Comment Re:Yes! Copyright terrorism must be stopped! (Score 1) 207
if I wrote the book, shouldn't I be the one who decides how it is going to be distributed and marketed? Or at the very least, someone that I have decided will have that responsibility (i.e., a publisher)?
That is a whole different argument.
OP was not commenting on the ways of distribution and marketing but was instead parroting the fallacy that sharing for free is stealing.
As for distribution and marketing... no... you don't get to decide that if you want to make money from your book.
You specifically sell or lease your rights to the publisher/distributor.
Should they be the ones to decide how it is distributed and marketed?
That's a whole ANOTHER argument.
Which involves at this moment completely hypothetical relationships between them and you, as well as hypothetical issues such as are you being exploited in the deal, and very real issues such as is the present and future audience being exploited through lobbying for stricter and longer copyright regulations...
And they are all completely IRRELEVANT because - it is not an issue of distribution or marketing but of free publicity.
And unless you have a problem with your books being popular... in which case you can try the Salinger approach - sorry, but you have as little say today on the free sharing of your book as someone back a hundred years ago had on someone quoting, reading to others or summarizing the story in their books.
Lament the change or embrace it. Either way, the world moved on.
Progress didn't outright kill the old business model, it just made it less profitable with some particular strategies.
In return, now the market is global, instantaneous and distribution and marketing costs are ZERO.
Have you thought about releasing your works in episodes and through subscription?
It worked great for Charles Dickens.
On a side note... I never heard of anyone getting their pirated PDF copy signed by the author.