Some Closure: The Hardy Boys

THE HARDY BOYS THE FINAL CHAPTER... by Gene Weingarten (The Washington Post, Aug. 9, 1998)

A fascinating article about the writer of the Hardy Boys, spotted via a comment in beatonna's Nancy Drew comics. It does change your perspective on the series, so if you're all about putting writers on their pedestals and leaving them there, look away. I spent a few weeks reading my school library's collection of Hardy Boys when I was about 10, so I can't help but be fascinated. No one told me the books were for boys, thankfully. :)

Living in obscurity.

Does it mean you've hit the limelight if e-book pirates chose to share your work online? If so, congratulations!

Curiously, I was looking at Karin Kallmaker's list of Ye Olde Myths of Piracy and was unsatisfied with the supporting evidence. The "myth" about authors actually earning more money? Well, it's not a myth in the sense that it's not real. Mercedes Lackey and several other authors who were part of the Baen Free Library experiment had sales of their books increase after they released it for free in 2002. Even MIT press and other academic presses had several works lifted out of obscurity and sold more printed copies precisely because the works were available for free. Obviously, this does not translate unilaterally across the board, but it's good to know all the facts on hand before we make a judgment.