I’m so frustrated.
This morning, I woke up to one of my best author friends deeply upset. A “fan” on Twitter had cheerily informed her that she illegally torrented a copy of that author’s book since the mean old publishers in her region hadn’t made it available. Never mind that it WAS actually available in that region; I hear that a lot.
They don’t sell your book in my $location, so I downloaded it.
I also hear, I will buy it later, and I don’t have any money, but I want to read it. Authors should make publishers print in $region! and I hate DRM. I download it, but then I recommend it to other people to buy!
I’ve been very open about the money I’ve made and not made, to help give the writing community some perspective. So I’m going to be very open about money today. I’ve told you before that I made a $15,000 advance on SHADOWED SUMMER. In two years, I’ve managed to earn back $12,000 of that.
It’s going out of print in hardcover because demand for it has dwindled to 10 or so copies a month. This means I will never get a royalty check for this book. By all appearances, nobody wants it anymore.
But those appearances are deceiving. According to one download site’s stats, people are downloading SHADOWED SUMMER at a rate of 800 copies a week. When the book first came out, it topped out at 3000+ downloads a week.
If even HALF of those people who downloaded my book that week had bought it, I would have hit the New York Times Bestseller list.
If the 800+ downloads a week of my book were only HALF converted into sales, I would earn out in one more month. But I’m never going to earn out. And my book is never going to be available in your $region, not for lack of trying. My foreign rights agent is a genius at what she does, and has actively tried to sell it everywhere- UK, AU, China, France, you name it, she tried to sell it there.
SHADOWED SUMMER will only be coming out in Italy, because that’s the only place there’s a market for it.
And let me tell you guys… the sales figures on SHADOWED SUMMER had a seriously detrimental effect on my career. It took me almost two years to sell another book. I very nearly had to change my name and start over. And my second advance? Was exactly the same as the first because sales figures didn’t justify anything more. I don’t blame my publisher. There’s weak demand for my books, according to my sales figures.
Meanwhile, 800 copies of my book (worth about $1200 toward my advance, if everyone paid for a copy,) are being downloaded a week.
And now, one of the top search terms on my website for THE VESPERTINE, a book that won’t even come out until March is, “download vespertine +saundra”. They have to put my name in because otherwise, they’re looking for a way to illegally download Bjork’s album.
Guys, seriously. I know it sucks to have to wait. I know it sucks when a book isn’t available in your region. Seriously, I know. I just paid a friend $15.00 for an $8.00 paperback, so I could get a copy of RJ Anderson’s ARROW. A book, I might add, that I read last year when RJ sent me the manuscript.
I know DRM sucks. I know region-limitation sucks. And I know being poor sucks (as I just told you, I’ve made 30k over the course of 4 years now, that’s like $7500/year. I totally know being poor sucks.) But when you illegally download a book, you’re simply guaranteeing that a publisher will look at my royalty statements next year and decide not to publish the next one. Promises to recommend my book to other people never seem to pan out- sales still drop, downloads remain steady.
If you really love books, find a way to pay for them. The WORLD wide web is, in fact, world-wide. I bet you know someone in the region that sells the book you want. I bet even if you don’t, you can connect with a fellow book-lover in that region on Twitter.
If you REALLY can’t afford books, ask your library to order them. I love libraries. I love them so much- they buy lots and LOTS of copies, and will rebuy them if they’re very popular. Many are even starting to buy digital copies, so you can read them on your e-reader. When you check my book out from the library, you’re paying for it, just indirectly.
If you really, REALLY can’t afford books, and live in a mushroom village that has no library, then write to my publisher’s publicity department. Ask them for a review copy. And by god, if you get a free review copy- review it! Send that review to my publisher so they can use it! Post it on bookseller websites! Give the review copy away to other readers when you’re done. Pay for it with sweat equity- spreading the word is buying my books.
And honestly? If you’re just going to download it illegally anyway, don’t tell me. I’d rather not be personally acquainted with the people pushing me out of the publishing business because the book they want isn’t available at the price, or the format, or the region they want it in RIGHT NOW.
Because that’s what it boils down to is convenience. People who illegally download books are more interested in their convenience than in supporting the authors they want to read. It’s not hard to go to the library, it just takes time. It’s not hard to buy a physical copy and convert it to a personal digital copy if you’re willing to make the time and effort. It’s not hard to buy a legal digital copy and convert it to the format you want. Dear Author has tutorials. It’s not hard to ask someone in the $region to post you a copy.
