| Re: A Question of Ethics
Stopping one sale won't do a lot. This seems to be quite a widespread thing these days and this will no doubt be the first of many such copies that will appear. My wife (being a barrister) got all upset when it happened with Imperial Spy and sent out lots of emails threatening court action. At the end of the day, though, does this do anything other than get people talking about the author in a negative fashion? Sure I could send the guy an email asking him to take the book off. That would be easy. But do you ever think that person would have a kind word to say about me again? My golden rule has always been to 'be nice' in all circumstances. The more people who think well of you when you are in the public eye, the better. One rotten apple and all that.
Who knows who this person might be? It could be a bookseller. It could be a reviewer. In fact it's unlikely to be anyone other than one of these, as the proofs are only sent out to people in the trade. Do I really want to hack off this person? I think not. The question is, if the author cannot risk complaining, who should it fall to? |