Hobby Horse 1 - Secondhand books

Rant alert. There's something that's bugging me. Secondhand books and Amazon Marketplace. Let me explain.

If you go onto Amazon and search for, as an example, my book Fleshmarket, you'll find it there. Good. However, you'll also be tempted to look at 'New and used'. This takes you to Amazon Marketplace. Here, you will find Fleshmarket sold at as little as 1p. Big problem - not for you, but for me.

Some of these 'new and used' books are not genuinely secondhand and have never earned a royalty: some may have 'leaked' from the publisher's warehouse before earning a royalty, for various unclear reasons, such as returns that have not been resold; others are proof copies, marked as 'not for resale' (which is a problem if they are offered before publication; and perhaps not such a problem later, as most are bought as collectors' items and PROBABLY don't affect real sales much - EXCEPT that some buyers on Amazon Marketplace will just be buying them because they're cheap and won't care or notice if one is a proof). Others are genuinely secondhand. NONE of them brings me any income. And it's the first and third categories that I'm irritated by. But I don't entirely understand how the first category comes about, so let's focus on secondhand books and the fact that authors don't get royalties from them.

So what, you say? Aren't royalties just a bonus? What's the difference between buying a book secondhand and buying anything else secondhand. Don't you get properly paid?

Ah, there's a big difference and no, royalties are not a bonus. And no, I don't get properly paid - not until people buy my books, in shops or through internet sites like Amazon, but NEW. Authors are paid an advance - money set against the royalties on future sales. If you cause an author to lose a future sale, you are actually taking away the prime source of payment. In effect, you are taking the author's wages. It's NOT like buying a piece of clothing, where the maker is being paid a wage or salary which does not depend on how many are sold.

So, when you buy a book secondhand, that sale brings no royalty and denies the author his or her rightful income.

And, authors are generally not well off. If you want to know the facts: more than two thirds of members of the Society of Authors earn LESS THAN HALF the national average wage. And half of the Society's members earn less than the minimum wage.

If we erode authors' incomes, we cause a situation where authors cannot write the wide and deep range of books which they currently do. Publishers will only want to publish books which will sell in truckloads, rather than the full range as they do now. Authors will not be able to write books on topics which are of huge interest only to a few thousand people. 'Will it be popular?' will be the only question publishers ask, instead of 'Will it be brilliant? Will it be useful? Will it be important?'

So, the increase in the secondhand market is damaging to authors, to literature, to academic quality, and ultimately to readers themselves.

I'm not saying don't buy secondhand. After all, secondhand bookshops are a great way of finding a book that is out of print (so you couldn't buy it new). And buying a book that is out of print can sometimes leading to that reader buying another book by the same author. And I don't want to knock charities. However, realise that what you do has consequences. And realise that Amazon Marketplace in particular is potentially threatening author income by its huge success.

Finally, let me remind you of Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: "Everyone has the right to protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he or she is the author."

There! I've said my piece!