Bestselling Author Of Children's Books Accuses Public Libraries Of Stealing His Paychecks
from the have-denis-leary's-'asshole-song'-stuck-in-my-head-for-some-reason dept
Maybe there's a scientific explanation for the sort of behavior that leads normally beloved people to suddenly veer into previously unexplored areas of misanthropy and jettison all the goodwill they've built up over a lifetime. It's not necessarily just a case of "old men yelling at clouds." The subject of this piece isn't necessarily old (although, I admit I keep moving those particular goalposts with each passing birthday) or incoherent. He's just... so horribly, awfully, completely wrong.Terry Deary, author of the Horrible Histories line of children's books, has a problem with libraries. Perhaps urged on by UK Publisher's Association's collective mental breakdown (libraries = "tawdry theft") early last year, Deary has joined the not-really-all-that-large number of voices decrying the existence of libraries and the countless free books contained therein.
"I'm not attacking libraries, I'm attacking the concept behind libraries, which is no longer relevant."Let's stop right there for a moment. When you've read the next few paragraphs, you'll probably come to the conclusion that Deary is attacking libraries. I just want to let you know that you are not crazy. When someone attacks the underlying concept of something, very rarely does that something escaped unscathed. There's a reason for this. Let's use a metaphor to explain Deary's oxymoronic statement:
Underlying concepts are like the foundation of a house, and when someone like Deary attacks this house's "foundation," he's going to sound like the sort of person that, for the good of humanity, should have several filters installed between his brainstem and his mouth. All clear?
Good. Let's proceed.
[I]t's been 150 years, we've got this idea that we've got an entitlement to read books for free, at the expense of authors, publishers and council tax payers. This is not the Victorian age, when we wanted to allow the impoverished access to literature. We pay for compulsory schooling to do that.Well, there's a lot of offensive stuff in there, almost enough of it to crowd out the ignorant stuff. "Entitlement to read books for free." To tell you the truth, I barely noticed that "entitlement" because it was immediately overshadowed by the author's entitlement. Who do you think it is that grants you the "entitlement" to earn money for writing books? Copyright is granted -- it's not something that has always existed and will always exist.
I'm particularly amazed (and not in the good way) that you feel "impoverished" people should be happy with whatever the school system manages to stock in its library. God forbid the poor get more than the bare minimum the "council tax payers" provide. They've got survival concerns that outweigh your "giving away a book or two" concerns, Deary. So, they want to read a bestseller while it's still on the list. Fuck them, right? Sorry about your dwindling royalties and all, but couldn't you at least have picked a more socially acceptable target, like Amazon or piracy or literacy rates or something?
And what about all the other books in the library that aren't children's fiction written by Terry Deary? Should these societal leeches purchase their own sets of reference books as well? I'm sure much more time and money went into crafting the Encylopaedia Brittanica and yet, these freeloaders are in the library, not paying for all this information. Should they just be pointed in the direction of the internet, another service most libraries provide? And what if they don't have that service at home? A closed library doesn't do the "impoverished" much good at all.
Please... continue.
"People have to make the choice to buy books."No, they don't, Terry. Not if there's an option, and certainly not if they can only afford the free option. If you think shutting down libraries will force everyone to start buying books (especially yours), then go ahead and grab a seat on the FAILboat crowded with content industry members that think shutting down piracy will force people to start buying their offerings. It's going to be a long, angry ride to a very disappointing destination.
"People will happily buy a cinema ticket to see Roald Dahl's Matilda, and expect to get the book for free."I've got some bad news for you and your shipmates, Terry: the library lends out movies as well. Audiobooks. Video games. CDs. And yet you think this is all about how you're losing out on one more royalty every time someone uses their library card.
"Books aren't public property, and writers aren't Enid Blyton, middle-class women indulging in a pleasant little hobby."Nice. A slam against middle-class women and hobby writers, both of whom deserve no respect and for nothing good to happen to them.
Well, that's probably all we need to hear from this author. It's enough to bury him alrea—
"The libraries are doing nothing for the book industry. They give nothing back, whereas bookshops are selling the book, and the author and the publisher get paid, which is as it should be. What other entertainment do we expect to get for free?"Really? Plenty of people get TV for free. I know everyone pays a license fee back in your homeland, Deary, but that's because it's a public service broadcaster. Over here in the US, advertising pays for our free TV. Even with the surcharge, the effective amount paid (per person) per hour of broadcasting falls well below the 6.2p per lend royalty that has Deary so upset. Or maybe you've heard of this little thing called radio? Music, talk, sports, religion -- all free.
YouTube -- free. (Oh, but the internet connection costs money, I hear you argue, as if that were even remotely a legitimate counterpoint. Sure, you need an internet connection to reach YouTube, but it's hardly the only site on the web. To make Deary's rhetorical question work, we have to pretend YouTube's offerings are the only content in demand on the internet and that YouTube would much rather sell DVDs than allow people to watch for "free.") And, as mentioned before, libraries are diversifying their offerings, so there's many more forms of entertainment people can expect to get for free.
