It was what it was with really low lows and really high ups. Assessing the year would be a very messy process and I don’t want to get my shoes dirty, thank you very much.

I’m all for goal setting — with the stipulation that goals actually get completed. Looking back at the goals I set for 2010, I see that I didn’t complete even one of my goals. How sigh inducing.

It would be easy though to take that little fact and use it as an excuse to get all depressed and not bother setting goals for 2011. However, that would negate the other fact, which is that I’ve actually been working my ass off this year — it’s just that at some point in the year my goals shifted and new priorities came up and things looked different than they did in January. My desire to finish my novel switched to a desire to complete enough poetry for a chapbook (still working on this one). My desire to run a half marathon was replaced by a desire to work my way through the 28 day yoga book (which I did accomplish). It would be ridiculous to judge myself based on a list that doesn’t meet my needs now.

So, here I go. Here are my goals for 2011, stated here in the full knowledge that things will change, priorities may shift, and this list of hoped-fors may completely different a few months down the line.

1. I will finish the 30 Day Letter Challenge that I started, so that when I get to the end, I will have a rather nice stack of poems to edit and choose from for submission to chapbook competitions.

2. I will aim to have at least two submission of either poetry or fiction out in the field while working on a third. The idea is to keep pressing the market, thus bringing me closer to my long term hope of actually making some money at this writing gig.

3. I will take my laptop in and get it fixed and/or buy a new one. This not being able to write on my own time and terms is unacceptable.

4. I will assign a day of the week to go to a coffee shop or the library to write. Preferably this will be on some short story or on whatever novel idea I’m inclined to work on.

5. I will get together with my friend Juliette and work together with her on this musical idea that we’ve been talking about doing for a year now.

6. On January 3rd when registration opens up, I will sign  up for the Disneyland Half Marathon. Thus having already having paid my money, I will have no choice but to train for the event I know I’m going to.

7. Keep sketching, writing, collaging, dancing, in otherwords, keep creating in some way or another everyday.

8. Be joyful. (This is the easy one.)