Free books: 100 legal sites to download literature

The Classics

Browse works by Mark Twain, Joseph Conrad and other famous authors here.

Textbooks

If you don’t absolutely need to pay for your textbooks, save yourself a few hundred dollars by reviewing these sites.

Math and Science

Turn to this list to find books about math, science, engineering and technology.

Children’s Books

Even children’s books are now available online. Find illustrated books, chapter books and more.

Philosophy and Religion

For books about philosophy and religion, check out these websites.

Plays

From Shakespeare to George Bernard Shaw to more contemporary playwrights, visit these sites.

Modern Fiction, Fantasy and Romance

These websites boast collections of graphic novels, romance novels, fantasy books and more.

Foreign Language

For books in a foreign language like French, Spanish and even Romanian, look here.

History and Culture

Refresh your memory of world history, the classics and U.S. history here.

Rare Books

Look for rare books online here.

Arts and Entertainment

This list features books about celebrities, movies, fashion and more.

Mystery

Here you can find mystery books from Sherlock Holmes to more contemporary authors.

Poetry

These poetry sites have works by Emily Dickinson, Edgar Allan Poe and others.

Miscellaneous

For even more free book sites, check out this list.

AWESOME!

👏🏾Education 👏🏾is 👏🏾a 👏🏾right,👏🏾 not👏🏾 a👏🏾 service 👏🏾

Pass along and use the shit out of them

ok!

EDUCATION IS A MOTHERFUCKING RIGHT, NOT A PRIVILEGE

^^^

Hell yeah

wob.com secondhand books (from charity shops!), super cheap (like, I’ve got books for 1 quid), amazing return policy.

having an experience

honored by the kind words of asexual buds just now learning about my NOT POUNDED BY series. you should know that while BURY YOUR GAYS is a love letter to fandom and creation, it is also for my ace buds and a rallying cry for ace validity in queer spaces

that is not an AFTERTHOUGHT with the book. when i set out to write BURY YOUR GAYS i was specifically thinking about the ace buckaroos who trotted with chuck and helped guide me through the first few NOT POUNDED BY BOOKS. i wanted to write something to honor their fight

I wish kinky sex ed wasn't so stigmatized even among left-leaning "sex positive" circles. Everyone's all "uwu I'm a sub I'll do anything you ask" okay mommy wants you to read The New Bottoming Book so you learn how to sub without hurting yourself since your sex ed up to this point is porn and your ex boyfriend Jared who liked to choke you incorrectly

I’m so glad you asked! Let me list off what I’ve got for you:

Books I personally recommend:

- The New Topping Book and The New Bottoming Book, by Dossie Easton and Janet W. Hardy

If you’re having kinky sex at all, you need to read at least one of these two books. Point blank. They’ll teach you the very basics of negotiating properly (which is critical!), and help you identify what you are and aren’t into.

- Mindfucking Mindfully, by Sir Ezra Where this book really shines isn’t actually in helping you “mindfuck” people, it’s in taking a close look at how to do so ethically. It’s a great answer to the question “how do I get someone to consent to something and still surprise and shock them with it?”

- Real Service by Raven Kaldera and Joshua Tenpenny This is a slightly niche pick but there simply isn’t a better book on the subject. It’s written from a 24/7 M/s perspective, which is not what I do, but the book itself is an indispensable guide to giving and receiving service. The phrase “if the Master doesn’t want it, it isn’t service” will be burned into my psyche for quite some time. I love this book a lot. Maybe my favorite out of all of these.

- Enough To Make You Blush: Exploring Erotic Humiliation, by Princess Kali This one’s high on my reading list; I’ve heard it recommended by a number of people whose opinions on these things I trust.

- Pretty Much Anything Midori Has Ever Done Midori is a great resource for this stuff - I haven’t personally read much of her work, but she’s a well known sex educator and great at what she does. She’s known for bondage, but has a lot of range beyond that.