You simply have to want to. So if you were inclined to illegally download anyone’s book, if you’re one of the people trying to find an illegal download of my brand new book that’s not even in stores yet: please buy it. Or check it out. Or ask for a review copy.
Or please read another book that’s instantly, and legally, available to you so that books continue to be instantly, and legally, available to you.
Thank you.
-Saundra
Saundra,
Thanks for this post! It totally sucks for the writers to have people “stealing” their stories. And like you said, if you can’t afford to buy the book go to the library!
I know our library system is set up where if one library doesn’t have a certain book, they’ll have it shipped from another library or they’ll order it.
It’s nice that people want to read author stories, but they need to remember that sales, future publications, royalties, etc. are all effected by what they do.
Thank you, Rebekah, and what you said. Interlibrary loan is a glorious, glorious thing. I use it often. I cannot possibly say enough good things about libraries!
YES. Yes, yes, yes. If only more people would take a step back from the illegal ease of instant gratification and understand that if they played by the rules, there would be **more books** for them to read.
Seriously. And our publishers WANT to get those books out to them– if they didn’t have to worry about rampant piracy, I imagine the price would come down significantly as well!
Holy cow! I had no idea that books were being downloaded illegally, at least not in the quantities that you mentioned. I wouldn’t even know how to go about doing something like that it even if it crossed my mind (which it wouldn’t!).
It might not help, but I DID buy your book in hard cover when it came out. You have this Canadian supporting you anyhow. I shall also be buying your new book when it comes out.
I just can’t believe people. I’ll be 35 in a week and a half, am I already that out of touch with reality???
Thank you very much for buying my book, I really appreciate it! And I hope you enjoyed it, as well! I’m about your age, and I think we’re just moving a little slower than technology, is all. Because it’s trivial to download things for peeps who have been downloading stuff all their life, it seems super easy and super fair to just grab it. My downloads are nothing compared to the number of people downloading bigger titles- 22,000+ is a low figure for some of them.
Hear, hear!
:) Thank you!
It’s not any harder to purchase a book from a website (amazon, barnes and noble, indie bound, than it is to download illegally. Can I share this post with my 8th grade students? They have now clue how their actions effect real people?
Exactly. If you have the technical expertise to illegally download a book, you have the technical expertise to legally download it. Please DO share with your 8th grade students. You have my absolute permission to reprint this as much as you like!
Thanks for the permission. I hope making a personal connection between my students and writers/artists will help them understand the damage it causes.
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It sucks to hear people do this and what sucks more is that we can’t stop them from doing it. As pointed out, it’s more of the convenience of not paying to read a copy that makes it more enjoyable on their part. As an international blogger, I rarely get the opportunity to receive ARCs since shipping is international so all I do is wait for the book to be release. :) gives me time to save. People need to understand the severity of this situation. It not only devastating to authors but with everybody in the book business.
And I promise, the industry is becoming more and more aware that international bloggers are a huge boon! That’s why I love NetGalley- my publisher made my ARC available there, even though they can’t afford to mail internationally. People get to read it to review it, and everybody wins. I just wish people would think a little more about illegal downloads: if you don’t like it enough to buy it or check it out from the library, then why do you want to read it??
*hugs Saundra*
I had to tell someone today that I couldn’t take her up on her offer to share pirated books with me. (She’s a very nice person and the offer was made with genuine friendliness.)
I was playing with the idea that I’d just accept the books and not read them, but after seeing the Twitter discussion this morning, I realized that was cowardly. So I told her I didn’t think it would be ethical, and we had a good discussion about how pirating harms authors ability to write and sell more books. I’m going to try to send her your post too, so she has an example of what I’m talking about.
I read 181 books in 2010. 120 of them were new books. I didn’t buy any of them; they were library books, contest prizes, loans from friends, etc. I didn’t have to resort to pirating. I feel like it’s not only unethical, it’s unnecessary.
I’m sorry about Shadowed Summer. I hope The Vespertine does amazing!
Thank you for your kind wishes- and thank you for having that talk with your friend. I think MANY people don’t realize the very REAL financial toll that piracy takes on authors. And I really do believe that most people who love to read, also want to support the creators. Given the chance, given the understanding– I think most people will do the right thing. I hope you get to read 200 books in 2011, and yay for libraries, loans, contests and more!
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So, given your agent has completely failed to sell this book in other places – what is stopping you selling it yourself via Amazon, etc in those regions?
