What's your hot takes about books, etc.?

Not the instant gratification market in play, oh noes!

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That is pretty interesting to know.
Thanks for sharing.

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Just the psychology of how to mess with a man:

“You are not a Mighty Gherkin, you are but a Baby Dill!” ~ Veggietales

Dudes are dominated by performance. It’s very easy to humiliate someone who hasn’t found worth in another sphere. I’ve not found much need to drag my spouse into anything, and he gets mad that someone messes with me.

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They generally don’t help anyone, but most specifically self-published authors.

According to Victoria Aveyard, if I remember correctly that is, she said that publishers expect people to steal books so they set money aside that they author would originally make through royalties (this is assuming you are making royalties) that you won’t see because generally, all book platforms like Amazon, B&N, etc. charge fees toward the publishing house/author when a book is returned, etc. So the money they set aside goes directly to those fees, and I’m guessing what money is left over goes into the royalties…? If that makes any sense? But the thing is, publishers have the money to do these things. Self-published authors don’t. Traditional authors aren’t paying those fees out of their pocket. They aren’t having to deal with Amazon’s crappy policies. The only major thing that affects these authors is that publishers have access to how many books are pirated or returned, and if the numbers are high, then that could mean you won’t get another deal because sales is everything. At least with self-published authors, they can do whatever they like. But that too comes at a cost.

Piracy and returning books just because you didn’t like it does more harm for authors than good.

And readers have the audacity to make excuses. Libraries are perfect for lower classed citizens or people who don’t want to spend money on books. In most places, it’s free to get a library card. You can also get library cards from other countries, other places. Libraries also have online libraries like Libby and Hoopla where you can have audiobooks and e-books for free. Available on your phone.

If you’re too far from a library, you can do thrift stores and yard sales. I grew up in extreme poverty situations through most of my life. Even now when I have a full-time job, I still take advantage of thrifting because I’m too poor to buy books from a bookstore at 20+ dollars a pop. Most of my books now are from thrift stores or book/yard sales. I once got five books from a thrift store for like 10 dollars. And my library does book sales twice a month, and it’s donation only. Before I worked here, I would get 10-20 books at a time for twenty dollars. Now, we get dibs on donations and books we’re deleting. Someone donated brand new copies of Our Violent Delights and These Violent Delights—I saved over 30 dollars by taking them. :rofl: And our YA cataloger recently deleted 600 YA books from our collection. I got 25 books for free. Working a library has helped me save money on books but hasn’t helped me with my hoarding problems. :sweat_smile: But another good portion of my collection also comes from people buying me books as gifts (Christmas and birthdays) or giving away books. I’ve had quite a few friends or co-workers who were throwing away books and I found a great amount that I could add to my shelves. About four years ago, I moved into the house I currently live in with about 20-30 books. And now, I have a little over 300 books, and over half of them I didn’t even buy.

But let’s say you don’t have a library or thrift stores in your area. You can still get access to cheap books. Amazon, along with a few other retailers, have options of buying new or used. If I’m buying a book, I mostly always go used and I try to find the cheapest option. I’ve found books on Amazon for as low as three dollars because of that “used” option. You have to shop smart. :wink: Not to mention of all the authors who do giveaways or sell directly from their website and or have sales going on or give away free ARC copies, etc.

Otherwise, there’s always waiting until you can afford it. In all of my years in living in poverty, places that didn’t have libraries or thrift stores, I was able to find other things to read without pirating a book. That’s where Wattpad came in because there’s millions upon millions of stories on there that don’t require you buying it. And besides that, I borrowed books from friends or I just didn’t read for a bit.

There is no excuse to pirating books.

