[nabs-l] Dealing With the Author's Guild?

[Kirt]

Brandon,
I know plenty of blind people who are lucky to read five books a year.
Z Conversely, I know plenty of sighted people who read just about as much, or more, then you do. I don't think blind people, on average, read more than the average person who can see. If anything, I would say that, because a lot of my blind acquaintances don't know braille very well, or at all, they probably read a below-average amount of books per month, or year, or whatever. So, by my reckoning, you are going to have a very hard time convincing the authors Guild that blind people are, by nature, these avid readers who Reedway more than their sighted friends. Even if, by some miracle of statistics, you were able to find what you were looking for… It wouldn't be enough to convince them. Unfortunately, I think that history has shown us this will only resolve itself in the courts. But, for what it's worth, I hope I'm wrong.
Sent from my iPhone

On Jan 6, 2013, at 3:16 PM, "Brandon Keith Biggs" <brandonkeithbiggs at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hello,
> I've been reading up on why the Kindle device has not dived completely into tts and I'm wondering if anyone has ever told the authors' guild how many books they read a week?
> I've talked to many of my friends and by far, those who are blind read more than those who are sighted.
> Just for kicks, how many books does everyone on here read each month? I read at least 12 books a month, and I tend to stay away from the 350-400 pagers as they don't develop as well as the 900-1200 page books in my opinion. I read about 4 1000 page books a week and that is my lowest number.
> I'm a full-time music student and don't even spend time devoted to reading. If I was a literature or librarian student, I'm sure my reading would be quite more. I wouldn't consider myself an avid reader except when looking at this website:
> http://library.blogs.delaware.gov/2012/08/05/q-how-many-books-does-the-average-american-read-a-year/
> 
> I see that 15 books is how many books the average sighted person reads a year!
> This must make me some kind of excessive book nerd or something with 144 books a year.
> I know if Kindle became as good as one of the Braille Plusses or something of that nature, I would gladly choose to pay for my books through that rather than going on bookshare. (Although my book reading would probably go down).
> I am perfectly happy with Bookshare, although I don't really like it when there is book 1, book 2, book 4 and book 5 in the series only. That means I have to go onto Kindle, get the book, convert it to HTML and transfer it onto my unit before I can get book 3, rather than the 1 click thing I have with Bookshare.
> This actually makes me wonder if pursuing Kindle is worth it? I really like paying $50 a year for bookshare LOL... I am totally out of the loop when it comes to new releases, but there are so many books, I am never nearly out of books.
> But if the author's guild was told how many books a blind person reads vs a sighted person thanks to TTS, would it make a difference?
> Thanks,
> 
> Brandon Keith Biggs 
> 
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