Authors and piracy: eBooks on the high seas
I am going to tackle what I think is a very important topic for Authors and creative artists. I’m going to talk about Johnny Depp piracy!
It’s a funny thing, piracy (aaaarrrg!), as we live in a world where it is very easy for people to jump onto torrent and release sites and download whatever they want, for free. Most people accept that this is the case and at some point in their lives, have likely done it themselves.
What if we got you as a reader, and a room packed full of people and asked the question, “Raise your hand if you have *never* downloaded absolutely anything illegally or broken copyright laws. Never copied a movie in a VCR, photocopied copyrighted material, bought anything pirated, downloaded an image and used it on a blog from google images, or absolutely anything that can be considered a breach of copyright?”
I would be surprised if any hands went up, and I would be floored if a number of hands went up. Do I endorse it? Absolutely not, but you can’t change the world… you can only adapt.
Lady Gaga was quoted to say that she is happy for people to download her songs, as she makes all of her money from touring anyway. This is not such a case for us as authors, is it?
We don’t “go on tour” to sell out tickets to our shows and make a huge packet, do we?
So, why did I bring this topic up in the first place?
Because I googled my book title with a timeframe of the last week, and discovered that my books have been pirated. Was I happy about it? Of course not, although the attention is flattering.
The funny thing about everyone who pirates is, it doesn’t bother them and they have all sorts of justifications for pirating… and that is all well and good, until it’s *their* work that is being pirated. They don’t slave over manuscripts for many years to write a novel, pay editors, cover artists, work every day to promote their novels. No, they enjoy reading the books that other people produce… just like we all do as readers.
After all, pirates are just regular people, but with a different perspective and values. Do I consider them criminals? No. Do I want to run out there and track down everyone who downloaded my book illegally and persecute them? No.
You may be looking at me in shock and horror, but why on earth would I want to ruin someone’s life over copyright laws, for wanting to read my books?
Let us face the reality about the argument of potential sales: It’s flawed.
I put pirates into a few categories:
A) Pirates who NEVER buy what they download
B) Pirates who download to try without paying, and then go ahead to buy what they really like
C) Pirates who buy what they really like, and pirate what else they can, because they can and they may want to look at it later.
D) Pirates who (for whatever their circumstantial reason) cannot afford to buy the things that they want.
E) Pirates who cannot buy what they want, due to restrictions
The pirates who are in category A, will never pay for our books. Are they a lost sale? No. Are we losing money because they download our books? No. Are they still ripping us off as authors? Yes… but what exactly can we really do to change it?
The best we can hope for is that they tell their friends and families about our books (if they enjoy them) and some of them may want to buy them.
Pirates in category B, will try our books without paying for them first. If they like them, they will probably purchase them… but likely not.
Category C is similar, but the stuff they hoard and download will likely never be seen or read, but will definitely be shared.
Category D is a tough one. I mean, at the end of the day… just because we can’t afford to have something, doesn’t give us a justification to take it without paying because we want it. However, people do what they need to do and although we don’t like it, there are some real reasons why people would like to genuinely buy something, but the way they need to purchase it deems it “not viable”. Does it excuse it? No… but we can understand it. We can hope that those readers do help us as authors by spreading the word about books that they like, and when they get into a position that they can afford it, they support us as authors.
Category E concerns me greatly, and the fact that people can’t buy ebooks over the Internet, due to restrictions is just ridiculous. We should all push for any companies who do that, to change.
Whatever category these pirates are in, it does not matter, they are going to do what they do, regardless of what we try to do about it. People who would buy our ebooks and paperbacks will still do so, even if the availability of our books on pirated channels would make them more accessible for free. Not everyone pirates, and lots of people out there like to support authors and keep them writing.
For any pirates out there that think all eBooks should be free, I would like to ask you… would you go to work from 9-5 for no paycheck at the end of the day? I doubt that you would, but if you are happy to work all your life for no money, then you can stand tall with that argument.
