A friend or relative of an author, entrusted with a draft copy of her manuscript, somehow released said manuscript onto the Internet - whether intentionally or unintentionally, is unclear.
Now, while having an unedited draft distributed publicly without your knowledge and permission is devastating, The author's reaction to this situation is downright childish. Instead of taking the issue up with the person who violated her copyright, the author took her fit of pique out on her fans, declaring that she will no longer finish the book in question.
She puts it this way on her blog: "...I believe that there was no malicious intent with the initial distribution. [But] it is easy for people to obtain and share items that do not legally belong to them. No matter how this is done, it is still dishonest. This has been a very upsetting experience for me, but I hope it will at least leave my fans with a better understanding of copyright and the importance of artistic control."
Seriously. Earth to Author! It is the "trusted individual" to whom you gave a draft copy of your manuscript who is initially at fault here, not your fans. It is not illegal to read something that violates someone's copyright. It is not illegal to link to something that violates copyright. It is illegal to copy it and distribute it to others, but consider what your fans may have been thinking: it happens, sometimes, that authors die before completing an important book in a series. It happened to Douglas Adams and it nearly happened to Stephen King. A favourite author's latest book in a series is available, early and free, on the Internet and you expect die-hard fans NOT to read it? Let me repeat that point: You're punishing your fans for reading your books - for loving your books. And you've justified their rationale by pulling the plug on the book after all.
In a final little twist to this sordid tale, the author, herself, has posted a pdf file of the violated book on her blog. Again, she says: "I'd rather my fans not read this version of [the book]." What a challenge! She concludes by saying: "I cannot begin to tell [my wonderful fans] how much each of you means to me." Really? It doesn't show.
Does anyone else think this smells awfully like a very tacky, manipulative, and badly handled publicity stunt?
Comments (2)
Selma -
Oh, absolutely a publicity stunt. Goodness me, she should modify her behaviour. How childish.
I haven't been getting your blog updates via my feed reader and feel bad I've missed so many of your posts. Am I doing something wrong? I'm using Google Reader. When I press the subscribe button your three recent posts don't appear. Thought I should tell you.
Posted 20 October 2008
Elle -
Sorry, that's my fault Selma. I haven't updated the RSS feed in ages; it's such a pain that I usually wait until I have a bunch of articles up before I bother with it. I must get back into the habit of making it part of the blog posting procedure.
Posted 21 October 2008