There's also this:
"Bookshops are closing down, he said, "because someone is giving away the product they are trying to sell. What other industry creates a product and allows someone else to give it away, endlessly? The car industry would collapse if we went to car libraries for free use of Porsches … Librarians are lovely people and libraries are lovely places, but they are damaging the book industry. They are putting bookshops out of business, and I'm afraid we have to look at what place they have in the 21st century."First is was Barnes & Noble crowding out the indie bookstores. Then it was Amazon, crowding out B&N and the indie bookstores. Now, it's libraries, destroying bookstores in their glacially-paced (150 years+) quest to dismantle the publishing industry and undermine their own existence at the same time. And, for no apparent reason, there's our good friend "The Car Metaphor" thrown into the mix.
We can't give everything away under the public purse. Books are part of the entertainment industry. Literature has been something elite, but it is not any more. This is not the Roman empire, where we give away free bread and circuses to the masses."Literature used to be "elite." Now, they're simply "entertainment," and apparently should be sold as such. No freebies. And there's that ugly undercurrent of resentment aimed at the "masses," most of whom are presumably too "impoverished" to be considered part of Deary's society.
"People expect to pay for entertainment."Do they? I doubt it. Again: radio, TV, YouTube, etc. You can't even keep your story straight. First, they "expect" to pay for a movie ticket. Then they "expect" to read the book the movie was based on for free. Your views on what the "common man" expects or doesn't expect seem to be based on whichever strawman you're currently trying to erect.
So, which is it, Deary? Are the people expecting to pay and the library system keeps letting them down? Or do they expect it for free, but find they can't enjoy it with all the whinging battering at their ears (and eyes, in this case)?
Here's the worst part and it goes unstated by Deary, who clearly wishes that no one ever purchase a book of his again: show me an author who didn't take great advantage of the library system during his or her formative years and I'll show you a liar. Anyone who either makes a living writing or at least makes a serious attempt has spent years voraciously devouring anything they could get their hands on. That's how writers develop. And there is no way in hell that Deary purchased every single book he read on his way to becoming a successful author. None. At all.
Considering how many lives the library system has enhanced and enriched, the complaint of an author bemoaning the "loss" of £180,000 hardly registers against libraries' priceless contribution to society. Too bad for Deary that his ill-advised rant will result in the "loss" of even more royalties as discerning consumers (and fans of libraries) start putting their money in the pockets of other authors -- ones who share the same respect and love for this so-called "outdated" institution.
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Filed Under: entitlement, library, terry deary
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Moxy
Particularly one that uses history in a subversive manner.
"I don't want to write history," he says, firmly. "I'm not a historian, and I wouldn't want to be. I want to change the world. Attack the elite. Overturn the hierarchy. Look at my stories and you'll notice that the villains are always, always, those in power. The heroes are the little people. I hate the establishment. Always have, always will."
It's funny but once he becomes the establishment, he chooses to declare class warfare on the public. He used the history of the Tudors, Cleopatra, and the Victorian era to get famous and rich, now he wants to prevent the next generation from making anything that builds off his work.
This is the power of censorship... You have a person willing to brazenly attack the public even in a marketing gimmick to sell a few more books thanks to the controversy. You can attack an institution that benefits people with no profit motive who work diligently to archive information, ensure the preservation of culture, and fight very hard to make our stockist just that more equal.
Because if we had no historians, how would he have gotten rich in the first place? Someone had to teach this contrarian asshole in the first place!
Yet, this is the endgoal of copyright, as naked as a jaybird... The ability to control dissemination of information by destroying public goods and services for the private benefit of a select few.
Maybe Deary can do us all a favor and invest in a Horrible History of the Dark Ages and how the Spanish Inquisition worked to sniff out those that would preserve culture, and change society for the better, in a horrid witch hunt many to preserve the status quo over actual progress.
Or maybe the next time he wants to fight the establishment, he shouldn't come off as a grumpy old Luddite, interested in his bottom line over the betterment of society.
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Re: Moxy
F$CK YOU A$SHOLES !
You Attack The Library..........which have been Institutions of Learning for Thousands of Years.The First Libraries were created in our First Civilizations.
You Money Grubbing Copyright Maximalists can go to Hell !
Yes, We need to know who are the people and Businesses who would attack Libraries ! I want to know this information and I am sure many others would want to.
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I highly doubt that he remembers that the libraries actually do purchase copies of his books. He still gets paid.
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Bad idea.
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Besides, it's school libraries which are the biggest offenders. Those are the ones he would really have to shut down.
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For balance, here's the reply from Julia Donaldson, third-most borrowed author from UK libraries last year. Choice quote:
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Also it is calculated by sampling a small number of large libraries - so, as with all these schemes - small authors lose out and almost all the money goes to a few rich ones who arguably have no need of it!
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The scheme pays out on the average loans of a title and is capped. Larger libraries will carry larger selections so smaller authors should have a better chance of being rewarded than than if small libraries were used who wouldn't necessarily stock as many titles.
It's a very fair system
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And I'm not attacking copyright, I'm attacking the concept behind copyright, which is no longer relevant.
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This blog! If it wasn't for imaginary property, this blog wouldn't exist!
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That's kind of like saying if it weren't for air pollution, the EPA wouldn't exist. The world would be a better place if there were no need for TechDirt (or rather it would report on other stuff probably).
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After all, why make useless piles of ash, when you could instead turn them into useful piles of different books instead?
