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So I'm at my local library, where, some months ago, with the help of a reader/patron, I donated a copy of my book, "Fat Boy Thin Man." The only other time I checked, it wasn't in the library's catalog.

Today, I not only saw it there, but I saw that another library in the Minuteman Library Network also has a copy. Both are lent at the moment, and two other readers are waiting their turn to read.

Yes, I am bragging, or its equivalent, anyway. 'Course, I was unable not to also note that those are four people who won't be buying it. As I've heard from Cory Doctorow, Tim O'Reilley famously said on the subject of piracy, "the problem of most artists is not piracy but obscurity," meaning that those who hold their work close in order to maximize income will most likely succeed in preventing the spread of their ideas.

In a library, of course, piracy is not an issue — especially when I  d-o-n-a-t-e-d  the book, but as a self-publishing author especially, I'm treading far closer to obscurity. 

And what am I doing in the library, anyway? Borrowing some author's hard-expressed genious for free, of course.

Footnote: On the flip side of obscurity is the aforementioned Mr. Doctorow: Google the one word "Cory" and he's what comes up first.


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