As a writer, I have made my books
available for free, as many authors do, and that is my choice. I have donated royalties to charity. My
choice. Similarly, like most writers, I have worked for free, and again this
has been a personal decision. I have also downloaded ebooks that were on free promotion
on occasion (although I generally pay for the ebooks I read). Whether or not
authors should/shouldn’t offer their work for free is another topic for
debate.
But getting a refund for a
book after you have read it? That’s a
different matter. Yes, I agree if a book
has been badly formatted or is full of typos there is cause for dissatisfaction
(although hopefully this should have come to light when you checked out the
sample pages of the book before buying).
And sometimes you might click the Buy button twice by mistake.
However, is it possible to
abuse the system? Amazon say that they
can check for serial returners and they would certainly have the data to do
this. After all, it isn’t good business
for them (or the writers, of course).
Like many authors, when I read my sales reports there are occasions when
a reader has returned one of my titles for a refund. It would be really helpful as a writer to
have some feedback on why this is. In
researching this topic, one author mentioned an average figure of 2% returns.
More data would certainly be useful.
I am making an assumption
that the returns rules apply because of the consumer protection law for distance
selling. After all, the Amazon policy also applies to paper books, in which a
reader has up to 30 days to make a return, so this is not really an issue about
ebooks. However, what concerns me is the basis for returning a book. What if it
is formatted correctly and well-written but you don’t like it? Has anyone ever taken a book back to a
bookshop on the basis that they didn’t enjoy it?
Is a book simply a
commodity? Can we apply the same argument to other “creative” items. If we don’t like a piece of music we get a
refund on the download or cd? If we’ve
been to the cinema and we thought the film ended badly, do we insist on a
ticket refund? What does this mean for creative producers like writers and
composers? Is it right or fair?
If you are a writer, reader or a creative producer, what do you think?
For a range of viewpoints
check out:
Related posts:
http://creatabot.co.uk/2013/05/12/twenty-dollars-worth-of-art-please-by-jane-ayres/
http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/lessons-in-indie-publishing-free-books.html
http://creatabot.co.uk/2013/05/12/twenty-dollars-worth-of-art-please-by-jane-ayres/
http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/lessons-in-indie-publishing-free-books.html