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Time
Terry Deary would feature in one of the later chapters...
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Quote:
- James Cameron
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Yeah... That's really all you need to know about how clueless he is. What next, he's going to attack sharing his books among siblings because he doesn't get a cut when your sister reads your copy? I at least fully expect a mental breakdown when he find that most towns in the UK have numerous charity shops and second hand stores where his books can also be obtained without him getting a cut.
Oh, and you know what children consumed for free? The TV series based on his books that played on free-to-air TV channels. The latest of which was made for CBBC - a free channel paid for by taxes. His argument is so moronic, he can't even keep track of the way he sold his own products.
"we've got an entitlement to read books for free, at the expense of... council tax payers."
Newflash, moron - some of those tax payers are exactly the same damn people whose children are borrowing books.
"People will happily buy a cinema ticket to see Roald Dahl's Matilda, and expect to get the book for free."
Or... they'll watch the movie for free on TV and buy the book! My god, it's like there's a choice when some moron isn't trying to control the market!
"Books aren't public property, and writers aren't Enid Blyton, middle-class women indulging in a pleasant little hobby."
I wonder if Blyton's books have outgrossed his over the years? Maybe he's just pissy because he chose a career that middle-aged hobbyists can do just as well as he can?
Oh... (from Wikipedia):
Horrible Histories: "As of 2011 with more than 60 titles in the series, the books have sold over 25 million copies in over 30 languages"
Enid Blyton: "Blyton's books have sold more than 600 million copies.[22] From 2000 to 2010, she was still listed as a Top Ten author, selling 7,910,758 copies (worth £31.2m) in the UK alone"
In other words, another greedy idiot who hasn't stumbled across the pile of riches he assumed he'd be sitting on top of and so wants to pretend people who enjoy his work without a ransom are doing something wrong. I wonder how many library books he borrowed as a child?
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These parasites will never be satisfied until they have full control over every scrap of information and culture. But even if they had possession of everything on the planet, they'd still be miserable.
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Google book search
I was amazed at one fact:
The deal between Google and the guild would have netted several million for the lawyers and bureaucrats - but each author would get just $60 per book!
Think about it - if you, as a struggling author, were asked by your publisher to pony up $60 for "promotional costs" you would probably pay up (out of your "advance") without a second thought. The publicity Google would have provided would have been worth far more than that.
The only conclusion is that the guild was quite happy to shaft the actual authors in order to preserve, expand and maintain its organisational role.
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Typically this is because in a class action suit, the lawyers fund the litigation out of their own pocket, and at their own risk, in exchange for a percentage of the award -- if there is one. Usually the fee is capped at around 30% or so.
Of course, the decision as to how to finance the suit is entirely up to the client. The client could instead pay a flat fee for the time of the legal staff, shouldering the risk of a loss too.
But since its a class action, and there are a lot of members of the class, and relatively few attorneys, cutting out the contingency fee would merely result in the authors getting about $90 per book. Not a huge improvement and they need to pony up many thousands or even millions in fees in advance.
While there are certainly problems with contingency fees and class actions, I've yet to hear of a good solution that doesn't involve lawyers working for free or legal fees being paid by some wealthy, charitable entity for no good reason. Feel free to propose something, though.
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Even if ALL of the money had gone to the authors it would still have been much less than $200 per book. However as a mechanism for the authors guild to maintain its "importance" it has been quite successful.
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Okay, so what form of dispute resolution would you prefer? A system of municipal thunderdomes? Trial by ordeal? Please enlighten us.
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This man is clearly delusional
For example, on the "contact Terry Deary" page there is an FAQ which shows his incredible arrogance:
"Where do you get your ideas?
I'm a writer. It's my job. I don't have to go anywhere or do anything to "get" ideas. They are already in my head."
Note that he aslo has a low opinion of schools:
"I detest schools with a passion. I'd rather cut off my left arm and eat it with Marmite than go into a school. And I don't even like Marmite. Schools are an utter waste of young life. Learning things that will never be any use to you. The only reason they are there is to keep kids off the street."
While I may have reservations about the public school system per se, I find this somewhat extreme to say the least.
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Re: This man is clearly delusional
"Everything I learned after 11 was a waste of time. Trigonometry, Boyle's law: it's never been of any use to me"
I wonder if someone did a survey of the people he went to school with, if they'd find that many of his classmates went on to careers where knowledge of those subjects were vital. That perhaps fellow students were inspired to follow their future careers by early introduction to maths and science in the very lessons he ignored?
Guess what, Deary? I also hated some classes at school - drama, history, literature. While I've come to love some of those subject in the meantime, should kids like him not be taught those subjects because my chosen career path didn't require me to know the timeline of the monarchy I had to slog through as a child?
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Re: This man is clearly delusional
And the follow-up question: So you've never watched any films or TV, never listened to music, and have never read anything? If so, how do you write? After all, learning to read comes before learning to write, and learning to read involves actually reading things.
While I may have reservations about the public school system per se, I find this somewhat extreme to say the least.
For the sake of clarity, you might want to phrase that 'publicly-funded school system'. Public school in the UK is very different to public school in the US, after all.
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Car libraries
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I thought that was called a Taxi Service/rental car service?
