Hello. I'm a former teacher librarian, and in 2003, I published my first book. I specialized in Canadian history, mainly the fur trade. The fur trade being one of the pivotal events in Canadian history, I think it's important that students learn about this, so everybody learns about it. How can they learn about it if we get paid so little that people can't afford to write?
I started writing after a career as a teacher librarian, but a lot of people are trying to make their whole career as writers, and they can't do it.
Why is it everyone thinks that whatever you produce you should be paid for, except for writers and photographers? These seem to be two of the exceptions. It's perfectly all right to copy their work free of charge. This is for the good of students, for the good of seniors, for the good of....
What about the good of the person who produced the material? If nobody writes anymore, these students and seniors aren't going to get any material.
That's the main point I'd like to make. Like Joan, the amount of money I get from Access Copyright keeps going down.
I don't think there's really anything else that I have to say, but I'd like everyone to realize just how important it is that we have creators, and that these creators get paid so they can continue to create.
Thank you.