Saturday, May 22, 2010

Joe Konrath Comes Out With a One-Two Punch on The Subject of Piracy!

READ THE ENTIRE THING. 

Here's an excerpt:

Q: But I don't want my writing to be shared.

A: Then don't write. Simple as that. JK Rowling has lost millions of dollars, because she refused to let Harry Potter come out in ebook form. Newsflash: you can get ebooks of all the Potter books from pirate sites. She didn't cater to her fans, so her fans catered to themselves. And if Rowling can't stop it, with her billions and armies of layers, you can't either.

Q: No, seriously, in a future where everything is free, how will...

A: We're not in a future where everything is free. But I'll play the "let's pretend" game. Let's pretend that all ebooks are free. How will writers make money? The same way all media makes money. Advertising, merchandising, and licensing.

Q: But I don't want ads in ebooks.


A: I don't want ads in anything. But that's how capitalism works. Deal with it.

While Konrath applies his arguments specifically to ebook piracy you can substitute the term "movie" or "comic" or "series" to the equations and come pretty close to the bullseye he hit here.  Especially when you understand he practices what he preaches by having free versions of his books on his site and is still selling 220 books a day.

In terms of what we do here at Pulp 2.0 Press we are making plans to embrace this sort of future and put our books into as many hands as inexpensively as we possibly can. We're even figuring out ways to make sure talented fans like you can make money with our books and content. It's new. It's not always easy to figure out...

But it is the way things are going and we don't plan on swimming against the waves only to drown. We're going to grab a surfboard and ride into shore with our books and other media. Besides, I look good in jams, and I need some sun.

Stay tuned.  Maybe by signing up for our free newsletter?

4 comments:

Deka Black said...

Hello from Spain Bill. What you quote and say must be readed for a organization here what makes a lot of noise in the media about the piracy. They must move with the times or die.

You're made me, by the way, obtain a lot of strenght for try to return to thee writing. And maybe, publish my works.

You made me, also, remember a thing a wise man said to me once: "To learn to write, there is only one way: Write"

Cunningham said...

Deka - thank you for your kind words.

Anything I can do to inspire you to write or draw or film - I am happy to do.

One of my life goals is to travel to Spain and hike and eat my way across your beautiful country. When this happens I must contact you.

Until then, keep writing!

Deka Black said...

I keep, i keep. For your future travel, i hope you'll find what you search!

David Cranmer said...

A very interesting link. Thanks.