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Fatal flaw
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somehow i doubt this is the same conclusion he reached.
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- Not everybody has access to the internet at home. Who provides it for those can't afford it, enabling poor children access to the same educational resources as their wealthier peers outside of school? Libraries.
- Libraries are used for many more things than just storing books.
- Many libraries, especially larger ones may actually contain resources and experiences difficult or impossible to replicate online.
I see where you're coming from, but I wholeheartedly disagree with your conclusion.
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My daughter will learn how to use a library years before she is turned loose on the net.
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My 6 year old's even more impressive, and the 2 year old just picked out her first mouse at microcenter.
My kids will grow up digital natives, they'll be learning to code as they learn to read. they will have the sum total of human knowledge at their fingetips, and every day of their lives they will learn, and learn how to find the information they need. your kid on the other hand will be making them a hamburger.
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Sorry your life turned out this way. Do you blame it on libraries and not having internet when you were a youngster?
My daughter, with any luck, will be not only making, but probably raising the animal to make it as well.
I think this is a good thing since most people can't tell pork from beef or beef from horse or horseshit.
"Here in Canada, for many people, the library is their internet access point.
My daughter will learn how to use a library years before she is turned loose on the net."
Sorry you took my comment as insulting and felt the need to respond in kind. Had you visited a library more often, your reading comprehension would have been vastly improved.
Have a great day!
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We pay for compulsory schooling to do that.
It isn't the libraries he should be attacking in this case, its the schools. If schools taught everyone to read properly, then he might (not likely though) have a point.
Currently, as many as one-in-six pupils struggle to read when they leave primary school and one-in-10 boys aged 11 has a reading age no better than a seven-year-old. At the age of 14, six-in-10 white boys from the poorest backgrounds are still unable to read properly.
The article i found this on is 12 months old, but is the newest i could find right now, although this is just for the uk.
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"Dear Miser
I am a long-time fan of your Horrible Histories series of books. As a child, I came from a poor background. Buying books was a rare occurrence, restricted to Christmas and birthdays. Through my school and public libraries, I had access to your books for free, which helped cultivate in me a love of literature and history. For that, I do thank you.
Imagine my surprise when I saw on the Guardian website http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/feb/13/libraries-horrible-histories-terry-deary?CMP=twt_gu what I can only describe as the rantings of a greedy and selfish bastard.
“Because it's been 150 years, we've got this idea that we've got an entitlement to read books for free” Yes, we do, its called the PUBLIC DOMAIN. That is what happens to all works of art after a certain amount of time has passed, they fall out of copyright and pass into the collective ownership of everybody. No-one will look twice at me if I read Shakespeare or John Milton for free. If it happens to be in physical form, what I am paying for from a bookshop is their physical copy. If its on my Kindle, I don’t have to pay ANYONE. Eventually your works too will pass into public domain and everybody will be able to read them for free.
“This is not the Victorian age, when we wanted to allow the impoverished access to literature. We pay for compulsory schooling to do that” This is what sets my teeth grinding. The impoverish dirty masses should be happy with what their school provides? I happen to have once been part of that mass. Yet, what my school had available was miniscule compared to what the public library had.
“People have to make the choice to buy books. People will happily buy a cinema ticket to see Roald Dahl's Matilda, and expect to get the book for free. It doesn't make sense”
You’re right, that doesn’t make sense, in that that sentence doesn’t have ANY sense in it at all. Perhaps you’re a bit behind the times, but the movie version of Matilda was released in the year 1996. SEVENTEEN FUCKING YEARS AGO! Perhaps you should have seen it or read the book, the protagonist spends much of her childhood reading books for free in the library. Given what you write, I half expect you to be an admirer of Harry Wormwood. At no point in my life have I or anyone I know ever seen a movie and then walked out, and said to ourselves “Yeah, I want to read the book, but it had better be for free”.
I wonder: have you realised yet that those copies of your books in libraries...those copies are PAID FOR ALREADY! That’s how people are able to read them for free: they are property of the library who then say “"We own these, so we declare that you can borrow them for a set amount of time”. Are you now going to attack the older brother who lends his copy of a book to a younger sibling? My god, we had better stop that, you’re not being paid!
“Authors, booksellers and publishers need to eat.” Yes, they need to eat, they need to earn a living, but not in a way that destroys the law and serves to enrich themselves alone at the expense of everybody else. If you find you can’t make a living within the law, then get the fuck out. You have no special entitlement to a living, only the right to attempt to earn one. If you fail...you fail. If you feel that your pay check depends on the destruction of libraries and the removal of the ability to read books for free...then you can get your sorry ass out of the country, because that is too high a price to pay from us to you.
“The libraries are doing nothing for the book industry. They give nothing back, whereas bookshops are selling the book, and the author and the publisher get paid, which is as it should be. What other entertainment do we expect to get for free?”
Written like someone who doesn’t have the faintest idea of what marketing is. Perhaps the library has a limited budget from the local council, and so it can only get Book 1 of a series. Perhaps I read it, fall in love with it, want to read the rest, and see that Books 2 and 3 are in the bookshop. And again, you still get paid by the library for their copies.
“Bookshops are closing down, he said, "because someone is giving away the product they are trying to sell.”
