Galleycat:

Author Mary Roach shared a funny and timely story on Twitter recently, forgiving a reformed book pirate in a post. She wrote: “This is a first: Guy mailed a fan letter, a $10 bill, and apologies for having downloaded a pirated copy of Packing for Mars. Forgiven.”

And of course this started a conversation about piracy all over the internet, including the quote: “I’d be far more happy directly sending the author the money as opposed to giving it to a publishing house.” The problem with that kind of internet-friendly libertarian give-the-money-directly-to-the-producer thinking is that a good book doesn't spring fully formed from the brain of an author. When I interviewed Roach for Mars, she talked a little bit about this:

...you've worked with the same editor for all your books?

Yeah.

That's rare. Is that in your contract? Is that something you're always going to do?

No, it's not in the contract. [Roach's publisher] W.W. Norton is independent and they tend to have a lower turnover. The employees become vested, they have shares in the company, there are reasons for them to stick around more than at some other publishing houses. But we enjoy working together, and she's good for me. She'll go through and cross out things that don't work. And initially I'll go, "Hey! That's my favorite line!" And the next day I'll be like, "Oh. Yeah, that was kind of dumb." We work well together. I feel like she is the perfect balance—she's not too heavy-handed, and yet she's definitely going to come in and say, "Don't lead with this chapter. Lead with another one. This chapter's too long, we need to cut it in half. We need to put breaks here." She's just got a really good sense of what the reader would be experiencing when they read it.

If she's doing her job right, the editor contributes a great deal to the quality of a book. So if you pirate a book and then feel smug about sending the money directly to the author, you're leaving out an enormous, and important, chunk of the publishing process. And besides the editors, there are the people who design the book, make the cover, and market the book, too. Just because you can't see their contributions doesn't mean their fingerprints aren't all over the books.

Believe me, I think the publishing industry is way too ponderous and top-heavy. But for the consumer to automatically assume that he knows best about who to give the money to is a dangerous combination of ignorance and arrogance. Mary Roach is the first person to admit that other people contribute to a Mary Roach book. Who the fuck are you to decide those people shouldn't get paid?