Love in Dark Settings

Reply to this comment by lee_rowan:

I was wondering whether that quotation would provoke any discussion. :) I agree with you that the analogy isn't exact - but then, I don't think that the "piracy" analogy is exact either, because illegal file-sharing is different from stealing someone's ship. I wish that people would stop talking about this topic with analogies that don't fit and would instead simply describe what is happening.

I'd also love to hear more feedback from professional writers who have permitted legal sharing of their electronic writings - how has it appeared to affect their sales?

My impression, from having followed this issue for several years now, is that the impact of file-sharing on a writer is very different depending on whether the writer receives his main income from printed books (e.g. Charlie Stross) or from e-books (e.g. most of the writers following this blog). I haven't seen anyone put forward evidence that file-sharing has a negative effect on print sales - in fact, there seems to be some evidence that it stimulates sales - but I wouldn't be at all surprised if file-sharing turned out to have a negative effect on e-book sales.

To be dangerous enough to create an analogy of my own, it appears to me that file-sharing is to e-books as MP3s are to CDs - so close in kind (and actually identical, if an e-book is what is being shared) that there's no incentive for the person to go out and buy the e-book. But file-sharing is to print books as FLV files from YouTube are to watching a movie in a theater - they aren't identical experiences, so a person who has downloaded a movie from YouTube might go see that same movie at the theater.

Reply to this comment by spiralred:

"I find it really refreshing to have a window into how a comprehensive relationship between two people might work."

I'm glad to hear that, because I've felt a bit shy about writing about my apprentice and me at this journal. I mean, I know that a goodly percentage of the people reading this blog are interested in fictional hierarchical relationships (most of those folks are reading my stories, after all), but I know that a lot of readers build a solid wall between fiction and real life, and I've been worried about squicking lots of people here by talking about, well, commands. Obedience. Touchy stuff like that.

Oddly enough, I have the opposite problem at online BDSM/leather venues. I'm always afraid I'll put people to sleep, because my apprentice and I don't have any sex or SM in our relationship, and 95% of my "mastering" consists of me saying things to my apprentice like, "I'd suggest you try eating vegetables at most meals." Which (judging from the writings I've read) isn't exactly typical of the average M/s or DS relationship.