If they are closing down, perhaps due to the rise of electronic reading devices such as the Kindle, its called progress. The horse buggy and whip industry collapsed once the automobile industry arrived. It had no special dispensation to exist, only what the market could bare. Bookshops existed for centuries as a way for people to buy works of literature. It was pretty much the only way to get them. Now, something new, something better, faster and more efficient has arrived that can do the job at a fraction of the cost. The market is inevitably going to turn more and more towards devices like the Kindle and away from paper books. Not just for “Oh, I can copy the books for free!” reason. I vastly prefer to hold a physical book in my hand, but I, like many people, live in a small apartment. Space is at a premium, and I simply don’t have anywhere to store the thousands of books I’d prefer to buy. By necessity, I was forced to get a Kindle.
“Books are part of the entertainment industry. Literature has been something elite, but it is not any more.” That has to be the single most disgusting sentence you have ever written. What hope do the masses have of becoming the elite, of improving their status, if not through books? As I said earlier, I came from a poor background. I was rarely able to buy books, even when I wanted to. Yet, it was through the library I was able to enrich myself, to improve myself. Why is it that literature should be restricted to an elite few? Who decides what elite means?
In closing, I am going to recommend to my local public libraries to remove your books from their circulation. I will also be writing to the management of local book stores, to pull your books off the shelves. I will not be the only one. If you want your works in the hands of a few, fine. I will indulge your whims.
Yours sincerely,
A Now Former Fan"
And his reply...
"For an alternative view, expressed without your recourse to obscenities, go to:-
http://www.heraldscotland.com/comment/columnists/change-is-essential-if-libraries-want-to-surviv e.20238342
http://jabberworks.livejournal.com/
http://www.shoorayner.com/terrydeary/"
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thanks
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...and how do most people find your books?
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I know I would be devastated to know that I would become a greedy asshat with seemingly no regard for my fellow man.
So now we just need a TDTD (Temporal Data Transfer Device)... Oh yeah I forgot, it's probably already patented by some troll who are just waiting for some poor inventor to sue.
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FTFY.
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As a successful writer he pays a lot of income tax.
He also has to pay council tax.
The council then uses the money that they get from him and he gets from the sales of his books to fund libraries who let people read his books for nothing.
Not only do people get to read his books for free but he actually has to pay to have them read his books for free.
It would make me sad if I wasn't laughing so hard.
If it wouldn't be unfair to library users the perfect solution would be for the libraries to dump his books, so he would not get any payout from them and he might then focus on a likely drop in sales as his series name recognition fades out for the up and coming generation of young readers.
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Dreary Dreary
The cynical and profiteering mentality this entails is depressing. To look at the world today, to see the wealth gap, and hence opportunity gap, between "haves" and "have nots", even in first world countries and to claim libraries are unneeded is callous to the point of inhuman, and I find it offensive.
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150 Years? Really?
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Re: 150 Years? Really?
At least I hope he is - I'd hate to think that a man who's made his living teaching history to schoolchildren has never heard of the Library Of Alexandria, the Library Of Congress, the Guildhall Library or the British Museum library (among many others that predate that model).
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Re: 150 Years? Really?
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He should be careful what he wishes for...
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Challenge accepted
Apparently the biotech industry. Ask the good folks at Monsanto. Although they make you sign a contract not to use the endless self replications of one of their products.
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Re: Challenge accepted
There are countless software companies that not only give stuff away for free but also actively encourage you to share their stuff.
And some probably make much more money than this entitled prick (Deary).
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Public Opinion
The good result is that British lawmakers now have not the slightest doubt about where public opinion stands.
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Re: Public Opinion
Good. Educational for all concerned. I hope he can learn learn from the experience.
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Also, it's a weak argument he is making that libraries are no longer needed, especially at a time when there are more than 20 million Americans out of work and that food stamp recipients in this country are at an all time high.
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Wow...
I really hope the public backlash on this is large enough that his current publisher, and all future publishers he may try and get in contact with refuse to do business with him, even if that would still not be nearly as much as he deserves.
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You're correct, Tim...
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Re: You're correct, Tim...
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In addition
"Many children (like me) found libraries intimidating places full of old stock with old attitudes, wholly inappropriate to children growing up in the 1950s. But just because they were useful in the past doesn’t mean they have a God-given right to exist forever. The world is changing at an ever-increasing pace."
Personally, that kind of thinking is quite illogical. It plays on two paradoxical concepts: that libraries are old fashioned (always have been) and they have become old fashioned (they were once useful).
That he plays on the stereotypical (that libraries are stodgy) indicates to me that he hasn't set foot in a library in a long time. Even our very small local library devotes a significant space to non-print media.
My first thought on reading the headline is shared by Mr. Cushing in his entry -- "Didn't Mr. Deary ever use a library when he was young?" Of course the answer is obvious, even as Mr. Deary dihonestly states that everything he writes is only in his head.
If only he had kept his library dis in his head and not let it out.
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Christ what a fucking entitled asshole!
Look Ma, I made a remix.
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For shame, Terry. I still love your quotes such as "God made children happy. Teachers are paid to put a stop to that nonsense." This is a major fail on your part, and this is coming from a longtime fan.