- This Negotiations Worksheet from Bex Talks Sex This is what I default to using a lot of the time for negotiations. Forget BDSMtest, you don’t need that, it’s no good. Just look through this worksheet’s wordbank with your partner. Big fan especially of the “how do you want to feel?” section.

Books I can kind of recommend:

- The Ultimate Guide to Kink, edited by Tristan Taormino This book is weird. There’s a lot of good info for experienced players, but some of what’s written here skeeves me out. I think if I had a top that thought the way some of the tops in here think, they would not be topping me for long. But there’s some good techniques and so on to pick up that I wouldn’t have otherwise. I liked the distinction one of the authors makes between being sadistic in the sense of inflicting pain and being sadistic in the sense of doing something your sub doesn’t “enjoy.”

- The Ritual of Dominance and Submission, by David English Man, this book fucking sucks. The writing and editing are garbage, and the fear and protocol play described need way more careful negotiation than he ever lets on, let alone recommends. This is some 50 Shades bullshit. The only time I recommend this book is to tops like me who tend to be very affirming to their partners and need a guide on how to really scare them - when their partner consents and when you negotiate it, which this book sucks at teaching you. Really good content on fear, punishment, and protocol play, really terrible presentation of the topic though. Don’t read this if you don’t already know what you’re doing.

- Paradigms of Power, by Raven Kaldera I love this book. Great book. Very focused on 24/7 M/s play though, and, being an anthology, some chapters are better than others. If you can’t read something and pick out what is and isn’t for you, don’t bother. But some really great inspiration, and generally pretty well written. Big fan of the discussion of leather throughout the book.

Hope some of these are helpful for people ^-^ for the average person reading this I recommend New Bottoming/Topping, but they’re all important parts of my library and I’ve recommended all of them to friends at some point or another.

A good website imo is bad girl's Bible

There's a slew of information that goes in depth about the topics, the words, and redflags/abuse and what to look out for.

I read this when I was getting into stuff myself and I enjoyed learning about it all.

The Hunger Games, Actual Teen style!

On the left, 15-year-old Josh Hutcherson.

On the right, 16-year-old Jennifer Lawrence.

Think how much creepier it would be to see them killing other kids when they look so squishy-cheeked and little.

“Think how much creepier it would be to see them killing other kids when they look so squishy-cheeked and little.”

THAT’S THE POINT SUZANNE COLLINS WAS TRYING TO MAKE

Think about these cute squishy kids being forced into a romance in order to survive

And the threat of these cute squishy kids being forced into prostitution after the games are over. 

REBLOGGING THIS AGAIN WITH A REMINDER THAT FINNICK WAS 14 WHEN HE WAS REAPED/WON THE GAMES AND WAS FORCED INTO PROSTITUTION SOON AFTERWARD

wait the kids were forced into prostitution after they won???

Some of the Victors were, especially if they were attractive to lots of rich people during the games. How do you think you pay off the parachute things people send you to help you win the game? Those books were so fucked up

That’s why I feel like actual teens should have been cast in the movie. It would have hammered in the message of the books so much more.

And if they had cast actual teenages, I’m sure they wouldn’t have focus so much on romance in the films. They would have focus on the horror of the hunger games, like they damn well should have.

The hunger game movies are the exact thing the hunger game books was trying to warn us about

Just going to add in a few other things that a lot of people seem to miss because it was either de-emphasized or cut entirely from the movies:

-Haymitch Abernathy was 16 when he won the Hunger Games, and the Capitol attempted to force him into prostitution as they did with Finnick and many other popular victors. He refused, and in retaliation, they gradually killed off everyone he loved one by one—his friends from home, his family, his girlfriend. He began drinking heavily at a young age to deal with the trauma of the Games, the loss of everyone he’d ever cared about, and subsequently having to continually relive the trauma of the Games in mentoring roughly 50 children, two each year, whom he’d then have to send to their deaths in the Arena. 

