How Piracy Hurts Writers
We've all heard about how piracy is hurting those in software, film or TV, and music. Here's a link taken from The Bibliophile Stalker that talks about piracy from a writer's point-of-view: Heartsick, Depressed, and PO'd As Hell, from Jack Fleming's Journal. An excerpt:
Brace for incoming kvetching. I don't have the energy to rant. I'm too tired and depressed.race
I've lost a lot of writing time in the last few days.
Blame e-piracy.
Yar, ahoy thar, me hearty, here's some free books to download, enjoy!
Yep, nothing like a free e-book, right?
Only it is not free.
I was sent notice that ALL my novels had been put up on some mega-douchbag's website for free downloading. My books and those of 100s of other writers were up.
How this asshat thought he could get away with it for long is a mystery. Why he did it is a bigger mystery, 'cause I didn't see him getting any income for it. In the Elrod-verse "just because" is never a good excuse.
I notified my editors. One told me she'd already gotten mails from 10 other writers concerning that site.
There are other sites. I went to several, and put in the formal request to each that my books were up in violation of the Digital Media Copyright Act, please take them down, thank you. The hosts don't make it easy, either. I'm the only one who can legally do this, since I'm the copyright holder.
It's like playing Whack-a-Mole--take one down and more pop up. It eats my time. I'd rather be writing, dammit.
SFWA got involved, and someone on the host server yanked the jerk's website down as it was in violation of their TOS, not to mention the DMCA.
This was just one moron offering books he neither owns nor has a right to give away. He has friends. They proudly proclaim themselves to be e-pirates. Yar.
Sounds sexy, adventurous, fun--but let's remember that the old time pirates were only badly dressed, rather smelly thieves, just as scummy as any skank shoplifter taking a five-finger discount from a store. Nothing fun about 'em, and yes, it IS a crime.
They can holler and scream all they like about how cool it is to share information freely, but down and dirty--they are thieves pimping to other thieves. Downloading a book without paying for it is theft.
Ironically, fans are stealing from the very writers they profess to love so much.
Guess what--that kind of thing can wreck a career. Specifically, MINE.
Here's what happens when people download books illegally instead of (gasp) buying a download from Amazon or B&N or even getting a temporary download via the public library.
An illegal download is not recorded as a sale for P.N. Elrod. The publisher's bean-counters notice this when sales of my books don't happen. "Hey, Elrod's books aren't moving, we better not buy new ones from her. Call her editor, get those titles remaindered, and cut that deadbeat loose."
(For those who have trouble finding my books, it is because slow sales sent them out of print and into the remainder pile. They're still to be found on Amazon and in used stores, I don't have a problem with any of that. I don't have a problem with you loaning books to each other. As some point in its life it was bought and the sale was counted.)
But a lot of mid-list writers like me are getting the professional chop due to low sales. I've been afraid myself. I am STILL afraid. My next book could be rejected, not because it's a bad book, but because my sales figures aren't up to snuff.
Click here to read the whole post and the comments.
So, think twice about downloading e-books illegally (but if these e-books are released with the full permission of the author and the publisher, that's fine). You may think it's all right, but really, it's not. You're hurting publishers and writers, and all those connected to the industry. Think of the printing machine operators. Think of those who supply ink, paper, and other items to the operators. Think of those who do the lay-outs. Think of the administrative and logistical staff at publishing houses. Buy the books and magazines, please. I'm not sure if a 2nd-hand book or mag is given sales credit (probably not--seems to be that would be a double-count), but at least you're buying the physical item, and it's nice to think that another person is using the product the way it was meant to be used (in a way, it's like recycling). And if you do wish to download, then download the legal file and pay for it as you would a regular book or mag.
Brace for incoming kvetching. I don't have the energy to rant. I'm too tired and depressed.race
I've lost a lot of writing time in the last few days.
Blame e-piracy.
Yar, ahoy thar, me hearty, here's some free books to download, enjoy!
Yep, nothing like a free e-book, right?
Only it is not free.
I was sent notice that ALL my novels had been put up on some mega-douchbag's website for free downloading. My books and those of 100s of other writers were up.
How this asshat thought he could get away with it for long is a mystery. Why he did it is a bigger mystery, 'cause I didn't see him getting any income for it. In the Elrod-verse "just because" is never a good excuse.
I notified my editors. One told me she'd already gotten mails from 10 other writers concerning that site.
There are other sites. I went to several, and put in the formal request to each that my books were up in violation of the Digital Media Copyright Act, please take them down, thank you. The hosts don't make it easy, either. I'm the only one who can legally do this, since I'm the copyright holder.
It's like playing Whack-a-Mole--take one down and more pop up. It eats my time. I'd rather be writing, dammit.
SFWA got involved, and someone on the host server yanked the jerk's website down as it was in violation of their TOS, not to mention the DMCA.
This was just one moron offering books he neither owns nor has a right to give away. He has friends. They proudly proclaim themselves to be e-pirates. Yar.
Sounds sexy, adventurous, fun--but let's remember that the old time pirates were only badly dressed, rather smelly thieves, just as scummy as any skank shoplifter taking a five-finger discount from a store. Nothing fun about 'em, and yes, it IS a crime.
They can holler and scream all they like about how cool it is to share information freely, but down and dirty--they are thieves pimping to other thieves. Downloading a book without paying for it is theft.
Ironically, fans are stealing from the very writers they profess to love so much.
Guess what--that kind of thing can wreck a career. Specifically, MINE.
Here's what happens when people download books illegally instead of (gasp) buying a download from Amazon or B&N or even getting a temporary download via the public library.
An illegal download is not recorded as a sale for P.N. Elrod. The publisher's bean-counters notice this when sales of my books don't happen. "Hey, Elrod's books aren't moving, we better not buy new ones from her. Call her editor, get those titles remaindered, and cut that deadbeat loose."
(For those who have trouble finding my books, it is because slow sales sent them out of print and into the remainder pile. They're still to be found on Amazon and in used stores, I don't have a problem with any of that. I don't have a problem with you loaning books to each other. As some point in its life it was bought and the sale was counted.)
But a lot of mid-list writers like me are getting the professional chop due to low sales. I've been afraid myself. I am STILL afraid. My next book could be rejected, not because it's a bad book, but because my sales figures aren't up to snuff.
Click here to read the whole post and the comments.
So, think twice about downloading e-books illegally (but if these e-books are released with the full permission of the author and the publisher, that's fine). You may think it's all right, but really, it's not. You're hurting publishers and writers, and all those connected to the industry. Think of the printing machine operators. Think of those who supply ink, paper, and other items to the operators. Think of those who do the lay-outs. Think of the administrative and logistical staff at publishing houses. Buy the books and magazines, please. I'm not sure if a 2nd-hand book or mag is given sales credit (probably not--seems to be that would be a double-count), but at least you're buying the physical item, and it's nice to think that another person is using the product the way it was meant to be used (in a way, it's like recycling). And if you do wish to download, then download the legal file and pay for it as you would a regular book or mag.
posted by pgenrestories at 5:10 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home