Monday, August 03, 2009

Swapping, Mooching, and Buying

Put on your crash helmets, pumpkins, here's another rambling post about the contents of my brain.

I'm a member of both PaperbackSwap.com and BookMooch.com (Hello, fellow Swappers and Moochers!). About twenty percent of my books are obtained in this way. The remaining eighty percent are library copies. (Every so often an ARC sneaks in there, but not so much anymore.)

Recently, the owner of BookMooch.com posted this on their blog: Mooch Before You Buy. In short, he proposes this: authors to post copies of their books on BookMooch, Moochers to do what they do best. If they don't like the book, just pass it on. If they liked it, give a little donation to the author. The size of the donation would depend on the amount they liked the book.

This is somewhat similar to LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program, although that one trafficks in reviews and ARCs instead. It's also not that different from publishers and authors sending books to bloggers, although with both those the book-givers are aiming for publicity rather than straight-up dollars and cents. But doesn't it boil down to the same thing in the end? Hmmm.

Authors reading, would you do this? Non-authors reading, do you think that authors doing this would improve their overall sales?

1 comment:

Jennifer said...

What's your username on BM? I'd like to see your inventory (-:). I participate in LT Early Reviewers, although I only request things I really, really think I'll like and definitely review. I feel kind of ambivalent about authors posting books on bookmooch - mostly b/c I don't use it as a swap site, more as a "ooh, my book now" kinda thing. Books I mooch are likely to remain in my hands at least a year if not longer.
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