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This is rich. After he used libraries to help establish himself, he now wants to deny that same privilege to other aspiring authors.
The real problem with his argument is that he construes authorship as some sort of guarantee to a paycheck, acting as though the public were responsible for his continued financial well-being. We're not. In fact we don't owe Deary a dime. He ought to be thankful that he's made so much due to public support over the years. There are people who cannot afford food, shelter and clothing ...meanwhile, this wealthy author's got the audacity to moan and groan about libraries withholding paychecks from him. Boo-hoo. These are the kind of articles that make me sick the most, when elitists try to portray themselves as martyrs of a freeloading society.
Having your work on offer at a public library is not a zero-sum game. First, the library must purchase your work. Second, having your work on offer greatly increases awareness of your work, inevitably boosting sales. Third, the public is enriched by the sharing and increase of knowledge. Can Deary (or any author for that matter) provide hard evidence that if only his works weren't available in a library or school that he'd be making more money? Not a chance.
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Affluent Suburb
I now live in an affluent suburb and I see that instead of libraries being used for research, they mostly act to provide residents with a never-ending flow of bestselling books, CD and DVDs, and a huge lending library of kiddie books. The irony is that most of these folks make over $100k and could well afford to buy these books.
I think the mission of libraries have changed from research to providing free entertainment, which has helped to undermine bookstores, video rental outlets, etc.
Maybe libraries should not offer a book to lend until it's been out for a year or two, giving authors an opportunity to earn some money for their efforts.
Libraries are a godsend for researchers because publishers can almost guarantee sales of 5,000 copies to the nation's libraries and research books don't sell much in bookstores. But to a bestselling author, sales of 5,000 copies means losses of $50,000 to the author or more ($1 a book) if each book is loaned out 10 times. (That's a year's pay for a lot of people!)
I don't want to take away the special protection libraries have within our country, but I do think libraries are taking advantage of the loopholes available to them to try to maintain their relevancy during a time when the Internet has more information than all of the libraries in the entire world!
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A weak attempt at class warfare.
That's a stupid way to look at it. Forcing everyone to buy their own copy of some book they will likely only read once is just WASTEFUL. Beyond that, it is unecessary and limiting. Even those that are guilty of being "affluent" should not have their consumption of literature limited by money.
ANY one should be able to read as much as they want to.
Weak attempts at class warfare aren't really relevant in this discussion.
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Re: Affluent Suburb
Even if we were to grant your premise that libraries have shifted towards being primarily providers of free entertainment, it is a HUGE leap from there to equating each loan with a lost sale. In fact, books that are frequently borrowed are likely to be generating sales for those books and related ones. A large fraction of the books we buy for my daughter are either ones she fell in love with after reading from the library, or are in the same series.
And libraries have always had a major role in providing entertainment and stimulating imagination. Their inclusion of fiction, including children's fiction, is hardly new.
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This is just a variation of the "every download is a lost sale" fallacy. The publisher didn't lose anything by selling a book to a library, they made a sale. The fact that the library lends the book to others doesn't cost them anything. If there were no libraries, I would guess there would be fewer readers and thus fewer people buying books, so publishers and authors would be making fewer sales, not more.
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Re: Affluent Suburb
I'm sure this would increase the revenue generated by local authors in their home location, while driving non-local residents to flock to the local libraries to view some of the higher profile local authors who are not yet available in their home towns.
windowing, regional restrictions, wait, this may already be a patented business model for becoming irrelevant in the digital age, I'm sure they would get sued by the **AA's for 'infringing a patented business model for ruining a business'....
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Re: Affluent Suburb
That's where I learnt to dream, to write, to hope, to step outside my little world and into another, to look at things from the point of view of someone else, no matter how strange that person's circumstances might be to me. That's where I found and loved things that I wouldn't have risked spending my money on from the back-of-book description in a shop. And all my favourites? I searched high and low to pick up my own, personal copies of those, so that I would always have them with me. Many of them aren't even in print any more.
One of the things I regret most right now is that I rarely have time to go to the library at present. I can't afford to buy many new books, either, and there's no space in my house to put any new physical ones. (Actually, I have a Sony ereader now - it was the price of a few bookshelves, which left to myself I could and would fill in nothing flat, if it weren't for those annoying necessities like paying rent and buying food. And it holds more books! Not that I can afford to buy anything like enough of them. :( )
We would all be far, far poorer (metaphorically) if our libraries closed down. Many of my childhood memories centre around the library - and I wasn't even poor.
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Look at the prevailing trend. People rent out their apartments on AirBnB, their couches on CouchSurfer, their car through RelayRides, and all manner of other things through any number of other website. Wired was talking about this over two years ago in an article called "Rentalship is the New Ownership": http://www.wired.com/business/2011/02/rentalship-the-new-ownership/. The Internet has made de-centralization not just possible but easy. If all the libraries just disappeared, how long until a book-sharing web site popped up? When you join, you submit a list of books you own, and when you're looking for a book it will tell you who else in your area has that book and is willing to lend it to you. BookCrossing is already doing something similar to this. If libraries shut down, people wouldn't flock to bookstores; they'd find a new way to borrow and share books.
