Tarnish
by scarletimprint
This has been described as a ‘golden age of occult publishing’.
From the internet it appears that there is a thriving international occult community and that publishers are reaping the benefits.
This could not be further from the truth.
Most magical publishers are very small businesses struggling to survive.
Occult authors are making precious little, if any, money. This is not the motivation behind the work.
We work a seven day week at Scarlet Imprint because we believe in what we are doing.
Producing books is a massively demanding occupation.
We wasted another day today trying to stop illegal copies of our books when we could have been finishing Geosophia for the printers and working on our own writing. We are sick to death of this, as are Ixaxaar, Golden Hoard, Xoanon et al.
Occult books are printed in limited numbers, for many reasons – financial constraints being one, and because there are precious few serious students.
Occult bookshops are struggling to survive. The number of members in actual magical orders (rather than internet fantasies) is tiny. Illegal files really hurt small communities such as ours. We are not Metallica or Time Warner, we cannot afford lawyers or any more of our precious time on monitoring or blocking file sharing sites.
If you own our books you are some of the very few students committed to the art.
The most supportive action you can take is to buy books produced by genuine magical publishers written by authors who have something worthwhile to say.
Free for all
There is a massive amount of free, out of copyright occult material online. More information than at any stage in history. Authors are also contactable and generous with their knowledge. Students are not starved of source material or living contact, if they seek it out.
Many illegal uploaders believe that they are providing a service, that they are disseminating knowledge for the right reasons. However their actions are destroying the marginal livelihood of the authors they are copying. They are seriously jeopardising any future work.
If you just want online twitter and reprints of dead authors from fewer and fewer sources, then this is what you will get. If you understand the book arts, then you will know how precious the skills are that our books keep alive.
Illegally uploading the work of an author is disrespectful. Copying the work of a magician and then seeking to work with those spirits is quite frankly stupid. A hacked pdf violates a simple magical principle of not haggling when you buy a black hen’s egg. The author and publisher have deliberately chosen to produce the book as a magical object, it stands to reason that this should be respected.
If you are exchanging files then you are making a serious magical mistake.
If you have the luxury of a laptop, an internet connection and a scanner, you are not too poor to buy books.
Give something back to the occult community rather than simply taking, or getting online kudos for someone else’s work. Saving money for a book or going without can be in itself a magical act.
We recognise that not everyone can afford a full vellum book, or even a standard hardback, which is why we have announced Bibliothèque Rouge as a paperback imprint. We also want information to reach students. We also want our authors to be paid for their work. They deserve it.
Taking Action
If you read and appreciate books from occult publishers and find illegal uploads, write to the publishers with the URL so that we can file a DMCA notice and get the content removed where we can.
You are also welcome to contact the uploaders and patiently explain why this is such a damaging practice. It is up to all of us to take responsible action on this.
If the uploads are on a closed community or forum, write to the uploader through their profile or post on the forum asking them politely to remove the files. If you are on a forum then write to the moderators and ask them to support small occult publishers by not allowing uploads of their books.
If you have illegal files, delete them and buy the physical book.
It is up to the occult community to stop the illegal file sharing by not tolerating the uploading of copyright material. The alternative is that no new work is produced, small publishers are utterly marginalised and the book arts go into terminal decline.
We want to keep making radical, progressive books for serious students of magic.
The book is a physical and magical object which cannot be replaced with a digital clone.
Support us in our work and that of the other committed magical publishers.
[...] Coyle pointed me to a blog post at Scarlet Imprint, a small publishing company that creates high quality limited-run esoteric works (we’ve [...]
I owe a great debt of gratitude to Scarlet Imprint and other small presses. Thank you for sharing. Yes, there are titles out there that I want that I cannot find in the marketplace. But I will continue to look and adjust my financial priorities accordingly.
Could not agree more. I have spent well over £2000 in the last six months alone purchasing some fine books, including Solomons Clavis handwritten by Sibley, XVI Kill All Kings Edition!! Cannot understand how anyone would rather read text on a monitor to physically holding a wonderful book in your hands. Sure some books are expensive but do what we all have to, save for it or like I had to do and sell a very expensive watch!!
