Author Statements
Submissions can be made using the Contact Us form. Please include a link for 'more about this author'.
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Zachary Shore
As the author of 3 books, including my latest work, Blunder; Why Smart People Make Bad Decisions (http://www.zacharyshore.com/), and as a blind person, I can understand the views of those on both sides of the Kindle debate.
But even if the Kindle 2 should decrease revenues for my own or other authors' books, I must stand on the side of equal access to information for the disabled. The right of millions to read must rank higher than the right of authors to maximize their profits. -
Cory Doctorow
I'm specifically interested because Amazon has announced a "DRM-free" version of the Kindle format and I'd love to sell my books on the platform if it's really DRM-free.
(Excerpt from article: Kindle owners start to lose text-to-speech on purchased books -- how do DRM-free Kindle books work?)
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Randy Shaw
As a writer, I see e-books not as a potential threat to my rights but as a way for my work to reach a broader market. Readers who have never purchased books before because they were inaccessible will now join the book-buying public, increasing the revenue and reach of writers on every subject and in every literary genre.
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Deborah Kent
As both a blind person and a writer, I understand the importance of access to books for people of all ages and using all kinds of reading methods. The inclusion of text-to-speech in e-books for the Kindle 2 will help many young people with print disabilities to gain access to books, thereby ensuring that they will receive an equal education.
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George Pelecanos
I want the 15 million Americans who cannot read print books to have mainstream access to books. Those who are blind, dyslexic or have processing or intellectual disabilities cannot successfully use print. Others, like persons with cerebral palsy or high spinal cord injuries, or those recovering for stroke or undergoing chemotherapy have neurological or muscular problems that make holding a book for periods of time difficult. The introduction of text-to-speech on a mainstream e-book reader, the Kindle, means that for the very first time our neighbors and friends with these disabilities will have the same access to these books at the same price, the same terms and at the same time as everyone else. I have told my publisher not to turn off text-to-speech on my e-books and I urge my fellow authors to do the same.
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April Hamilton
As an author whose titles are not released in audio format, I'm glad TTS is there to make my books available to the text-disabled community. Author and publisher claims that TTS cannibalizes book sales or otherwise deprives authors of royalties is ridiculous, since no one can use TTS unless they've already bought a copy of an ebook. Given that only the most popular books are typically released in audiobook format or made available through special programs like Books For The Blind, non-bestselling authors who fight TTS are essentially choosing to exclude the text-disabled from their readership. The Authors Guild's proposed compromise, that the text-disabled register to have their disability validated as a condition of TTS access, is not only unnecessary, but offensive.
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Bufo Calvin
Dan Brown, author of the Da Vinci Code, has a new book coming out later this year. It is being published by Doubleday, which is part of the Random House publishing group. It has been stated by at least one Random House author that the publisher has told them they could go separately to Amazon to keep the text-to-speech enabled. Here is the site: Customer-discussions on Amazon-functionality. Encouraging Reading Rights Coalition members to post there would raise the profile of the issue.
Author: The Disabled Deserve to Read: The Controversy Over the Amazon Kindle's Voice
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Kinky Friedman
At least 15 million Americans cannot read print books. Some cannot because they are blind, dyslexic or have processing or intellectual disabilities. Others, like persons with cerebral palsy or high spinal cord injuries, have neurological or macular problems that make holding a book for periods of time difficult. Still others who are recovering from stroke or undergoing chemotherapy, are temporarily disabled from reading books. The introduction of text-of-speech on a mainstream e-book reader means that for the very first time our neighbors and friends with these disabilities will have the same access to these books at the same price, the same terms and at the same price as everyone else. For the 215,000 children with learning disabilities like dyslexics in Texas, text-to-speech on an e-book reader means the chance to see and hear the words at the same time, a gigantic step in helping them to become much better readers. I have told my publisher not to turn off text-to-speech on my e-books and I urge my fellow authors to do the same.
