Let’s Take a Minute to Talk About Piracy

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ebook piracy, Food for thought, Indie Authors, Let's Take a Minute, Piracy

Yesterday I found that both Dance With Me and Fight For Me were available at multiple pirate sites, and Fight alone has been downloaded more than 30,000 times.  Oh, I know not all those downloads would’ve been sales, but Fight is $2.99, and I haven’t sold anywhere near that many copies through the legitimate stores where it is available–Amazon, B&N, ARe, Smashwords, Kobo, iBooks– EVERYWHERE, so it’s incredibly perplexing to me.

The thing that is most bothersome is that even if 10% of those downloads had been through a legitimate store, that would’ve been about $6,000 in my account.

God, I wish I hadn’t done that math just now.

As an indie author, that’s not money coming out of a publisher’s pocket, that’s money coming out of my own pocket, money that would be used to support my family, and I know the majority of other authors on all the pirate sites aren’t millionaires either.  All of us–traditionally or indie published– have bills to pay and families to feed, and aren’t lounging around on a resort somewhere thinking up our next blockbuster.

So, before I put my soapbox away, I’d like to point out that most readers wouldn’t dream of pulling a paperback off a shelf and walking out of the store with it, and ebook piracy is the exact same thing.  It doesn’t seem so since it’s not a physical item, but stealing is stealing.  It just is.

Also, just one more thing before I put up my soapbox and get back to writing.  Books take a long time to write, and need things like editing, cover art, and other important aspects before publication.  For indie authors, that’s all paid upfront by us before we make one cent from the book.

Generally we price lower than the NY market, but let’s stop to think about something for a moment:

Food for thought, yes?

Okay, rant over, soapbox put away.  Time to get back to writing Live For Me.  I’ll be back Wednesday with a snippet!

Piracy

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#amwriting, Dylan and Cassidy, ebook piracy, Fight For Me, Piracy, Piracy is stealing, Six Sentence Sunday, Sunday Six, The Everetts of Tyler

I know, I know, you’re probably expecting six sentences from FIGHT FOR ME since it’s Sunday, and we’ll get to that in a minute.  First, I want to step up on a soapbox for a second.  I know people love to share great reads they’ve found, and that’s all fine and dandy, but–and here’s the big but–downloading from an unauthorized site and not paying for the book is stealing.  I know, you can find just about anything on the internet, and I don’t begrudge anyone looking for legitimate free reads– there are plenty of sites linking to great free reads, Pixel of Ink, Free Booksy, eReader Love, not to mention Amazon, B&N, All Romance and Kobo themselves.  If a book is free on purpose, then by all means download the heck out of it, sing its praises everywhere, and buy the author’s backlist or the rest of the series.  Free books are often marketing tools for authors to get you involved in a world, a storyline, a character, and occasionally they are pieces that are too short or just not right for publishing.  I have some myself that started life on Literotica, not to mention Speeding which will always be free because it started that way, and even after editing, I can’t fathom charging you for something I have freely offered for a year (but that’s an entirely different soapbox).

The point I’m trying to make here is: If it’s a matter of not having the money to feed your reading habit (believe me, I understand that one all too well), there are tons of free reads available, and there are these great places called libraries, with the sole purpose of lending books!  A lot of those libraries are lending digital copies as well, so if you like me are a digital reader, the libraries can cater to you there, too.

Okay, so off the soapbox, and on to what I’m supposed to do on Sundays!  I am not officially sixing this week, but I’ll pop the link in here anyway so ya’ll can go check out the folks that are official.

It’s good not to be official–I’m cheating today and giving you seven!

An old Olivia Newton John song popped in her head and she laughed at herself. No, she swore she wasn’t getting physical with him, not in reality, at least. In her dreams she could do anything, and he wasn’t in pain. She held back a moan at the thoughts tumbling through her mind. Good Lord, how was she going to handle this for another month or more? She had given her word and offered her home, and she was a woman of her word.  She just hoped that word wouldn’t kill her.