Saturday, November 25, 2017

Paying for a digital book

Most of you know that I want to be author someday.  This post is not about what it takes to be an author and all that, but let's fast forward.  Let's say there's a book that is published.  Of course, a person who wants to read this book has to pay money to buy the book or buy the digital copy.  Why not?  Should not the artist/author get paid for his/her talents and efforts.  I have no problem with that. When the book sales go high because the book is amazing, the pay should be equally amazing.

Here's my contention:  What if someone pays for the physical book.  Do they still need to pay for a digital copy of that same book?  I feel no.  After all, it's the SAME book and the person has already paid for it.  Asking them to pay twice and a second time (a digital copy) is double dipping.  Besides, what's the cost for a digital copy?  It's not like printing costs.  I can see adding a cost to purchase the book when one has already purchased the digital copy, but the other way around doesn't make sense to me.

My husband buys BluRays.  That's a whole another story, but when he buys a BluRay, it comes with a FREE digital copy, so he can go online and download the same movie on to his computer and watch it whenever and he doesn't have to carry all the BluRays with him.  He has already paid!  So, while we are in the digital age and advanced, why can't books catch up?

Best to you all,
TTR