I got this email from Christopher Garry, a fellow writer: "I am an editor and a writer. I have two quick questions for you...you use "Share Alike" license inside your books. Does that mean that people can modify your writing and then re-distribute it? Do you see any of your fans doing this? What is your favorite way to interact with your reader community? Clearly you are highly visible on Twitter but do you have maybe a newsgroup forum or any other way for readers to discuss your work? A wiki? A guide to the worlds you have built? That sort of thing?"

Well, it's 7 questions total, but hey, I'll answer them all! So here you go. (Also, if you read this whole post, you will convalesce from your all your illnesses. That, or I owe you a cookie.)  

1. What using ShareAlike license means.

Let me begin with the official name for the beast. The license I self-publish my books under is called "Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported". The full text about it, including the lengthy legalese, can be found here. What does this mean? It means that you can do these things to my books: