I mean, really, where would we be?
There’s this thing going on these days that baffles me: It’s
the not-playing-nicely thing between publishers and libraries over ebooks. I’m
a published author, so I am involved, but I’m guessing you know a whole lot
more about it than I do since you’re in the thick of it.
The thing is, it really does baffle me. Granted, I know how
important it is both to the publisher and the author to be paid for their work.
I’m an author and I’m not stupid. But screwing the libraries? Libraries?
Did any of us ever, ever become a reader without the
influence of a library? If nothing else, we were regularly herded into the
library at school. If we were lucky, our parents took us to the local library.
But there was always a library involved. Always.
How can the publishers forget this? Yes, yes, yes, all that
technology and copyright and piracy stuff is scary and gets everyone’s panties
in a twist, but I cannot believe, with all the fancy technology and smart
people in the world, that there’s not a solution to this. I can’t believe it’s
not the priority!
Where, as I asked before, would any of us be without the
libraries? Where do the publishers think their customers came from, and where
do they think their customers were taught and nurtured to become the people who
buy their books today?
Get with it, publishing world. You need libraries maybe even
more than they need you. (Those librarians are smart people, I bet they’d work
something out.) Stop being stupid.
Pretty please and thank you.
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I ask you, librarians, what do you think about this
situation?
Leah
Petersen is an author whose first novel, Fighting Gravity, has just
been published. She blogs at www.leahpetersen.com/blog/, tweets @leahpetersen, and has a presence both on Google+ and on Facebook.
