Maybe we need to talk about how writers and readers are - as much as it may not be evident upon first looking at the initial situation - both victimized by the current model of publishing and intellectual property ownership? I usually think of readers and writers as allies - especially because so many of us occupy both spaces, act in both roles. The knee-jerk response is to be pissed off that someone is jacking your shit and costing you both money and a potential career - but it's really the industry model that is pitting you against each other because that's what profits the industry model.

I mean, we all seem to acknowledge that writers really have very little influence over what their publishers are doing. Why isn't that pissing more writers off? I think part of it is because we already feel so precarious, so lucky in our position. The print publishing industry ESPECIALLY trades in legitimacy - I can't tell you how many times people have asked if I self-published and then the follow up is always "Oh, was it an e-book?" As though that's somehow a lesser format. While publishing (especially spec fic) OUGHT to be on the cutting edge of communications technology, it's really truly hidebound.

Though the romance industry is, it seems, willing to take a lot more risks and try an adaptive model (revena can speak more to this).