For those Pirates that say that Authors are the real pirates for controlling their work and restricting what you can do with it… I really question that. If you buy my paperback, you can sell it, share it, sleep on it, use it as a paperweight, throw it in the air… I really couldn’t care less what you do with it… but I do hope you share it with your family and friends.
eBooks are usually considerably cheaper than paperback editions, and I have not put DRM on my ebooks (Can’t change the kindle Legends 2 edition when purchased from Amazon, they wouldn’t let me undo it). Although I don’t encourage emailing my book to every man and their dog, I see no reason why you couldn’t share the read in the same manner as a paperback.
As for the analogy of people buying ebooks and that they can’t sell it as they would a car, that is an interesting one. There is no real “second hand market” for digital works. Like second hand video game stores, further sales only profit the people trading in them… not the makers of the game. The same applies with eBooks.
Why would someone want to buy a second hand eBook when they can just buy it online themselves? We’re not talking cars worth huge money, are we?
Writing books is hard work and we work for nothing until we make any sales on our books. I am an indie author, what does that mean? We don’t get fat pay cheques from publishers, and we have to pay our own way and promote our own way for my books to be successful. Unlike movie studios, we don’t make millions or hundreds of millions in sales.
As much as the world is what it is for pirates, it is what it is for authors. We write for you, the reader, to enjoy our stories. If we all stopped writing, there would be no more books to read.
Having said all of this, what disappoints me the most… is that if any of these pirates bothered to come to my site and contact me, asking if I can give them my ebooks for free… I would have offered them an honourable deal of giving them my ebooks in return for an honest review. The act of pirating my ebooks is an unnecessary exercise of breaking copyright laws and using torrents or hosting sites.
I would love for pirates to consider buying my books and sharing them with their friends and families, but it is their choice if they wish to support me as an author, or not.
As a result of all of this, I stand by my words and I have put up a page on this very website that clearly offers review copies of my first book, Legends of Marithia: Prophecies Awakening (Uncut and Extended Second edition) to anyone willing to show some class and honour, and review my books for me on Amazon, Goodreads, etc. No need to break laws or illegally distribute my books!
It shows that you respect me as an author, and I will… in turn, respect you as a reviewer and respect your opinion. I don’t care if someone is a pirate or not, the offer is open to you equally.
If you decide to change your approach and buy my books (before or after you have read them, and however you have obtained them. eBook or paperback), then you have my gratitude for supporting me as an author.
Do you have an opinion on this? Have you had this happen to you? Comment and talk about it
Related Posts
Is our society moving to a new digital age?
The world, as we know it, is about to enter the next digital age. Why is this happening, why do I think that? and why am I talking about this? I'm glad you asked. Many people are talking abou...
2012 – Will the world actually end?
Will the world end in 2012? From my observations, this happens to be one of the hottest discussion topics in the world right now, and for good reason. It is only human to fear the unknown, but this...
What is Deja Vu?
I think it's pretty safe to assume that most of you have seen the Matrix, right? (If not, and you have been living under a rock, go and see it!) Do you remember the scene with that black cat? Se...
An update from the world of Peter Koevari
Greetings to all of my readers, friends, and fans. You have probably been wondering where I have disappeared to, and what has been happening with things such as the next instalment in the Legend...
Legends of Marithia Book 1 now on Kindle, Free Kindle sample of Prologue and Chapter 1
Greetings everybody! ;-) My last post gave the news, but now it's actually available for Kindle and is being made available for all ebook readers as well. The best news is, if you have a rea...
13 Comments
Leave a Reply
Legends of Marithia Trailer
Connect with Peter Koevari
I’ve had issues with my print books being illegally copied in the past (notably by Google!) – and have posted on that on my own blog in the last few days. The point being that while there is a general notion that all things online these days should be free, the fact remains that somebody still has to create them. I have seen all sorts of justifications for book piracy, including the idea that it is a kind of advertising. And to some extent it is. But after a while, all it does is take away the income of the writer, which is never going to be much in the first place. I think the ultimate issue is that technology has raced away ahead of the legal and economic frameworks we’re used to. I expect resolutions will be found, but the issue meanwhile is that authors need ot find ways of making a living.