-The Capitol also attempted to force Joanna Mason into prostitution. She, too, refused, and like with Haymitch, the Capitol retaliated by killing off everyone she loved one by one. She alludes to this in both the book and the movie version of Catching Fire, not flinching when she enters the Jabberjay area of the arena because there’s “no one left” that she loves. The movies don’t really explore this, though, while the books do more exploration both with everything the Capitol has taken from her and the lingering effects of her PTSD from her imprisonment by the Capitol. 

-The only reason Peeta and Katniss weren’t forced into prostitution was because the Capitol was too invested in the “Star-Crossed Lovers from District 12″ narrative. 

-Also, Katniss spent the latter half of her first Hunger Games deaf in one ear and had to have her middle and inner ear reconstructed after the Games—the explosion at the Cornucopia permanently fucked up her hearing in that ear. She’s able to hear again after the surgeries but never quite the same. 

-And Peeta had a prosthetic leg! He was severely injured while fleeing the “Mutts” at the end of the Games and was bleeding out from his leg by the time he and Katniss reached the Cornucopia. Katniss gave him a tourniquet using one of her last two arrows to tighten it. Doing so saved his life, but by the time the Capitol doctors took them out of the arena, the leg was beyond saving and had to be amputated. Katniss finds this out in their “post-Games” interview with Cesar Flickerman. 

-Just generally the movies glossed over or completely cut a lot of characters whose experiences in the games left them physically disabled (Katniss’s partial deafness and Peeta’s lost leg being cut entirely, Beetee’s spinal damage from the forcefield leaving him wheelchair-bound being largely kinda glossed over) or with PTSD (Katniss and Peeta’s PTSD isn’t really explored that much, Joanna’s PTSD is pretty much skipped over entirely, Annie’s barely in the movies at all, Haymitch’s entire backstory is cut, the fact that Finnick is basically just constantly putting on a show and barely holding it together under the surface isn’t ever really explored, pretty much all of the addiction subplots including Haymitch attempting to quit drinking and Katniss starting to drink at one point and everything related to morphling are cut…). 

-Basically as “rough” as the movies are they sanitized the FUCK out of the Hunger Games and the world surrounding them, and that’s…not a good thing.

TL;DR: @isashi-nigami is completely correct, The hunger game movies are the exact thing the hunger game books was trying to warn us about.

Yep

LOOK at what it says! “I’m asexual” clear as day. The joy i felt when i read those words. Representation matters.

The book is ‘Every Heart a Doorway’ by Seanan McGuire

Yes! Thank you Seanan McGuire!

Shoutout to Seanan McGuire and her VERY SPECIFIC narrative kink for “character licks blood off their hand for the ability to beat mind control”

also, what pale-skinned, black-haired woman hurt her?

also young women warping reality by doing math, but that’s a 100% normal thing to love that should be as common as, like, buddy cop movies

I love that I'm reblogging this from her rn

It's so funny when our old pal author conan doyle chooses to Go Off with the descriptions or not, especially because it's in Watson's pov

This dude is just staring at Sherlock with such adoration but then we get like, "he grabbed his hat." What kind of hat? Fuck if I know. Not a deerstalker

Watson b like "I do not know where I got injured I do not know if Mary has parents or not but Holmes is a very pretty man and that's what matters" and he's right

arthur conan doyle knew which details mattered the most

Lmao yep

someone: sherlock holmes is a machine, haven’t you read the books—

me, opening up my ornate copy of acd’s sherlock holmes, with its tender illustrations, pointing blindly to any line holmes says: he’s a sweet boy

holmes, in the books: i want to take watson’s hand and fly around the city with him

watson’s marriage was the only betrayal of me

other than that he’s never let me down

watson is my dear boy, my dear friend, my dear doctor

i should know my watson by now

if you had killed watson you would not have gotten out of here alive

all i want is watson back in his chair opposite me in baker street

*wanders around in a blooming orchard with watson for hours silently*

*asks watson to run away with him to switzerland when moriarty’s wearing him out*

watson is wounded: *cries* *his lip literally trembles* *carries him to a chair* *watson has to describe how his lip trembled and how his arm felt and how that was the defining moment of his life*