I definitely agree that they need to stop adapting stuff for the dumb, popular Wattpad books, but I definitely think they need to find better books to adapt into film. I can think of so many that they need to do, and yet, they just go for the ones that are dumb. :upside_down_face:

Mmmm… definitely. I also wonder if these those who categorize them don’t know how to, if you get what I mean? Like, with my library, there is only two places for graphic novels and manga and that’s between YA and JUVs (middle grade). The YA has the most manga and graphic novels, though, but they literally do have all sorts of comics that might not be suitable for children. Like, we got things like Deadpool (which I haven’t read, but when the movies were coming out, I’ve heard a lot of people say that it should’ve been like X-rated or something :face_with_peeking_eye:) that wouldn’t necessarily belong to the YA audience. But our adult section is only covered with novels and non-fiction novels that I don’t think these particular types of formats would be best targeted toward them? I don’t know. :sweat_smile:

YES.

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I agree, 100%. Would love to see a Sci-Fi or a Fantasy that’s decently written get a chance, or even an experimental work. That would be pretty cool, IMO, coming from Wattpad.

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I have returned 1 book my entire life for enraging me that badly. It shouldn’t be done just because you read it and don’t want to keep it, after all.

But if it’s something that I’m meh about, I rehouse the thing.

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As a self published author, i cant support this. Is absolutely hurts us indie authors so much. And if you read below, here’s why. My entire career could be over in hours if someone pirates my book. And that is NOT fair to me. It does not benefit us. By pirating our books, our books could be removed altogether and now nobody can read it just because you didnt want to pay for it. Im trying to say this as nice as possible but PLEASE do not do this. It hurts far more than you know.

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Yep. Ive only ever returned one book and that was simply because im an idiot and bought the wrong format. I returned it amd bought more books with the money. But its not something i try to do. Even when i hate a book, i make use of it or give it to someone. I dont like returning books. I find it easier to just gift it to someone else. I hated Forestfall (sequel to Lakesedge, whoch i did really enjoy book 1). Like youll find my review on goodreads and see how much i hated that book. Poor representation of demisexuals. But i never returned it. I gave it to someone else. Its not something i like to do.

And 100% yes. Thank you for saying no to piracy. Its sad that us indie authors have to even preach it so much just so we can keep our books available and our careers going.

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That’s a problem with Amazon not Mayu

Piracy is a symptom of larger problems with service and accessibility, not just a bad thing to do. Anyone who complains about piracy taking money away from authors must consider that those pirates might not have an easy, legal way to read your books.

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Then they don’t need to read them. They can read Wattpad books, public domain works, fanfiction or works posted on any number of other sites for free. ¯\_(ﭢ)_/¯

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It’s not a pity them argument, it’s a 20/40/60/80% argument.

There is no world where you prevent 100% theft.

But when you have a service that makes it harder to access everything while being too easy to pirate it, you place the threshold for theft closer to 80% risk than working on the variables to lessen it’s impact. It’s atrocious.

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It doesnt matter. Im still the one being punished in the end and thats not something i cant risk. I care about my books and inwant others who can pay for them to be able to read them.

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Why do i feel like youre the only person here who supports authors? Like genuinely this makes me sick that people are out here defending piracy no matter how it could end an author’s career. Thats not fair to us. No matter how you spin it, no matter the excuse… we are the ones who are harmed in the end. To say piracy does more good than harm is a fat lie. Having to defend my paycheck and my livelihood is concerning.

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I also don’t agree with book piracy whatsoever, if it makes you feel better :') <3

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My hot take is that writing for market is absolutely OK and good to do if you’re happy with it!

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Well, I’m not for it. I’m just more an apathetic personality. I’ll back where my passions are, and it’s not in publishing at this time.

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Yeah, that’s fine! But for the people who enjoy it, more power to them imo

No not that end, I’m talking about being very strong against pirating. I mean, theft out side bare necessities is a measure of how absolute you find aspects of morality to be.

And the reason I hold food, some aspects of shelter, safe water to not be as absolute is I’ve no interest in returning to Les Miserables.

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OH, you were talking about piracy not my hot take haha! I’m against piracy too. :smiley:

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