A prominent Spanish author named Lucía Etxebarria has announced an abrupt end to her life as a writer because of the effects of ebook piracy. However, her decision proved controversial.
Lucía Etxebarria claimed during the interview that she would not publish any more of her writings for a while now because there were more unauthorized copies of her latest novel downloaded than those purchased legitimately.
Unlike most writers, and indeed content creators in general, who would hope to seek for financial compensation, the way how this author has turned her back on her profession has caused fierce debate about the role of content creators in our digital age where material can easily be accessed for free.
For instance, a backlash was immediately felt on Facebook, where the writer quickly shut down her account. In fact, Etxebarria is among the small percentage of authors who have been fortunate to make a good living, since Lucía has won the lucrative Planeta and Primavera awards, which gave her around £750,000 in prize money. Nevertheless, with the ever-increasing popularity of electronic books throughout the globe, as well as the ability to access the material for free, the debate over financial aspirations for writers has started again.
For example, sci-fi and fantasy writer Storm Constantine thinks that financial considerations shouldn’t take precedence a compulsion for authors, who write because it’s in their blood, because it’s what they do. The supporters of this point of view believe that if a writer is a true story teller, they couldn’t bear to give up writing – in fact, the only person they would hurt are themselves.
Lucía Etxebarria claimed during the interview that she would not publish any more of her writings for a while now because there were more unauthorized copies of her latest novel downloaded than those purchased legitimately.
Unlike most writers, and indeed content creators in general, who would hope to seek for financial compensation, the way how this author has turned her back on her profession has caused fierce debate about the role of content creators in our digital age where material can easily be accessed for free.
For instance, a backlash was immediately felt on Facebook, where the writer quickly shut down her account. In fact, Etxebarria is among the small percentage of authors who have been fortunate to make a good living, since Lucía has won the lucrative Planeta and Primavera awards, which gave her around £750,000 in prize money. Nevertheless, with the ever-increasing popularity of electronic books throughout the globe, as well as the ability to access the material for free, the debate over financial aspirations for writers has started again.
For example, sci-fi and fantasy writer Storm Constantine thinks that financial considerations shouldn’t take precedence a compulsion for authors, who write because it’s in their blood, because it’s what they do. The supporters of this point of view believe that if a writer is a true story teller, they couldn’t bear to give up writing – in fact, the only person they would hurt are themselves.
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