The only point I’d like to correct, the one you seem a bit confused on, is whether or not I asked for money. My point is that I did request money while doing the podcast (again, as was my right, in my own podcast), but when I decided to stop the book, and Evo told me that the money that had been donated to the book-in-progress would be directed towards other projects, I said “Great”. Okay. That’s all I got. Enjoy tearing this one apart as well.

-t

What a pointlessly angry letter

pointless would be if i got nothing from it. i got everything i wanted from it, which was to begin the economics correction of a blight that has infected the “free” audiobook world.

1) As Evo says, I never got paid, and never asked for it.

after which you write,

I asked for money at the beginning of my chapters, because people were still getting free stuff.

just sitting here shaking my head in disbelief at your apparent confusion.

If you didn’t like my appeals for a bit of cash, you didn’t have to listen.

it’s this bullshit game? okay. if you didn’t like me bitching about your bullshit economics hurls, you didn’t have to read.

see how that goes? you’re a moron. “wahhhhh”. “wahhhhhhh”.

But it’s totally fair for me to ask for money. As it was totally fair for you to stop listening.

whatever the fuck “totally fair” means there. i know what it means: it means you have fuckall to say, but this “your entitled to your opinion” variant makes it look as if you’re refuting something. moron.

, but there’s no reason to treat me like some kind of asshole.

no, you’re an asshole. on one hand you say “free”, on the other you say “not free” — all with the usual ludicrous denial of the going market rate for your instant work: zip. … except when you’re shouting that it’s free … in a speech asking for money because … it’s free.

If I HAD been paid for my work, I would’ve finished,

blah blah blah. and if you were kurt vonnegut, what would you’ve done? completely nonresponsive horse shit intended to mimic refutation. of what? nothing i said.

I never did anything wrong to anybody, especially you.

classic.

What a pointlessly angry letter, found so many years down the line! Sorry I pissed you off so much. As one of the few people who clearly cares about books, you are the last person I’d want to alienate. But a few quick notes, as I just happened upon your post:

1) As Evo says, I never got paid, and never asked for it. So please don’t make me out to be some kind of greedy dick. As I said, if you look at the comment thread for the book: “http://www.podiobooks.com/blog/2007/06/27/the-bright-child/”, no writer gets into it for the money.

2) I didn’t guilt trip anybody about paying. I asked for money at the beginning of my chapters, because people were still getting free stuff. Yes, I didn’t finish, which I apologized for (again, in the comment thread; if you look, you’ll see that my emails explaining myself never got through to Evo, which is why I seemed to have disappeared). If you didn’t like my appeals for a bit of cash, you didn’t have to listen. The novel was released under Creative Commons, which means it was entirely free, as I knew. But it’s totally fair for me to ask for money. As it was totally fair for you to stop listening.

Plenty of TV shows don’t get picked up after the first season, leaving the plot hanging (Firefly, for example). But people can’t ask for the time they spent watching ads back. Because they still got some value out of it, even if it didn’t resolve. If you disagree, fine, but there’s no reason to treat me like some kind of asshole. I finish plenty of things (including five novels, may they please god sell some day), but wasn’t enjoying The Bright Child. If I HAD been paid for my work, I would’ve finished, out of respect and duty. But I wasn’t paid. I was experimenting with a free medium. The price the listeners pay is they may occasionally not get a whole book. The payoff is that they never HAVE to pay for anything. Seems like a pretty good deal to me.

3) I understand your shtick is to get ridiculously angry about everything that bothers you. And that’s cool. Keep on screaming. But remember that real people actually exist out here, even if they don’t seem very real through the net. Being needlessly mean and offensive doesn’t win you any points in the long run. I never did anything wrong to anybody, especially you.

Respectfully,

tommy

BTW, finished Grey tonight (in paper form, obviously). not gonna tell you how it ends. :P

In all seriousness, you are obviously justified in your ire. But to a point about a policy I’ve enacted to protect against this very real thing? I don’t “fund” any donations to the author until the book is completed. In fact, I very cheerfully refund any donations made to books that are incomplete. We don’t want to be viewed as wankers, too. :)

E.