I know we've switched completely away from indie bookstores and consolidated them into the behemoths, but I wonder if there's a future where authors and readers can win with cheap ebooks without so many middle men.
Even when I do think of buying an ebook, so often there's a $15 price tag. Purely as a consumer, that doesn't ever seem like a good deal to me.
LibGen is great, Z-Library is a fairly controversial for-profit endeavour, but Anna’s Archive is now the best single recommendation. Not only does Anna’s Archive have all the LibGen and Sci-Hub stuff in its index, it also contains myriad publications that came from other channels like Z or Internet Archive.
I've written four books. Each book is the result of thousands of hours of experience and hundreds of hours of work. My books are all over these sites, and have been used to train AI. Without my consent.
I didn't write books to make money - I've made the national bestseller list and still get paid < minimum wage for my writing time. But it is disrepectful to my time and expertise to use such pirated sites. You probably make money with your mind and your fingers and your creativity. Why wouldn't you take some tiny part of the money you make and use it to allow me to do the same.
And for those who say "its the same as a library" - libraries buy books. And lend them on a limited basis. Sites like this are just simple theft.