Other than your agent not wanting you to because they might not get a cut?
As a matter of fact, it IS available in all of those places on Amazon. I sold non-exclusive English language rights to my publisher, so if you want to buy my book in English, anywhere in the world, you can. You can do it right this second from Amazon, Book Depository, Powell’s, and any one of a million fabulous independent booksellers.
What I cannot do is *translate* my own book. Good translators are very expensive, and a cost like that is prohibitive for an individual author to bear. That’s why I *have* an agent- to find people to pay for the things that I can’t do myself as an author.
If foreign publishers thought there was a market for my book in a particular language, they would buy it. There may be a handful of people who want to read it in Catalan or Welsh, but not enough. It’s unfortunate they can’t get it in their native tongue, but that’s life.
I had no idea this was happening so often, and the thought scares me to death.
Not that I want you to toot the horn of the sites that offer these manuscripts… but how do they get the manuscript? What’s in it for the website to offer our books for free?
Many of them are trade sites, I have X title, I will trade it for Y title. Many of them, horrifyingly enough, charge a MEMBERSHIP FEE. So they’re making money on illegal downloads on top of sharing illegal downloads!
And they get the manuscript any number of ways. They convert a single, legally purchased copy- which can then be distributed infinitely. They scan the text from a library book with an OCR scanner. It’s trivial to get a digital copy of any book, providing somebody wants to spend the time doing it.
This is extremely depressing to read.
There is a convenience thing to this I agree, to an extent, and that’s a small reason this happens.
It is primarily though through a false sense of entitlement by those out there used to certain free media who assume there is a carte blanche going forward on anything made up of binary data.
I recall in my first job years ago voicing my disdain at a well-paid colleague who even boasted at their flagrant downloading/use of pirated music and DVDs simply said “Why pay for anything that you can get for free?”
Knowing such mindsets exist out there, without care on consideration for people who literally suffer real financial consequence, really does sadden me.
I really do sympathise with all those who are suffering as a result of this selfish, and effectively parasitic, behaviour.
It really makes me sad, because artists are really good about giving things away for free. The Internet is full of people sharing their work under the creative commons license. I have tons of stories and downloadables that you can take from my site for free! I just don’t understand why they feel entitled to take EVERYTHING for free. Without my job (selling books) I have neither the time nor the resources to give away the free! And I like giving free things away!
Hi Saundra – just a quick note of support for your beautifully clear explanation. I hope it persuades even a handful of ‘leech’ readers to do something to support you, your work and literature more generally. Tom
Thank you very much for reading, and for your kind words Tom, I appreciate it. I truly believe that if people understood just how much each illegal download hurts, that so many would quit doing it. I truly believe this!
What effectively doubles the weight of the blow from such downloading is the nonchalant way in which some people engage in it.
It’s like the behaviour to download is there and carried out, and the arrogance that it’s okay, almost better because they’re being open about it?
I don’t think that this is something that can be changed alas, and I do see it getting worse and worse as time goes on. This will be an added barrier for new authors to the eBook-only market also I fear.
you might want to look into this new (well new take on an old) idea.. http://www.patronism.com/
illegal downloading sucks. AND what sucks worse is people TELLING you they did. BUT it seems to be part of life — so maybe there’s another way. check out the website and see if it works for you. (i am in no way affiliated with the website, just have musician friends that are… and thus i find the idea intriguing.. )
I think this can work well for people whose primary market is adults- as a YA author, my market tends not to have credit cards. :) But I’m all for trying alternate payment routes; I give a lot of fiction away for free. I have a 1 dollar ebook available, etc., etc.. But really, I think making people aware how detrimental this is to the artists is an important step in fighting it. I don’t think most people would feel comfortable walking up to a stranger and saying, “Give me a dollar fifty.” BUt that’s what someone does, every time they illegally download my book!
Hey Saundra I just got an email from someone inquiring about Patronism, who linked me back here. I’m a musicians and founder of the site, and I feel your pain. Anywhere there’s a digital way to share anything… it’ll be shared.
What if there were a way to approach the parents of the YA market as patrons? The average patron on patronism is paying $13.50 per month per artist. The average age of my patrons is 41. You’d only need 100 folks out of the 800 per week who download illegally to jump in around that level and … well you can do that math.
The beautiful thing about patronage is that the money goes in based on how compelling your work is to your audience, and it comes in before you produce your work, empowering you to share it. I liken it to public radio – people give them money to produce compelling work to share with the world.
