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So I got linked to a little kerfluffle about giving away free books on the livejournal community assosicated with the Science Fiction Writers of America guild. It's a long tangle that I won't bother to go into. What I will bother to go into is that I felt moved, as a consumer who has actually changed her reading and buying habits a little bit because of free books (namely buying a TON more stuff by Baen authors), to offer an opinion on one point on one of the tributary posts to the stream of argument currently going on. It was a somewhat flippant post, laden with scarcasm, but not any sort of attack, just saying "Wow, you mean giving away free samples of your work will eventually mean you sell more stuff? Shocking!"
Somebody whose nick I didn't recognize in any way offered a differing opinion, and went off on a tangent about piracy that had nothing to do with my point. I responded in support of my point, and with a slightly sharp note to not assume I mean things I haven't said, as I never said giving away free books had anything to do with piracy. I got a fairly well thought-out response in return, mentioning that the writer of said response knew the folks at Baen well, and they weren't doing what they were doing haphazardly. He signed this response "Jerry Pournelle."
And given that this is on an at least semi-official SFWA community, there's very little chance he's an imposter.
Holy Freak. I just had an argument with Jerry Pournelle!!!!!!
So I got linked to a little kerfluffle about giving away free books on the livejournal community assosicated with the Science Fiction Writers of America guild. It's a long tangle that I won't bother to go into. What I will bother to go into is that I felt moved, as a consumer who has actually changed her reading and buying habits a little bit because of free books (namely buying a TON more stuff by Baen authors), to offer an opinion on one point on one of the tributary posts to the stream of argument currently going on. It was a somewhat flippant post, laden with scarcasm, but not any sort of attack, just saying "Wow, you mean giving away free samples of your work will eventually mean you sell more stuff? Shocking!"
Somebody whose nick I didn't recognize in any way offered a differing opinion, and went off on a tangent about piracy that had nothing to do with my point. I responded in support of my point, and with a slightly sharp note to not assume I mean things I haven't said, as I never said giving away free books had anything to do with piracy. I got a fairly well thought-out response in return, mentioning that the writer of said response knew the folks at Baen well, and they weren't doing what they were doing haphazardly. He signed this response "Jerry Pournelle."
And given that this is on an at least semi-official SFWA community, there's very little chance he's an imposter.
Holy Freak. I just had an argument with Jerry Pournelle!!!!!!
