Megan Danvers

Hi there, readers! Lately, I’ve been seeing discourse on Twitter about people stealing books because they can’t afford to buy them, or they don’t have access to a decent library in their town. Well, I’m here to say that’s BS.

I get that a lot of us can’t afford to buy books all the time or maybe even ever, but stealing a book isn’t good. Authors are usually struggling to make ends meet and even best-sellers are sometimes underpaid, especially in the romance genre where I’ve heard that authors are paid less than for speculative fiction works. Now the obvious solution to not having money to buy a book but not wanting to make life harder for the author is to get the book from a library.

“But there’s no library in my town” or “But my library doesn’t have fiction” you might say. Well, to that I say, ONLINE LIBRARIES EXIST! There are libraries out there that won’t care if you’re not from that town, that state, that country even, and will loan you ebooks, audiobooks, movies, music, etc just like any other patron. You literally have no excuse for stealing books when there are other options.

This may sound harsh, but I need you to understand, authors don’t make much for their work. They get a book deal often around $10,000, 15% of that goes to their agent, the amount they get paid is how much the book has to sell before the author can start earning royalties and earn more money. Most authors don’t publish more than a book or two a year. That means that most authors are only making at most less than $20,000 a year. That’s not a lot to live off of and it’s the reason most authors have a day job outside of writing.

When you steal a book you are making it that much harder for the author to “earn out” as it’s called and thus start earning royalties on their work. I know we love to read and I know we have our own money troubles but is it really worth it to make another person struggle with their bills just to satisfy your own love of books? Can you even really call yourself a book lover if you’re depriving the author of the income they might need to even be able to publish a second book?

Look, obviously I can’t stop you from stealing books but I can inform you on these things you probably didn’t know before. Authors aren’t rich. Online libraries are available for getting books for free on loan. There are always options for reading that don’t involve stealing books from the author.

This might be my shortest blog post but frankly, I don’t care. I’ve said all there is to say and all I needed to say. You can always find a way to read if you look for it and there are free ways of reading that don’t harm the author. So please, keep this all in mind the next time you feel the urge to read. That’s all for now. Peace out, readers!