Fair Pay Problem
When you enjoy a book you borrowed or bought used, the author receives $0.
Solution
You can now tip the author directly for her work.
5 Reasons to Compensate the Author When You Borrow a Book, Buy It Used or Love It
1. Used and Borrowed Books Deprive Authors of Much-Needed Income
~63%1 of the traditionally-published paper books that people read are bought used or borrowed. Authors get paid nothing 2 for all that usage of their works.
95+% of authors aren't famous or well paid. They need that lost revenue: median income for traditionally-published authors from their books in 2022 was ~$10,000.
2. Used Book Sales Are Big and That's Bad for Authors
The used book market has boomed [NYTimes paywall], as Amazon, Google, et al. make it easy to find pre-owned copies of books. Used books are now ~37%-45% of paper books sold and their sales are growing faster than new book sales.
"More than half of consumers within the US & UK buy more second-hand than new books." Used Book Sales Statistics, Dean Talbot, December 20, 2022, WORDSRATED
The writers you like lose out when their books are sold a second, third, or fourth time.
That's not all. When used books are priced far below new ones, publishers must cut prices to compete, reducing revenue and, ultimately, author income.
3. Authors Often Receive Nothing on Deeply Discounted Books
Remainders, copies liquidated by publishers, and gray market books [NYTimes paywall] are like used books. They are 40+% off the price of new — at bookstores and online — and when you buy one, the author gets $0.
4. Authors Write to Be Paid — Not to Provide a Free Service
When you borrow and get value from a book, you're effectively saying to the author, "Thank you for the good work. By the way, I'm not paying you." That was understandable when you couldn't pay authors for borrowed books. Now, you can.
5. When You Love a Book, You've Been Provided With Hours of Enjoyment
Consider paying the author a tip commensurate with the value you received.
ENDNOTES
1Borrowed + Used + Remainder Books = ~68% of Paper Books People Read
No one has done a publicly available, rigorous study of where people get their books. These calculations are thus back of the envelope. If you know of more reliable figures, contact us.
According to a Pew Research study, ~38% of the books that people read are borrowed, 24% from friends plus 14% from libraries.
So, of the paper books people read, ~62% are books that those readers bought.
Used books are 15% to 18% of the market by revenue.
Now, assume used books sell for 40% of the price of new books, on average.
That means, for each 1% of market revenue, used books sell 2.5 units per new book sold.
15% (of market revenue) x 2.5 = 37.5%.
18% (of market revenue) x 2.5 = 45%.
So, used books are ~37.5%-45% of paper books sold Call it 40%.
As noted, ~62% of the paper books people read are bought not borrowed.
So, used books are ~62% x 40% = ~25% of the paper books people read.
Subtotal: Borrowed + Used = ~63% of the paper books people read.
Then, remainders including gray market books are (pure guess) ~5% of the paper book market.
In Total: Borrowed + Used + Remainders = ~68% of the paper books people read.
2Authors Sometimes Receive Tiny Payments Per Library Loan
Public lending rights in some countries enable authors to be paid small amounts per book loan — around 10¢ in 2019 in the UK according to Wikipedia. Libraries support authors by buying books, of course, but the amounts authors effectively receive per loan are usually tiny.