4professionals
Post Titled: A Fair/Sensible Proposal from Helen regarding Secondhand Books and Libraries
"As it happens, I have just posted a long post about secondhand sales on my blog -- all about how secondhand sales & libraries & the kind of reader who lends a copy to many many many many friends are Very Good Things for the planet and Very Bad Things for writers who only get paid for planet-rape, i.e.
manufacture and sale of new copies. So why not change the system, I ask
-- why shouldn't we tip writers the way we tip waitresses? Through my
good old friend PayPal? Why would it it not be better to buy a
secondhand book for $1.25 and send the author a discretionary $1 than
buy a new one for $14.95 of which the author gets $1.12? Usw usw usw."
FULL POST HERE
Indeed, it is really not fair at all that only the initial purchase of a book actually sends revenue to the author- which is odd because all books have the ISBN number, so having such a system set up is definitely possible... I suppose in a perfect world... then again, does an artist receive money each time someone spends a minute looking at their painting, and does a musician get anything every time someone hears their song?
Sure, that is slightly different, but same ballpark principle I suppose...
They Hella Fine Bitschez at tha Library
Speaking of libraries, it is a chilly rainy Seattle day, I want to go to the library and newly renovated art museum. THinking about it, though, I realize that the Amerikanishes Gedenkbibliotek which I frequent in Berlin is always teeming with life, which is not always the case here, I mean, it seems like people are usually using the internet at libraries here- which makes me wonder- are the Germans more book-hungry or just more thrifty?
"As it happens, I have just posted a long post about secondhand sales on my blog -- all about how secondhand sales & libraries & the kind of reader who lends a copy to many many many many friends are Very Good Things for the planet and Very Bad Things for writers who only get paid for planet-rape, i.e.
manufacture and sale of new copies. So why not change the system, I ask
-- why shouldn't we tip writers the way we tip waitresses? Through my
good old friend PayPal? Why would it it not be better to buy a
secondhand book for $1.25 and send the author a discretionary $1 than
buy a new one for $14.95 of which the author gets $1.12? Usw usw usw."
FULL POST HERE
Indeed, it is really not fair at all that only the initial purchase of a book actually sends revenue to the author- which is odd because all books have the ISBN number, so having such a system set up is definitely possible... I suppose in a perfect world... then again, does an artist receive money each time someone spends a minute looking at their painting, and does a musician get anything every time someone hears their song?
Sure, that is slightly different, but same ballpark principle I suppose...
They Hella Fine Bitschez at tha Library
Speaking of libraries, it is a chilly rainy Seattle day, I want to go to the library and newly renovated art museum. THinking about it, though, I realize that the Amerikanishes Gedenkbibliotek which I frequent in Berlin is always teeming with life, which is not always the case here, I mean, it seems like people are usually using the internet at libraries here- which makes me wonder- are the Germans more book-hungry or just more thrifty?
Labels: Helen DeWitt Secondhand Books
posted by "Post-Google" by TAR ART RAT at 6:22 pm
2 Comments:
Whoa, wait - are you saying that there's an English language library in Berlin? Am I reading that correctly?
It has books in many languages, not just English, also DVDs and videos for loan - it is a stone's throw from the Domän on Hallesches Ufer, U-Bahn stop Hallesches Tor (U1, U6).
Post a Comment
<< Home