#WritersCoffeeClub #WCC 2026.10.16 — How do you feel about people reading your works without buying a personal copy?
This question asks how I would feel.
Assuming we are talking about a for-sale book here. With the exceptions of a brick and mortar library loaning out copies they have purchased, or friends and family reading a purchased or resold-as-used copy, I would feel violated. It is theft.
It is different if I post free-to-read on services, like Mastodon, which I do for small works, but I retain the copyright and note that in posts. Were something or somebody to package and sell such work in whatever form—or train an LLM with my content—it is theft. I don't intend to profit materially from free-to-read, but someone else doing it? I would hate that.
[Author retains copyright (c)2026 R.S.]
#gender #fiction #writer #author
#cozy #mystery #sf #sff #sciencefiction
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion
#RSstory #RSReluctanceStory