Once upon a time, back in the gloomy 1980s, when there were no ebooks, nor were they dreamt of, three paperback originals by Steve Miller and Sharon Lee were published by Del Rey Books.
People bought the books. People loved the books. People lent the books widely amongst their friends, and talked about them, and re-read them, comfortable in the belief that there would be More of These to read, because they were So! Much! Fun! and everybody liked them, and...
They waited, and they waited, and they waited. For ten years they waited for that fourth book.
Why? you ask.
Because the books had more readers than they had numbers. Which is to say, they had been loved and loaned. In order for Del Rey to write a new contract with the authors -- a contract that would have seen Plan B appear in, oh, 1990 -- the books needed to be loved and purchased.
* * *
Now, that's a true story about what numbers mean to authors and to readers.
For the rest of it, you need to abide by your own personal ethical system; I don't have the energy to go into convoluted what-ifs that don't lead to more words on the stuff that's under contract.
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mmmag
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Date: 2012-11-16 05:07 pm (UTC)People bought the books. People loved the books. People lent the books widely amongst their friends, and talked about them, and re-read them, comfortable in the belief that there would be More of These to read, because they were So! Much! Fun! and everybody liked them, and...
They waited, and they waited, and they waited. For ten years they waited for that fourth book.
Why? you ask.
Because the books had more readers than they had numbers. Which is to say, they had been loved and loaned. In order for Del Rey to write a new contract with the authors -- a contract that would have seen Plan B appear in, oh, 1990 -- the books needed to be loved and purchased.
Now, that's a true story about what numbers mean to authors and to readers.
For the rest of it, you need to abide by your own personal ethical system; I don't have the energy to go into convoluted what-ifs that don't lead to more words on the stuff that's under contract.