THIS!!!

someone: sherlock holmes is a machine, haven’t you read the books—

me, opening up my ornate copy of acd’s sherlock holmes, with its tender illustrations, pointing blindly to any line holmes says: he’s a sweet boy

Holmes: *catches Watson’s eye and bursts into helpless giggles*

Holmes: “No, you haven’t committed an actual crime, but if the lady has a brother or a friend he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. In fact–” *flushes with rage* *grabs riding crop* *smug ill-treater of women flees in terror*

Holmes: *philosophizes about goodness* *sees God in a rose*

Holmes: *constantly frets that Watson - who adores Holmes so transparently he practically walks around with hearteyes - will stop admiring him if he explains his deductions and takes the magic out of them* *like* *the master of observation is straight-up oblivious to the fact that Watson thinks he hung the moon* *or else too insecure to accept the blindingly obvious*

Holmes: *is extraordinarily sensitive to the signs of abuse, and unfailingly gentle and careful with abuse victims*

Holmes: *encounters particularly engaging puzzle of a case* *rubs fingers in glee* *quite literally WRIGGLES IN HIS CHAIR out of sheer delight*

Holmes: *battles chronic depression for his entire life*

Holmes: *leaves a king’s handshake hanging because he treated his mistress poorly* *in fact, derives a good bit of his reputation for rudeness from the fact that he is supremely unintimidated by rank and power*

Holmes: “You look exhausted my dear doctor, lie down on our couch and let me play you to sleep with my violin”

Holmes: *uses drugs because his brain constantly runs at about 500000 rpms and he needs a fucking break*

Holmes: *goes to concerts, closes his eyes, and listens for hours with a soft half-smile of rapture on his face*

Holmes: *unselfconsciously chatters endearments at a dog*

Holmes: *devotes his entire life to helping people, and does it for free anytime someone can’t afford him*

Watson: *gets grazed by a bullet*

Holmes: *Pistol-whips Watson’s attacker* *drops to the floor and begs Watson to tell Holmes he’s all right* *upon confirming that his friend isn’t hurt, informs the would-be murderer in a cold, terrifying fury that if he’d succeeded in killing Watson he wouldn’t have made it out of the room alive*

Me: WTF STORIES DID THESE PEOPLE EVEN READ

MOOD

Y’know an awful lot of Terry Pratchett’s books are concerned with how powerful women are when they get angry and how important anger is as a driving force to defend what is right and to tackle injustice. 

A lot of his most interesting and most deeply moral characters are angry ones. Granny Weatherwax, Sam Vimes, Tiffany Aching. All are to a large extent driven to do good by anger.

And that honestly means a lot to me.

Terry was an angry man. This is not the same as saying he was a bad man. He held a righteous fury, the kind that comes from looking at the world, and knowing just how much better it could be if only we stopped being bastards. He held a genuine belief that people can and do change the world for the better, not by big things, but by the little. He believed in the kindness of others, and that kindness means more than wishing well and prayers. He knew the difference between being good and doing good, and that you technically couldn’t be the first without the latter.

He was angry at the world because he loved it, and he wanted us to feel the same, to not feel helpless, to know that something can be done, to know that anger is not just the tool of abusers and tyrants but the chisel by which The People might chip away at oppression and fear and bring it crumbling down. He gave us the drive needed to believe in hope. because he wanted to make the world better with words and not violence.

I hope he knows that he did.

Oh wow. I didn’t know that, this is very important.

Damn

Things to bring back in books:

Some excellent additions from the notes:

THIS!!!

Stop stealing my dang book

HEY, UH

The people who are putting my tiny self published book (Here, the World Entire, aka the book I poured my whole dang soul into!) up on piracy sites / requesting a pdf of my book on piracy sites:

CAN YOU LITERALLY THE FUCK NOT

I’m very glad that people want to read my book! It brings me joy that I very truly cannot even begin to explain! It’s basically my dream come true! But please don’t steal my work!