I just wanted to post in support… to ditto Ian’s absolute observation, that books held in the hand are a treasure. To salute you and the job you are doing, and to say if not for the Pagan Newswire / The Wild Hunt… well, I might not have known you were here. And hey.. I DO get ‘around’ online.
Thanks for all the messages of support.
They are much appreciated.
It seems we have started quite a debate, most of which has been extremely positive.
I am going to play the devil’s advocate just to illumine the dreaded other side of the fence. If an understanding of this circumstance is to be had it must be comprehended from both sides; that way the focal points of complication are exposed. Stereotyping everybody who downloads a pirated copy does no more to resolve the lack of perspective than the activities of scumbags who are true “thieves” do to assist the small press.
The fight of small presses to ensure quality publications is certainly between a rock and a hard place. In the case that all copies of an incredible work sell out the demand for the work will continue unsatiated and the pirated copy may be the only reasonable recourse students have, especially when such a precious work reaches the second hand market. At that point all hope is usually lost as after the first year what was once reasonably priced and within reach becomes an object of extortion. This is when things get grey. That the out-of-print tome is now at the mercy of those who would profit off of the very thirst of the sincere seeker is enough to justify for many recourse to the pirate’s chest. In the minds of many who would take such recourse, it is no more and no less ethical to charge prices that divorce the work from physical obtainment than it is to download a copy of that which the publisher itself is no longer offering. Such seekers are those who seek desperately for the book ever hopeful for a reprint and long to buy the book even after they get their measly PDF. Both the press and readership are at a disadvantage as a book’s quality becomes a two edged-sword. For the small presses it ensures good sales, but as soon as the supply stops the seeker is at the utter mercy of the second-hand market.
There are many motives behind the recourse of readers to pirated copies and not everybody who chooses to download fits the stereo-type of the scumbag so often villified. Question what de-vilifies “piracy” as a mere recourse; question the conditions on which decsions are made, unless of course you find that a one-size-fits-all stereotype comports with a one-sided conception well-enough to befits a complete resolution. This said, I do not support “piracy”. I pay for my books. God knows my bank account has taken a hit this month! D’oh!
Absolutely, we agree.
Many people pirating texts believe they are acting for the right reasons.
We also don’t want students to face the massive costs that some titles now command on the secondhand market.
Texts need to be available, and that is something that we are addressing specifically with Bibliotheque Rouge by making titles available in paperback editions.
As ever we are on the side of the Devil.
The Bibliotheque Rouge is a great idea!!! Seriously, the gesture alone speaks to your readership base. You have my sincere respect and I support you guys a hundred percent.
Best wishes, Scarlet Imprint!
Just wanted to nod my head in consensus here. I look forward to each new volume available from Scarlet Imprint, and there is just no way to upstage the physical act of opening up a package, and extracting a book which was numbered by hand, a book a great deal of love and care went into. I can take a volume to work with me and read on my way there, or on my way home. If I wake up with insomnia and decide to get some reading in, all I have to do is reach to the shelf in my office.
Sure, I could download a torrent or pdf or whatever, but that involves switching on the ‘puter. Using more electricity, probably crashing my computer because it doesn’t like downloading large files. And aside from being disrespectful of the author(s) who got pirated, it engages a different part of the brain, and maybe it’s the tactile act of turning pages, but there’s more magic there in physical pages IMHO.
Sometimes I think we’re in a cultural war between centuries. Magic is this realm which is timeless, and I often wonder if technologizing it doesn’t just encourage us to take a great deal more for granted. Magic and instant gratification simply do not mix. Which is part of why I especially appreciated the observation that the actual number of practitioners/those in magical orders, despite these huge ‘communities’ online, is tiny.
Your books have had a huge impact on me. I am happy to try and return even a fraction of the fruits of that knowledge with buying current and future books because I believe in the work.
You inspire even by existing. Thank you.
PS. I am also on tenterhooks awaiting the order date for Geosophia.