I’d love your feedback from a writer’s perspective. I see that this model can be used easily with any artist who can digitally distribute their work, but I’m a musician so I started with what I know. Feel free to contact me any time at john@patronism.com or john@johnpointer.com
I like the idea of patronism, but I think there’s a fundamental problem with it for YA and MG authors. Actually several, so let me outline them with numbers so I don’t wander off.
1) Our contracts prevent us from selling our own books. I don’t know if this is true in the adult market, but it’s been true across the board in the YA and MG market. We’re contractually not *allowed* to compete with the house for sales. Which is only fair, because if I take a digital file of my book and just hand it out for free, the other people who worked on it: my editor, my copyeditors, the interior designer, the exterior designer, don’t get paid for THEIR contribution to the book. The bulk of the novel is mine, but I’m certainly not the only person who worked on it or deserves to be compensated.
2) More true for YA than MG, my readers make their own purchasing decisions. Picture book and middle grade authors do market more directly to parents, and there’s significantly less piracy when it comes to those books. YA readers are more likely to pay in cash, and to pay for a hardcover. They don’t tend to have credit cards or micropayment accounts online. They’re also technologically savvy enough to download it on their own. Their parents, on the whole, are not selecting books for them, nor are they necessarily aware of the books their teens choose to buy and read.
3) There’s no way to sell to schools and libraries solely using that model, and as a YA author, the bulk of my sales are not to consumers, but to schools and libraries.
I’ve done tip jar writing before, and I’ve gotten paid for it. I’m not opposed to the idea of patronism, but I’m not interested in switching solely to self-publishing. I cannot possibly bring readers the quality of book they expect and deserve, if I have to act not just as author, but also as editor, copyeditor, interior designer, cover designer, digital designer, marketing director and publicist. I simply don’t have the resources.
You’re making an assumption that the people downloading your book didn’t buy it also. That’s a ridiculous assumption.
I’ve demonstrably *sold* 12,000 some odd copies of my book. It’s been downloaded more than 25,000 times. I think it’s safe to assume that every downloader is not also a law-abiding purchaser.
This.
I’m about to take the plunge into this world in about two weeks (when my debut comes out). Your story infuriates me and makes me sad.
Such an unfortunate thing we have to put up with, and people’s sense of entitlement can be so out of whack sometimes.
Best of luck on your debut!! I know it’s scary out there, but you know, I think most people are good people, who do love books. And if we just make it clear (over and over if we have to!) that this is hurting us, that it will dwindle!
Thanks for the great post! It’s disheartening to see new Google alerts, often 2-3x a day that link to full downloads of my books.
I *want* to keep writing, but damn, it gets pretty tough to swallow this wholesale theft.
This is so disturbing, that there are so many people willing to steal. And then bragging to you about doing it… the mind reels. And there’s no putting the genie back in the bottle. Now that the technology exists to digitize books, even if e-books stopped being sold today this would still exist. Let’s hope the publishing world gets a handle on the situation, although I haven’t a clue how.
Yep– there’s no way to stop digitization of files, so I really would like to figure out a way to stop illegally distributing them! Hopefully raising awareness will help!
I have to admit, I downloaded a lot of individual songs in my youth, although never complete albums, reasoning that if I wanted the complete album, I should go out and buy it. I just didn’t want to pay the full price when I only wanted one track. Not saying that’s a defensible position, just saying, that’s how I saw it. Now that you can buy individual tracks from iTunes for pennies, I’ll never go back to downloading.
It never even occurred to me that you could download entire books. That’s outrageous!!
I won’t lie- I downloaded song when I was younger too. I didn’t know it was wrong, and at the time, there was literally no way to buy digital music yet. iTunes changed all that- now that I can buy, I do. Good lord, do I buy. I honestly need an expense account just for iTunes. And don’t get me started on being able to buy episodes of shows that I missed!
Another thing I was going to say, which I forgot about by the time I made it to the comments box cos I got distracted reading all the comments – why don’t people just buy it from Amazon? There are certain books that I could never find on amazon.co.uk so I used to get them from amazon.com instead. If you buy several the shipping costs are really low, or even free, and (unfortunately for the author, but it’s still money, right) it’s usually cheaper off Amazon anyway. AND you get the actual book to hold in your hands and rustle the pages and smell that acidic book-y smell… Why would someone download a whole book to then read the damn thing on a computer? Talk about missing the point!!!