I don’t have the backing of a big publishing house. I self published, so there’s no advance for me. The only money I make off that book is through sales, and although it’s not a lot at all per sale, it’s the only source of income that book produces. I very strongly believe that writers deserve to get paid for their work. That includes me.

If you want to read my book but really can’t justify using the funds you have to do so (because hey, we’re all in different financial situations, I get it), I know it’s in a couple of library systems so it’s worth trying that. I’m reluctant to send out free ebooks now because the last time I did that someone put it on a pirating site, but you’re welcome to ask and I may decide to do so on a case by case basis.

Please, please don’t pirate books. Authors really don’t generally make a lot as it is. We’re not all JK Rowling. Minimising our already low revenue stream, especially self published authors, is shitty. It actually upsets me to think that someone who follows this blog might be one of the people pirating or asking for pirated copies. If it is you and you see this, I’m asking you to stop. I will be telling you next time.

Ehhh im pretty pro.pirate if you cant afford it you cant afford it. Pirate sites get you more audience which means more people can share it.

If you wanna stiffle that be my guest.

But your only gonna damage yourself.

Literally no. Stop. Desist. This is a super Bad Take, and also incredibly inappropriate to add to my post here. Let me explain.

I don’t need exposure. I don’t need ‘audience’. That doesn’t pay my bills. That doesn’t compensate me for my months of hard work. I don’t need people to 'share’ my work for me free of charge by stealing it and distributing it for free without my consent.

You fundamentally misunderstand how the publishing industry works. It doesn’t work by people stealing books. That sure benefits the reader, but it royally fucks over the author. Work being shared on pirating sites does absolutely sweet bugger all for me as an author. Audiences who know they can get my shit for free aren’t going to suddenly start paying for it just because they’ve now heard of me, so your comments about building an audience are asinine; it’s not building a paying audience for me, but an audience of people who steal my shit. Some audience.

I’ve sold hundreds of copies of my book based on the quailty of it (presumably; either that or my mum has been bribing people). It’s selling itself pretty well, thanks. It’s been performed as a play! It has pretty good reviews! I don’t need to eschew being financially compensated in exchange for more audience, especially not if that audience isn’t going to fucking pay. An audience gained from a pirate site is useless to me. It does nothing for me. I have one book out currently. Every person who steals it is someone who doesn’t buy it. It’s another sale lost. It’s nothing gained. I don’t have a back catalogue for people to buy once they’ve heard of me. It’s theft and then fuck all benefit to me.

Writing isn’t all about making money and it’s a privilege to have your work out there and read, but it’s also work, and in a capitalist society, that merits being compensated for the acknowledgement of that work. I’m not just a money hungry piece of shit (or I’d have priced my book at an actually decent profit margin) but I need money to, y'know, eat. Writing is one way I do that. I can’t do that if people steal my work.

I don’t give half a sodden shit if you’re pro pirate. I’m not, and it’s my livelihood on the line here, so maybe consider people’s feelings before adding your two cents to a post. You’ve basically just ignored my feelings completely in order to add your spicy hot take to a post because apparently your misinformed opinion is more important than my livelihood. It’s not. There’s a time and a place to espouse your viewpoint. This was categorically not it.

Bought a copy, it looks dope.

Piracy, like a lot of things in life, is a subject with nuance. If you are curious to see a big blockbuster made by a major movie company that’s raked in millions in a single weekend but you don’t want to add your money to those millions because you think the series has taken a sharp dive in quality - you could make an argument for that.

If a billion dollar company is charging extortionate amounts for software you need for your livelihood, pirating that is between you and your conscience.

If you bought a thing but due to DRM or whatever you can no longer access the thing you bought, you can decide whether to pay again or pirate.

