NEW YORK—In a desperate, perhaps final attempt to prevent the earth’s temperatures from rising to catastrophic levels, a last-ditch climate change report issued Tuesday by the U.N. includes nothing more than the whereabouts of top oil executives and directions to secret weapons caches. “For decades, we have failed in our efforts to spur action by describing in rigorous scientific detail the ways in which global warming will cause widespread misery for billions of innocent people, and so this time we have taken a different approach,” read the report, a 500-page directory that simply lists the names and addresses of key players in the fossil fuel industry, along with the precise coordinates of several bunkers containing extensive stockpiles of firearms without serial numbers. “We have provided the security codes necessary to bypass the gates of each oil executive’s mansion so that their homes may be entered at night and they may be murdered in their sleep. An appendix is included with instructions on how to bash in a skull with a hammer if the bullets run out. It may not seem like a lot on its own, but if everyone comes together and does their part, we can make a tremendous difference.” At press time, sources confirmed no one had bothered to read the report.
Several times a month I get an email or social media message from someone who wants to know what the “best” way to buy my work is so that I, the writer, get as much of their money as possible. I think this is lovely! Thank you for thinking about me, and also, in a larger sense, about writers in general. It does warm my heart to know you want authors to get the most from what you pay for their work.
Rather than answering this individually over and over again, I have decided to (finally) post a primer about it so I have something to point people to when they ask. This primer is for my work in particular; check with other authors for their opinions about this stuff.
Short version: As long as you’re buying the book new, it genuinely doesn’t matter to me where you get it or in what format. Buy it however you want to buy it, from whomever you wish to buy it from. I’m going to get paid enough. I also get paid a bit from library borrows, so that’s great too. Thank you!
Longer version: Here’s how it works. If you buy a print version of the book, I get paid a percentage based off the published list price of book. If you buy an ebook or audiobook version, I get paid a percentage of the publisher net for the book. In each case, the amount I get comes out to roughly the same money, regardless of where you get it. There are variations – hardcover price versus paperback prices, ebook sale prices, whether the book or audiobook is being offered as part of a subscription service, etc – but at the end of the day money is coming back to me and I am getting paid sufficiently.
I have an agent and a lawyer and a manager, all with years of experience in their specific fields, and every contract I sign for anything I do is looked over extensively. If we don’t think a deal is fair to me, or does not offer some substantive advantage for me, I don’t enter into the deal. If you’re buying my work new from a legitimate venue of business, it’s there because as a contractual matter I am getting value from it.
(NB: I do not individually approve every venue that sells my work – it’s possible a venue you disapprove of has my work for sale. Don’t buy from that venue. Buy it elsewhere.)
As I am generally published traditionally, when you pay for my book, the bookstore and the publisher usually get a larger share of the money you pay than I do. But! The publisher pays for every material aspect of the book production, plus the marketing, distribution and warehousing, and pays editors, artists, publicists and others who work on the book on my behalf. Bookstores stock the books, pay people to sell them and generally support authors and the local community.
In both cases, what they do for me is beneficial and I am happy to share what you pay for the books with them. I do not want to do the work they do for me. They are not taking advantage of me, nor are they mere “middle men.” They are doing me a service. They deserve to get paid for that service, and I am paid enough to be happy.
Libraries: If you borrow my book from a public/school library, I get paid for that, too. Libraries buy the books they shelve, and the more requests they get for the book, the more copies they buy, and as the copies wear out, they will often replace them. In some countries (not the US, alas), authors also get a small sum when their books are checked out from libraries. Moreover, libraries are a public good, and the more you use them, the better they can justify their existence.
Never feel bad about checking out a book of mine from a library, especially if, for whatever reason, you can’t afford a copy of your own. Borrowing from a library is my preferred way for you to get my books when you can’t or won’t pay for them.
Secondhand: If you buy a book of mine secondhand or from a collector’s market, I generally don’t get paid for those. If it’s important for you that I’m paid, buy new. I do generally have new signed copies of my work available through my local bookstore Jay and Mary’s Book Center in Troy, Ohio (call and ask), and when new books of mine come out I frequently offer signed editions for those, through Subterranean Press or individual retailers. I also sign books when I’m on tour or when I do appearances. There are lots of way to get new signed books from me.
That said, I don’t mind if you buy books of mine secondhand, as it generally still supports the bookstore owners and the communities they serve. It’s fine.
Pirating: If you otherwise have access to my work through a library or bookstore, I prefer you don’t pirate my work online. Go to those places first, please, and once again, let me emphasize that supporting libraries is beneficial to you and to them.
While I prefer you take advantage of the above options, here are examples of when pirating my work is reasonable to me:
a) if the books of mine are out of print and they may be difficult or impossible to find otherwise;
b) you live in a country or place where my books are not available and you have no reasonable way to legally acquire them;
c) your own personal circumstances are such that it might be unsafe for you to legally acquire my work.
In each of those cases, do what you have to do, it’s fine.
I understand that some of you will choose to pirate even if you have the means to pay for the work, or have access to a library. I’m not particularly interested in your reasons why.
In all cases, if you acquire a pirated work of mine and later decide you want to make it up to me — this has actually happened — you don’t need to send me money directly. You can buy a book of mine for yourself or someone else instead, or buy a book (not necessarily mine) for a kid you know, or donate to a literacy charity in your country. In the United States, I like First Book, Reading is Fundamental, and the Imagination Library, or you can find a literacy organization local to you.
Finally, let me note that when you’ve paid me for a book of mine, in whatever format, it’s my opinion that you own that book and however you choose to secure that ownership is your business.
Happy buying and happy reading!
— JS