What a great post. I hate people that pirate books and what’s worse are the ones that sell the illegal copies on ebay.
I have downloaded music in the past before it became such a big deal but like you I love Itunes, it doesn’t hurt that I have an iphone now too.
I was sent to this post via Twitter. Not even sure if I knew what I was clicking on at the time, but I’m glad I clicked. I totally agree with you. It absolutely sucks that you suffer because of people’s willful theft. Illegally downloading books is just as bad as walking into my house and stealing my belongings. People feel there is nothing wrong with it because of the ease with which they can download books illegally. It’s almost worse than burglarizing someone’s home, because burglary has immediate consequences that the burglar usually has to face. There seem to be no consequences here, and that’s not fair. I hope the site that’s allowing these illegal downloads is shut down. Sorry for what you’re going through!
There is no rationalization for stealing. That being said, I think the publishing industry is doing authors no favor by their ridiculous pricing scheme. For years, the hardback price has been at least twice that of the paperback, presumably for all the extra material required, complexity of assembling, and weight/volume of shipping and storage. So now that a mechanism exists to provide the real value of books – the authors’ ideas (what we’re really paying for – namely the intellectual property) with no physical manipulation required, the Kindle price is a dollar or two less than the hard cover? As you mention above, converting formats is simple. If cost of binding, shipping, and benefit of longevity were worth a %100 premium when the options were just paperback and hardcover, where is the savings to the reader (or benefit to the author) now that there are only miniscule incremental cost to sending out either 1, 100, 100,000 Kindle files? People will pay for the value they perceive. Reading the discussions that one of my favorite authors had with readers on Amazon regarding his publisher’s treatment of Kindle availability, it’s clear people are focusing on their perception of the publisher gouging, and not on the harm to the author.
I don’t buy best sellers – I borrow from the library. I buy paperback of niche authors, and am about to start using Fictionwise.
And the thing is, I’m not going to argue with you. A lot of the cost in a book is in the editing/copyediting/designing, etc. Still, I do think e-books should cost less than their physical counterparts. I think they should be lendable. I think they should be easier to use on the devices you own.
But for people to treat illegal downloads as a solution is just madness. All that does is teach publishers there’s no value in e-books, they’re a niche item, and they’re going to lose money if they offer them at even lower prices. And it encourages publishers to cut the deadloss- authors like me, who aren’t making huge money for the company.
It dismays me that people feel like illegal download until we get what we want is a viable and fair way to interact with books that take years to write, revise, and publish.
I had to deal with a major torrent site just last week, and to make it plain that the misguided reader who was promising to share all my titles was in the wrong, I had to put the word out. The blog post is here, and it’s non-confrontational, which is something I’m proud of. My instincts were telling me to find out where he lived and start stealing his mail until he got the point, but I took the higher ground. http://randolphlalonde.blogspot.com/2011/01/plea-to-pirate.html
The pleading post didn’t get a response from him, but the DMCA Takedown Notice I served to the offending site did.
I’m sorry to hear that eBook theft is becoming such a common problem for properly published people (like you), and Indies (like me), alike. I still hope that this prevalent sense of entitlement can become reasonable enlightenment someday, however.
RL
I’m glad that the DMCA takedown helped, and I’m glad that we do still have the option to throw lawyers at the problem. I really think that if we can get a general awareness of how much this doesn’t hurt the companies, but how much it devastates an individual author, that people will perhaps think twice about doing it.
Thank you for such a wonderful article. My friend, an avid reader, linked me to your blog.
I don’t think people realize that as an author you are an artist, you aren’t getting paid when you are working, like other professions. I think the more people realize the time and effort it takes to reap the rewards of your hard work, the more they will respect your craft.
The fan on twitter likely didn’t realize they were slapping you in the face. Your blog is a wonderful glimpse into the harm readers are causing to someone they actually adore.
The thing about the $region thing is that http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/ is free worldwide shipping.
It saddens me when I read that authors are having to go through this, that people don’t realize that there really is a fallout from illegally downloading books. I personally want my favorite authors to keep writing books and keep publishing them, so I try to support them as much as I can by buying their books. If I can’t afford it, I wait. It’s that simple.
I’m definitely going to share this post with others, because the more people who learn about the effects of illegal downloading, the better.
This is a rationale of pirates:
* The book is available at the library, so pirating it is the same as borrowing it from the library.