But pirating something from a billion dollar company is not the same as pirating a self-published book, or an indie-game, or even a book from a small press. The margins in publishing are tiny. Most authors have a second job because they earn so little from their writing. If you pirate their stuff, you’re hurting their chances to support themselves with their writing.

Libraries exist. Basically every writer I’ve met is pro-library. If you can’t afford to buy a book, get it from the library instead. In the UK, I get a few pence when people borrow books from the library (the actual system is convoluted, but it means I can earn a little bit of money from library borrows). Don’t pirate books. Whether you pirate other stuff, I’ll leave to your judgement, but seriously, pirating books directly hurts the authors.

#i would argue even pirating books from rlly popular authors from big publishing houses is super bad #like #maggie stiefvater talks about how people pirating the raven cycle books meant the series almost got cancelled half way through #cos people were pirating them rather than buying #so to the publisher it looked like no one was interested or reading them #even authors with good publishing deals arent usually rich #hearing about authors with 6 figure book deals is the exception #thats like extraordinary #i will say this time and time again #you camt pay lip service to the idea that artists should be payed for their work and then turn round and pirate books #everyones cool with paying artists until it comes to actually paying artists

Yeah, that’s all nice and dandy, but like, a lot of books cannot be found in the libraries of my country. Like, English books and shit. And I have no money to order books from other countries. I have tried online libraries, but a lot if times I just couldn’t find the book I wanted. So yeah, sometimes I either pirate a book or not read it

Oh look. Another “but I want and therefore am entitled to free shit! If I want to read a book, then I have every right to read that book, even if it means stealing it! I can do what I want because I want to read it! Fuck the author’s rights to earn a living!” defence on my personal post in which I explain why being a book wanker is bad. Revolutionary. ‘That’s all nice and dandy’? Jog on with that. We’re talking about people’s livelihoods, not tea in Jubilee Park. There’s nothing ‘nice and dandy’ about it.

To reiterate the whole, y'know, point: don’t be a book wanker, and don’t defend being a book wanker on my personal post about potential lost income as an indie author. Just don’t. Write a sexy tweet about it if you have to, but don’t do it on my post, because I have neither the patience nor the inclination to be nice about it.

Hot tip: get your library to order the book in. Wait and see if you can buy it in a deal. If I want to read a book but can’t afford it and can’t get to the library for some reason… I don’t read it. We aren’t entitled to everything at all times.

Dude… you’re so angry and irate and being senselessly rude about this that I’ve lost all interest in paying for and reading your book in the first place - only because you sound so mean-spirited and entitled. I fully understand wanting to be compensated for your work, and I am certain you poured so much of your heart and soul into this, but are you genuinely going to squabble over the internet about a small fraction of lost sales, only lost because the person wishing to read it cannot in any other capacity access it? Do you really think people feel good about not being able to afford books? You think they don’t feel some sort of shame over it? You think it does hurt them having the author chew them out over it? Have a little perspective and understanding, my dude. I hope peace finds you, because your fans don’t deserve to be subject to you berating them for being too poor to fund their interests.

I can’t. Please just don’t engage with me at this point. I have had it up to my eyeballs with this. I have made this response as cordial as possible, but hoo boy, I am seething at this. I think my eyeballs might be vibrating.

‘Be nice about people stealing your work, or I won’t read it. I’m going to tone police the way you speak about people stealing your work, and use your work as leverage. Asking people not to steal from you is entitled, and you have to talk about it politely, or you don’t deserve a readership.’ Did I parse that correctly?

I’m not going to reply with scorching vitriol to that sentiment, but know that the temptation to do so is astonishingly present.

[Image description: a quote from the initial post, which reads ‘If you want to read my book but really can’t justify using the funds you have to do so (because hey, we’re all in different financial situations, I get it), I know it’s in a couple of library systems so it’s worth trying that. I’m reluctant to send out free ebooks now because the last time I did that someone put it on a pirating site, but you’re welcome to ask and I may decide to do so on a case by case basis.’]