Libraries provide many services beyond just the simple ability to borrow a book for free. All of these benefits would be lost if they were shut down, and it still wouldn't achieve the result Terry Deary wants to achieve.
Second: about a year ago I took "Free Ride: How Digital Parasites Are Destroying the Culture Business, And How The Culture Business Can Fight Back" by Robert Levine out from the library, just to see what he had to say. Trying to be funny, I sent him a snarky tweet asking if taking the book out from the library instead of buying it made me an "analog pirate". He responded to tell me that most authors supported libraries, because libraries buy books. So congrats Mr. Deary, even a guy who thought it was reasonable to include the words "digital parasites" in the title of his book thinks you're too far out there.
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Lendink
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But - it means people are reading your books!
Wow, they're still reading it! Even people who can't afford to buy everything they read are going to the library and taking out my books! That's great!
I doubt I would have made a penny off of those people if they hadn't read my books in the library. The people who seem to have the most time for reading tend to be people who don't earn much money. They aren't going to buy my books when they could get a couple packs of fags or maybe even a nice meal out of that cash.
Meanwhile, the library bought the book (at full price!) and owns the physical object, and they can show it to anyone they like. It's always been that way. And that's a good thing. I'm amazed they pay me anything at all for that - after all, they paid for that book.
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You know the copyright system is broken when artists think they have total control and don't give a damn about the public. Little piece of advice: leave that to the corporations and publishing companies.
"Artists have this idea that they've got an entitlement to control how their work is used (not just sold), at the expense of their fans, the public, and the public good."
Fixed that.
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He's trying to be clever.
He's implying that libraries aren't worth their expense because they are obsolete and we have better more effective ways of accomplishing the goals that libraries are intended to serve. The only reason he makes this claim is to appear to be forward thinking. In reality he is just using that as an excuse to try to get rid of them and support his self serving agenda which is betrayed by the reasoning in the rest of his arguments which are quite the opposite of progressive.
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We are doing it all backwards.
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Re: We are doing it all backwards.
One huge problem with that idea, it would give politicians control over the works released into the public domain, or made open access. Whoever controls the purse strings controls what is made.
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Without some form of oversight, such a system would lead to production of works to gain the subsidy or tax break, without actually contributing anything of value to the public domain. Any provision of oversight becomes another target for regulatory capture, and a means of transferring more money to the rich.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: We are doing it all backwards.
So what I would propose is a two tiered system. First, a modest yearly standard deduction could be taken for contributing something to the public domain regardless of value. You cannot increase it by contributing more. However, if you want the bigger deduction, you have to prove justify it's worth. Let's say you are Disney and you suddenly want to get the tax break for contributing Mickey Mouse to the public domain, well, you simply have to submit a balance sheet showing the profits earned during the past year from it in order to calculate the size of deduction. Basically it's similar to itemization.
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Re: We are doing it all backwards.
We can abolish copyright or shorten term length and achieve a much larger public domain.
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He has been hanging around libraries too long...
http://waningmoon.com/publications/news/book-fungus-can-get-you-high.html
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Perhaps...
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Re: Perhaps...
His actual position may be that libraries and schools are not serving their intended purpose because the population appears to be apathetic about them and take them for granted. So by publicly advocating getting rid of them altogether (and throwing in some old school rhetoric about lost sales for extra spice) could be just the thing to get people fired up and start supporting the schools and libraries again. He certainly isn't a guy that's afraid of a little controversy.
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Re: Re: Perhaps...
I've forgotten something...
Oh yeah.... Its just like something Hitler would have done albeit in one of his less aggressive and less genocidal moments, like before he grew a Chaplin moustache.
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Huh. I guess I am a leech. I didn't realize that.
After all, I was one of those who consumed the hobby-writer's books (Blyton's 'Five' and 'Seven' series) as well as myriad others -- children's books, westerns, sci-fi, fantasy, non-fiction, etc.) thus denying them their royalties for individual sales :-(
I guess the *literally* thousands of paperbacks and hardcovers I've purchased over the years, the 4000+ comic books, the sundry miscellania related to those (games, toys, recordings) and the, again, *literally* hundreds of children's books I purchased for my *own* kid don't count.
Oh. Wait a moment. THEY DO! Had I not had the library there when I was a kid, I fear my love of reading would not have developed as it did. Had the library not been there all these years to let me *sample* and discover my favourite authors, their works wouldn't be cluttering my bookshelves now.
To make a long diatribe short.... "TWIT!"
:-)
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They can show off and promote a book and even create a following for the authors future works. An author can utilize the built in market of "book lovers" by touring libraries autographing books owned or purchased etc...
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I'll just leave this here...
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Re: I'll just leave this here...
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my attempt at trolling this guy.
From: [mailto:ckenneth@live.com]
Sent: 19 February 2013 19:20
To: twistedtales@btconnect.com
Subject: How I enjoyed your books as a child
Hello Sir,
You are a complete and total ass. I read your books when I was younger and enjoyed them. I first discovered them at a public library when my mother took me. If I had not been exposed to public library's when I was younger I would not have been able to read your books. My irritation and contempt for you and your pigheaded attitude is immeasurable. Fuck your books, Fuck your opinions and most of all FUCK YOU!. I have removed all books by you from my household and alerted all of my friends to never purchase or attend anything with your disgusting name attached to it.