And you are absolutely right – if these pirates asked politely, they’d probably receive! But they don’t ask – they take it, as if by right, and – well, basically, that sucks.
Fair call Matthew, and I appreciate the comment. I think the hardest thing is that there is no definitive answer either way, and we are faced with the internet being what it is. Pirates have been pirating long before eBooks became available, photocopying books, scanning them, etc. It’s just a heck of a lot easier now, which is where the technology plays a major part.
I will check out your blogs on the topic as well
Peter
Nice take on the concepts of piracy, Peter. I must admit that I changed my mind about it when I read Neil Gaiman’s article on how piracy actually helped generate more sales. Do I think it’s wrong – yes. Do we have the tools equipped to deal with it? No really. So if one cannot go against the river, one needs to find a way to flow with it. You may want to go onto one of those torrent sites and leave an author comment asking them – that if they are going to download it – that they could at least recommend it to their friends (pref the non-pirate ones, ha ha). People are people, and we instinctively like to help others so maybe not a bad suggestion. The worst that could happen is they don’t do anything, and since they are pirating your book anyway, there is nothing really to lose, right?
Hi Ken,
Thanks for taking the time to comment. I am keeping an eye of where my books are distributed and will definitely comment on anywhere it shows up. I am not after prosecuting them, after all… they aren’t re-publishing my books under their name (that would be an entirely different story).
I do wish that they would at least do the honourable thing of reviewing it if they freeload it. But the offer is there to allow pirates to find a legal medium to download my first book, and not have to go through any dodgy channels.
I don’t know how I could possibly be any nicer to pirates. Will the honour system work? I just don’t know.
Do you have a link to the article?
Peter
I can’t recall who wrote the article, but it was around the time that I read the Gaiman one. Basically this author when onto the torrent sites and (respectively) gave them is comments and asked for assistance if they like the work. From what I recall, the response he received was largely positive – and quite a surprise for him – maybe it was from the demographic that pirates then buys, I don’t know, but it was a fairly insightful read. I don’t think enough people are exploring how to ride this concept – we are not going to get rid of it. I don’t support it, but I know that some things will not disappear if we complain about them. Really should have bookmarked that article…!
Here is the video of Gaiman though
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Qkyt1wXNlI
Hello Peter!
As someone who has pirated books myself (yes, guilty!) and participated in helping people pirate them in the past (though not after I started actually paying attention to authors), I think I have to say some things.
I loved your stand on pirated books. You are right. But you did forget one kind of “person who pirates books” – people who can’t find what they want the legal way.
I live in Brazil and here I have to wait months or years to get a book I want, sometimes they just never come. Now, I can buy from the USA, pay for shipping and conversion rates and credit card international fees and such, wait 40 days for it to get here… Or I can just donwload the book and read it right then.
I never download “indie” books though. So far, I’ve only downloaded “gutemberg project” ones and, well, Game of Thrones. I was going to borrow from a friend but I was anxious and wanted to start ASAP, not when I next saw her, so I downloaded it. And let’s face it, the guy is loaded now haha But no, that doesn’t make it ok. Me pushing everyone I know to buy a copy and read, well, I believe that almost evens up things.
Lately, with a review blog, I’ve caught myself with more books than I could read, so I just don’t download anything anymore (except for that A Feast for Crows – I needed it!!!) since I just can’t find the time to read it, but when I did, I blamed it on the prices. The average paperback here costs R$ 30,00, which would be 1/15 of a monthly “minimum wage”. AKA too expensive.
I can’t accept Americans or Canadians doing it – I know how much books cost there and I know how easy they are to buy. I find it rude and mean not to buy – there-. If I lived there, I’d have a freakish huge pile of books everywhere
Either way, I think I sort of lost my train of thought. I hope you are successful finding more reviewers – I know everyone with a blog just can’t resist a free book and then give their opinions, which is always good
Hi Mayara
Thank you for taking the time to comment, and as I said in my blog… I would be hard pressed to find anyone out there who has never done something like that themselves.
I appreciate your reasons and justification, and although it is still wrong to take something that we want because we can’t afford to pay for it… if the way the world works makes it so “not viable” for a customer to buy an item… I can understand why someone would do that.