Not in any other capacity, hmm? Except for the one I explicitly mentioned up there? Let’s ignore that one; it doesn’t play into the narrative of me being ‘angry, irate, senselessly rude, mean-spirited and entitled’.

I’m sure people don’t feel good about not being able to afford books. I’m not Jeff Bezos. I can’t afford a lot of stuff I want, books often included. That doesn’t mean I steal them. I either ask for them for gifts when possible, or I save up for them, or I find other (legal, not harmful) ways to get them, which are listed in this post here. And if people don’t want the author to ‘chew them out’ over it, then they shouldn’t keep replying to my post about how pirating books is harmful with comments about why they’re going to continue pirating books, especially when I’ve expressly asked people not to do that on my post.

I’d also like to add that none of the comments saying that they pirate books have been from my followers, or reblogged directly from me; none of them had any interest in reading my book. They came across this post through reblogs and are not familiar with me or my book (most people aren’t; I’m not exactly JK Rowling). These are people speaking hypothetically about pirating books in general. They haven’t reached out to me as an author they want to read and said ‘I want to read your book but can’t afford it’; they’ve seen an author explaining how piracy is detrimental to authors in general and they’ve chosen to comment ‘but I’m going to do it anyway’. I have asked people not to do this. They’ve done it anyway. I’m going to get annoyed.

Do not patronise me like this. Do not. Don’t you dare speak to me like that, as though you’re some benevolent Zen Arbiter, deigning to grant me the merest moment in your ocean of infinity to float gently down from your cloud, from which moral vantage point you have objectively decided that my income is irrelevant, and spread your omniscient, calm wisdom upon me, an overly-emotional prole. Do not tell me that you hope ‘peace finds me’ when I am writing a post about how people pirating books affects my income and, by extent, my actual life. Y’know, the one I have to live in a capitalist society which relies on income. I am not ‘berating my fans’, namely because, as I mentioned, the people I replied to above are not people who follow me. I am also not shaming anyone for being unable to afford books; as I’ve said, I’m not a billionaire. I’m largely financial stable now, but this hasn’t always been the case. You absolutely need to recognise that this works both ways. Authors don’t make a lot of money from their books. When you speak of people being ‘too poor to fund their interests’, you neglect to mention that there are many authors who are too poor to pay their bills.

I’m not complaining about this because boo-hoo, I only made £5,000 in book sales this quarter and my Jaguar needs refuelling. I haven’t even broken £1,000 in book sales since I published it 3 years ago (as I mentioned before, this is in part due to my own decision to set a very low profit margin, hence why my book only costs £4.80; it’s the lowest I could set it whilst still making any money. I would probably put a higher value on my labour and work and do it differently next time. Hindsight is 20/20).

So in my case, my book sales supplement the money I use to buy food and go about my daily life, along with the salary I make from working 6 months of each year. I generally don’t work the other 6 because of my PhD workload, which is not funded. I don’t have much excess when I have to make a half year salary stretch to a year. I’m not on the breadline by any means, mostly because I’m able to live at home when I’m not working (which isn’t ideal, but is the best financial choice for me atm) but I am not in a position to keep losing income from people who don’t buy my book. I can cope with the odd lost sale here and there when someone sends the file to a pal, sure, but when someone is uploading my book as a mobi file on a pirate site, or asking for a pdf to be uploaded, then that’s a potentially endless pool of lost sales from people downloading that file.

I am absolutely sick to the teeth of people gaslighting me on this and telling me that what I really care about is getting rich and taking a big ol’ poo on poor people, rather than pointing out that book piracy overwhelmingly harms poor authors and marginalised authors, especially authors from working class backgrounds, disabled authors, authors of colour, and queer authors (of which I’m one, hello). I’m sick of getting hatemail about it. I’m a ‘capitalist elitist bootlicker’, according to one sweet anon, for asking for fair compensation for my labour. It is so, so draining. You’re making me out to be some abhorrent, illogical, unreasonable banshee - oh, sorry, I won’t put words in your mouth; I’m just  ‘angry, irate, senselessly rude, mean-spirited and entitled’, after all - lounging about on my bespoke futon and wailing on Tungle dot net about how poor people steal my illustrious masterpiece and deny me my millions. That is categorically not the case. I am writing about how book piracy harms people who are already in a very low income bracket. Authors are usually the poor people too. That’s the part you’re not getting.