-Have a nice fucking day.
His first reply:
On Feb 19, 2013, at 12:17 PM, "Twisted Tales" wrote:
I am not sure exactly what you have read of my views – the media distorts and edits mercilessly while the US press has been positively mischievous in re-editing statements to mean something different – when in fact the problems of the British library system are nothing to do with them! America land of the free and freedom of speech? No America of the McCarthy witch hunts and the attempts to censor JK Rowling because she offended a few Christian Fundamentalists. America, land of the obese, because they are so weighed down by their egos.
Maybe you could have a look at a supportive article such as :-
http://www.heraldscotland.com/comment/columnists/change-is-essential-if-libraries-want-to-survive.20 238342
Fortunately you are in a minority and the support in Britain is much more intelligent.
“Although, I am a wanna-be librarian. I think there seems to be a sense of entitled to materials that are free. And you're right why should artistic people have to give up making money over their art. We except for businesses. I do agree with you, libraries ought to rethink and redesign themselves. It's been over 150 years. Can't believe all the excitement you've started.”
Dear Mr Deary, Thank you for volunteering to be the scapegoat with regards to the " should we get rid of all libraries " debate. For some time now, all we tend to hear from authors is how important libraries are; how they have influenced their lives, their writing. How important Public libraries are for providing free access for those with low or no income, or who want to better themselves. How important School libraries are to children, to their discovery and enjoyment of reading, for experimenting with new authors without cost at point of access. All this chatter is ignored by the media as it is appears to be self serving. It takes an established author, someone like yourself, and who has nothing to lose to stir up the hornets nest to gain media attention, and initiate a lively debate. I thank you for that. Sarah Masters. MCILIP
And
I have just read what you say about libraries. Well done! It is about time some serious rational debate took place. I am the product of the library system. As a scruffy kid I delighted in not only the children's library at the Harris museum in Preston but also the art gallery and museum exhibits. It was a wonderful entrance to a different world. Those days are over now in this digital when classic books are available for free online and new books available much more cheaply than in Victorian times. I repeat. A rational calm debate is long overdue. Regards. Gordon
And
http://jabberworks.livejournal.com/
and finally an author who articulates the REAL meaning of my words far better than I can …
http://www.shoorayner.com/terrydeary/
Now please do not let me delay you any further. I am sure your halo needs polishing.
Terry Deary
PS can you send me the name of your lawyer? Your obscenities WILL be reported to the police for action. Hopefully your computer will be confiscated and you will serve a short term in prison to cool off.
Oooh ouch: my next reply: yes i know about the spelling errors >.
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Re: my attempt at trolling this guy.
Yikes, I always cringe when I'm reminded that saying something obscene or racist is actually illegal in the UK and can get you prison time.
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Re: my attempt at trolling this guy.
Wow, British anti-Americanism! That's outrageously original! What a witty, biting voice of rebellion.
Italicized for sarcasm.
Oh yeah, and fuck this moron. Fuck him sideways.
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Anyway if anyone's interested here is the pastebin with the entire troll email correspondence.
http://pastebin.com/UDVeUy0H
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Re:
I'm tempted to discount anyone who feels they have to resort to something like "get a life, little man". I'll bet he felt good writing it though.
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And here his response (which was quite civil and seemed to confirm somewhat what I had started to suspect - that he's not REALLY against libraries and schools but rather trying to spark discussion to motivate people to care):
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Author’s Attempt To Be Funny Makes Story Unreadable
Bad writer, bad writer. Go sit in the corner.
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Nothing to see here
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A few years ago, I thought nobody would go this far
But now people are taking the bait and digging in instead of questioning their previous positions. This is absurd and scary. I never thought I'd see this.
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porsche would love porsche libraries
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4) I like my authors to be intelligent, smarter than me and have insight beyond what I have so... that I might actually obtain that insight for myself. When selecting books for my kids this is also a large factor although entertainment is important too.
Whether the work be fiction or fact the author's world view always creeps into the work. Since I like to learn and understand about everything I pick authors with a huge and accurate world view as possible.
By obvious example it seems that this author does not meet my requirements for quality reading material. Scratch Horrible Histories off the book-list and if seen in store will probably ignore as much as a... (fill in your most worst book or author here)
requirements 1-3 here but off topic
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130204/10563521877/next-ebook-evolution-pay-as-you-read-eb ooks.shtml#c416
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Greed makes paupers of us all
This fool sits at home vexed by the fear that he has somehow been cheated out of the one or two coins that he simply must have to top off his pot of gold. Silas lives!
So, if I buy his book then burn it, he's happy. But, if I buy it and read it to a group of kids, he'd be furious as hell that these dirty, little thieves all heard the story for free.
Let's all help calm his nerves - stop buying his books.
Problem solved.
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purge
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You guys have polishd off this bozo ... but I would like to point out that
Add to that the performance rights issue, and people who read books to their kids are pirates and thieves.
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Apparently typical.
As a no-name, starting author, the first thing I did on acquiring print copies of my book was march to my local library and donate two copies. Why wouldn't I? It's the easiest way to get some exposure.
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Re: Apparently typical.
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Re: Apparently typical.
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Libraries help me Buy books
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