Vital resource seized for greed
I’ve made 33 books in my academic career with five in process plus hundreds of journal articles. I for one ignore my publishers. The very first thing I do is post my books for free.
On Z-Library, on Scribd, on Internet Archive, on my own websites. This is an old capitalist trick called advertising! The people who like your book or find it useful or beautiful will buy a more attractive & convenient print copy & perhaps gift their friends & colleagues.
As an author, I get about a buck a copy. Nobody loses, particularly with print-on-demand books which sell for a higher markup.
Academic publishers & journal have been shameless gougers since their beginning. Sonny Bono let that happen.
We write because it’s vital to us to have people read our minds. For-profit publishers suck the life out of such sentiments, their books remaining in copyright but out-of-print & unobtainable.
…Except for Z-Library, one a the few charities to which I donate money as well as books. For those of us in education in the third world where there are few libraries or university funding, Z-Library is a vital resource. Or we’re back to my students Xeroxing their textbooks.
I’m betting these worthy folks had a backup plan like The Pirate Bay & will live to sail on.
CJ Hinke
unblocktheplanet
Thammasat University
Bangkok