Do not tell me ‘I’m not going to read your book now because you’re being mean about people stealing your work.’ That’s honestly one of the most petulant, spiteful comments I’ve ever received on this blog. You don’t have to read my book! I don’t expect everyone to! Heck, I’m still frankly amazed when anyone does! Sometimes I have to pinch myself and check I’m not dreaming! But holding my work over my head - work that you fully acknowledge I ‘poured so much of [my] heart and soul into’ - like this and using it as some kind of twisted bargaining chip in an attempt to get me to just shut up about something that is actually affecting my life is just so, so mean-spirited and misguided. Don’t read it, that is completely and objectively fine, but don’t throw that fact in my face just because I’m not making myself supine and letting people steal from me.

I’m going to be logging off for a bit now. I don’t have the space to read any more comments like this. It honestly feels like this whole debate is sucking my soul out through my nostrils. It’s like screaming book piracy harms low income authors and that makes it bad! into the void, and having the void scream back why do you hate poor people so much, elitist scum?! I just wish the void would listen, really. Or at least stop calling me a bootlicker for asking people not to steal from me. Ho hum.

“I am very unique and smart and enlightened because I’ve decided to criticize a woman who wants to get paid for her labor” is a hell of a take.

Anyway, I’m gonna go buy Anwen’s book because jesus Christ people are the worst

Don't pirate books y'all

Why must the internet hurt me like this?  😫 😫 😫

Reblog if you need a bookmark

So, I heard about this and I can’t find the original, but apparently this started because someone returned a book to a library with a taco in the middle of it.

Lol

Us: *starved from lack of representation in our favorite novels*

Rick Riordan: Heard y’all wanted some representation so here an African American girl raised in the 1940’s lol

Us: OH MY GOD YES THA-

Rick Riordan: Oh lets give her an awkward yet badass Chinese-Canadian boyfriend

Us: OH MY-

Rick Riordan: Oh, here’s a Native American girl daughter of Aphrodite with a movie star dad

Us: I-

RR: What about a smol sassy Latino boy that will soon become your favorite character?

Us: AWW-

RR: Oh wait, here an lil emo Italian sad boi and his sunny optimistic boyfriend

Us: WH-

RR: Here’s a badass native Latina who takes no shit (we all know she gay af for Thalia but we must wait)

Us: Oh-

RR: Y’all wanna hear about the queen of bisexuals Apollo?

Us: I’m-

RE: What about an old, non-sexualized lesbian couple with an incredibly romantic backstory??

Us: Wait-

RR: OH WAIT! Do you want a badass Muslim girl who follows tradition Muslim values but doesn’t let it stop her from living a normal life? Oh, and she’s also in a healthy arranged marriage don’t worry

Us: H-

RR: How about a gender-fluid and transgender child of Loki with a lovely taste in fashion?

Us: Wait hold o-

RR: What about a deaf elf who uses sign language to communicate but is still a valuable character?

Us: But-

RR: Oh, and here’s two biracial siblings that look nothing alike but they’re related, trust me

Us: *shocked*

RR: OH! I ALMOST FORGOT! Literally all theses characters are dyslexic, but it’s ok because it’s possible to live a full life even with disorders like dyslexia.

Us: *faints from the tidal wave of representation thrown at us*

RR: Anything else?

Us:

Mood

it occurs to me that many fans have never experienced the illuminated-capital illustrations in early Good Omens books.

THAT IS SO FUCKING COOL I WANT ONE