I had a conversation about books with a friend of mine and we came into the subjects of buying books vs borrowing books from a public library. He said that he likes to support the author and prefers to buy the books he reads.
This made me think. The answer is pretty clear when it comes to buying vs downloading a pirate copy, but in the case with libraries it seems incorrect to say that I’m not supporting the author, but I can’t say why.
What do you think?
Everyone is being very pro-library (which is fair) but I think it’s missing the point a bit. There is very, very, very little gain for the author if you loan out a book from the library. Yes, the library has to buy a copy but there’s no payment per rental. If you are in the place financially to buy books and you appreciate the author then please buy their books and/or merch. No one should feel bad using a library but we also shouldn’t feel like it’s a replacement for actually helping authors.
If you’re in a country with a PLR scheme, there actually is a payment per rental.