POLICY FOR SHARING AND DISCUSSING BOOKS AND PAPERS ONLINE
by Claudio Di Veroli, Dec. 2024
I owe most of the contents of this webpage to personal conversations and emails with the recently-deceased Prof. Patrizio Barbieri, a distinguished Italian musicist and musicologist, and a world-leading authority on musical acoustics.
Barbieri endorsed my Unequal Temperaments book, but with a condition: that
I would never discuss online the contents of any of my books and papers, and
I would share online my papers, but never the contents of my books.
Let me explain the details about these matters.
BOOKS - SHARING
- Every single one of my eBooks has a website, with plenty of details about its contents.
- Other than that, and following my promise to Barbieri, I do not share their contents online.
- I have devoted to writing and improving my books more than half my working time ever since the year 2008. Their sales may look high in the early-music niche, yet my total net earnings have been less than 10% of what I would have obtained if, say, had I worked the same time as a university lecturer or company employee.
- Yet, some people have written online that we writers do not deserve even that fraction of compensation, and that we should all work for free!
- A few persons have gone as far as repeatedly asking me for sharing online parts of the contents of my books, and have even addressed me disrespectfully for my refusal to do so.
- On the other hand, I have to thank the handful of top-level specialists who kindly have sent me countless suggestions (including corrections to my non-native English) that have allowed my books to be significantly improved in the most recent editions. Their contribution is duly acknowledged in my books.
- And indeed, world-leading musicians have favourably commented/reviewed/endorsed my books.
- I am very happy with the result of all this work. Barbieri told me that, as far as he knew, my books were best-sellers in the field of early music, and they are in use as teaching material in musical Conservatoires and Faculties.
PAPERS - SHARING
- Papers are a different matter. To begin with, they are published in different media, mostly printed but also on webpages, and anybody can share their contents.
- Accordingly—and also following Barbieri's own policy—every one of my papers, after one or two years of its publication, is uploaded to my own webpage in Academia.edu, where anybody can download it free of charge.
BOOKS AND PAPERS - PUBLIC DISCUSSION
- Following Barbieri, those who wish to discuss my work, can do it in two ways:
- 1. Personally I can be reached via the email found in any of my books' websites.
- 2. Otherwise, of course, anybody is free to have a review of my work published.