Your comment has prompted me to edit my blog accordingly, as you raise a very good point.
I want to make my books accessible to those in circumstances that they cannot change, which makes purchasing them not viable. I would hope that when their circumstances change, they decide to support authors like myself who are generous enough to provide them with free copies.
I can’t afford to give out free paperbacks, but eBooks are another story.
It is disconcerting that the wages are so low in Brazil… how do people survive?
Peter
Well, theorically, things are also cheaper here. In reality, it’s not that different.
Everything is cheaper, except “good stuff” like computers and books. You know, things that people use to be educated and vote for better candidates? Yeah.
People on minimum wage barely make it. It’s been increasing over the past years, quite a lot, but not enough to be … Well, enough.
It’s very complicated and a major “cycle” where people have to work to help the family so they don’t study beyond High School, so they don’t get better jobs, so their children can’t study beyond High School because they have to help and so on and on.
We’re improving. Definitely. Just not fast enough IMHO
Hey, Peter.
Still, it’s not *me* that am unwilling to BUY, it’s THEM that are unwilling to sell. That makes me feel pissed off (and maybe somewhat inferior), and, yes, I realize that doesn’t give me the right to take it, but I’m thinking you see my point.
I’m agreeing with Mayara on this one! I’m also from Brazil, and I just wrote a whole blog post on this, and I’m calling that you forgot category E) The pirate that won’t be sold the product they’re willing to buy. For e-books, especially, I’ve come across geographic restrictions that won’t allow me to buy a book I want. I’m there, money in hand (well, credit card linked to account, you know), prepared to buy, and they won’t let me. Obviously, the person who thought of geographical restrictions for South America has no idea about the social-economics/cultural of the area, because it makes no sense that such low numbers (people who have access to digital readers/English fluency/would want to read) would impede a further business contract for the rights of that book. That has, more than once, led me to pirate such book. If they don’t want my money, okay then. I offered. If it’s an author I REALLY like, I can bypass the Amazon restrisctions. Nowadays, if I felt comfortable, I know a few authors through Twitter I’d most likely ask for a review copy
Like with books, with tv shows and movies, they won’t sell the original sounds, giving us dubbed copies instead. We have the money to buy it, we are there to buy it (in the case of tv, we actually do BUY IT, we have to find other alternative it because they deliver “damaged goods”), but they won’t sell it. So, I call it unwilling piracy.
That’s category E for ya.
Hi Barbie
Thanks for taking the time to comment, and for educating me on the struggles faced trying to do the right thing in Brazil, I honestly… Had no idea.
You are right that nothing truly provides an excuse for piracy, but this article and analysis is nottab out proving anyone right or wrong. I want to help those that need it, and also address the issue of why people need to pirate, as best as I can.
This may soon become the aggregate article of analyzing piracy lol so be it!
Okay, I published through createspace, and I think it is absolutely insane that anyone would not be able to purchase my books due to restrictions. I want to investigate this and take it up with Amazon ASAP. I went to great pains to choose all the channels and make sure that my books are available on all Amazon websites.
Please email me with details oF this problem and I will help battle it through the author channels. I think it’s absurd. Have you tried every amazon site? I have not asked amazon to restrict anybody from purchasing my books!
If you are interested in my books and cannot purchase them, contact me personally ASAP.
I will be checking outblogs blog, but first… I need to edit this article with category E.
Peter
What I find interesting is that authors are not up in arms about book resellers. We don’t see writers wanting to burn Half Price Books to the ground, yet there are many readers who buy books for a couple of dollars a piece and the author will never get paid. We don’t get paid off books sold at garage sales or those checked out from libraries. All those venues get books into readers hands for FREE or close to FREE, with us making NO money. Of course why do we NOT rail against libraries, garage sales and thrift stores? Because we all hope that book will start a long-term love affair that will turn into many more sales.
Kristen, this is true… and I touched on this in my article. Are you saying that piracy is also a hope that the book will start a long-term love affair, that may turn into future sales?