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In fact it would make the choice utterly meaningless.
The reason that, to me, it doesn't make the choice meaningless is the notion of distribution versus personal use. If you opt-in and provide an ebook, the board distributes it, and that distribution is endorsed by the author. If you fail to opt-in, but the board has instructions on how to make an ebook, then people can make their own copies for their own use. Instructions that include a template that says all over it that the story is originally from this board and is part of this community. Any distribution at that point is not endorsed by the author. Maybe it says something about the fact that I grew up with a librarian for a parent, but that seems like all the difference in the world: one sounds like a library, and the other sounds like copyright infringement.
At the same time, I can see why you would feel like having complete, step-by-step instructions sitting a few clicks away from a fic you deliberately do not make available as an ebook would feel like disrespectful and demoralizing.
So, let's put the idea of including instructions on the board away for now. We just add a place for authors to put their own ebooks. The only endorsement the board offers is the conformation that yes, it was the original author who submitted the book. Authors can include distribution information right in the book that says that the story is only to be distributed via x, y, and z channels.
Does that sound better to those of you who would not opt in?
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love this place and love the community aspect of it and just want to do everything possible to preserve and promote that part of the board. I mean, I can't tell you how many people have commented on Neverland saying, "I started reading over on Chris's site but then the lack of updates drove me over here and now I'm a commenting fool." (Okay, maybe not the fool part, but you get the general idea.)
To be fair, Neverland isn't done. When it is, will you put the full version on Artemis's site (the other place you said you post)? Because if you do, this impetus to come here will go away; people will be able to read the whole thing there. At least with an ebook, you can pull a Reading Rainbow and put "If you liked this, you should try PENS" at the end of the story.
Also to be fair, I, as mentioned, have never had anything of mine go to the magical land of completed fics; everything I've finished is a short piece and in an active thread. I have no experience with what happens in terms of feedback there, with how that feedback shapes a story and a relationship between the reader and the author. But somehow it doesn't feel like it could be the same sort of relationship as when the story is being written. Maybe it's my own inability to leave detailed feedback there; I know I gush . . . well, everywhere, really, about Waiting for Dani, but my actual feedback on the thread amounts to "if you really want to know what I think, I would need to comment the shit out of a word document for in-line annotations, and then I'd need to go on for a few thousand words . . . suffice it to say I really love this."
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(And BeMy, no worries about the FB - I just hope you read the updates and liked them!)
This? This here? This is
exactly why I would opt-in. I want people to read what I write. I want to give them every opportunity to let me know what they think, but to me, control of where it goes is less important than people actually reading it. Maybe it's a symptom of me being newish to the board, and maybe it's because I haven't finished anything yet, and maybe it's some consequence of me not being nearly as big a gun as Kathryn and Heather are, but it's how I feel. As I was reminded via email today, I certainly have friends--dear friends--because of feedback on my writing. And that's a big part of why I'll keep writing here. But I'll still put QoH into an ebook when it's done, even if I can't distribute it here.
Foo, I hope I'm not making you go all
with all this. I just really like to talk.
Kate
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