Why Should I Give My Work Away: An excerpt from the BCcampus Open Education Self-Publishing Guide | BCcampus

"A while back, during a presentation I was making at a faculty workshop, an instructor sitting at the back of the room looked unconvinced as I described the advantages of using open textbooks in the classroom. When the discussion turned to open licences and how they worked, she raised her hand and asked, “Why should I give my work away?” I had heard this question before and thought it was a legitimate concern. However, that instructor’s blunt query made me think about my own writing experiences and my decade of work with other authors before I joined BCcampus. I remembered a time — before the Internet and open-copyright licences — when a writer’s livelihood depended on the sale of their articles and books.

Yes, I understood an author’s hesitancy about giving their work and the rights to their work away for free. However, things had changed. The sharing and collaboration of material and permissions between educational writers and teachers have and are leading to many good things, though it can feel like a sacrifice to the individual author. I concluded that individuals asking the question — Why should I give my work away? — have two concerns: one, they worry that by giving away their work they won’t make any money. And two, allowing others to make changes to their textbook means losing control over the content. Let’s take a look at the financial concern first...."