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?
Keep libraries alive, if you want to support the author give them a 5 star review on Amazon and Goodreads. Why 5 star? As someone who has worked in marketing, star reviews actually work more like upvotes and downvotes. People look at the 5 stars, and the 1 stars. A 3.5 star might be a passing grade by school standards, but actually count more like a disapproval of the book rather than “mostly good, but not amazing” which is what you might mean.