(Answer: the library will buy more books, given sufficient demand– but I don’t know enough about library business to understand if libraries somehow give authors more money per copy to make up for all the readers.)
* If I can pay for an ARC with ‘sweat equity’, why can’t I pay for a pirated copy that way?
(Answer: Uhh… publishers count ARCs? Also, if you’re too lazy to work for an ARC you probably aren’t going to sweat it out? Ooh burn.)
* My friend has a copy and I COULD borrow that. So functionally there’s no difference between borrowing it and downloading it.
* I COULD get it from the used bookstore and it’s all the same there from the publisher’s perspective, so why give those leeches my money?
Ultimately, I do think it is all about convenience– of format, of availability. But unfortunately I suspect most people who pirate books still wouldn’t pay for them if torrents weren’t available. They’d borrow heavily from the library, or a friend, or a used bookstore. Of those, the only one that actually helps an author is the library, is this correct?
The DMCA Takedown Notice didn’t cost me anything, since it’s issued by the rights holder. Thankfully, I didn’t have to pay anyone $300.00+ an hour, because there’s no way I could afford it.
The FBI as well as the RCMP are also actively investigating book theft, and rights holders can file with them individually. It’s encouraged if a DMCA TN doesn’t get a response. I’d rather see book pirating slow to a crawl or stop altogether because the pirates see the benefits of being loyal to their entertainers, but I try to save my tendency to dream for my writing.
Having said that, I take actions like this regularly while keeping in mind that I should in no way cause my loyal readers to suffer because there’s a crowd of people who don’t value what I’m doing. I’d hate to precede all my eBooks with a 60 second screen that tells them the penalty for piracy. That’s one of my pet peeves when I’m watching a movie, actually.
Great blog post Saundra. Now I have to get back to work on my next book, or an angry mob will begin forming on my front lawn…
RL
A friend of mine shared your blog and I’m sharing it on my facebook page as well. I hate how people seem to think that illegal downloading isn’t stealing because they don’t physically take something from a store. Stealing is stealing. I don’t like the illegal downloads of movies either, but people always justify it as “they make so much it doesn’t hurt any one person that much.” However, as your article clearly points out, illegal downloads of books really does hurt ONE PERSON that you know BY NAME by looking at the AUTHOR of the book. You can not justify it with the same lousy excuse used for movies. You’re right, it’s all about convenience, and the perpetrators emailing the author is out of a sense of guilt, as if emailing the author will make it “OK”. Obviously they have a sense of guilt because they’re STEALING!!!! I just have to say, buzzah for writing this, and THANK YOU for making this important information available to everyone. I really hope you are able to get this article published somewhere else on the internet or in a magazine to help spread awareness!
It must suck to have your work (and royalties) stolen. I remember listening to Harlan Ellison railing against book piracy some years ago and thought this cannot be that big a problem – I mean who reads books on their computers? Of course with various ereaders the answer is more and more people do, myself included. What I have an issue with is that I have to purchase the book several times if I want it as a printed book, an ebook or an audio book. With the audio book there are two sets of royalties going to the author and the reader, so the only way the reader/narrator will get paid is from the sales of the audio version. But it bugs me that I cannot purchase a book and get it as a ‘real’ book with pages and as an ebook. It is very tempting to download pirated ebook copies of books I have already purchased. May I suggest to the publisher that they include a onetime code in each book that allows for a free download of a DRM ebook version from the publisher tied to the user’s Nook or Kindle account.
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Thank you, thank you, thank you for posting this! I’ve seen these blog posts all over the web since yesterday and I can not tell you how much I appreciate authors speaking out. (I’ll be planning a similar post!)
I receive Google Alerts whenever someone posts something about me–and lately a lot of those posts are
1)people asking other people to upload a copy of my books.
Or
2)people posting pdf, mobi, and epub versions of my books on torrents. One website I saw it downloaded 54 times in one day. ONE DAY! I was very upset. That is a huge paycheck down the drain for me.
So, once again, thank you so much for posting this.
As a writer whose day-job is a software developer, I get to deal with this one a lot. What bothers me most is the way people try to justify it.
“It’s not really stealing, because there’s still an infinite number of copies left.”
“I wouldn’t have bought it anyway, so they didn’t lose any money.”
“It’s free publicity; they should be thanking me!”
And so many other trite phrases used to try to slap a ‘I am not doing anything wrong’ veneer atop the simple fact that “I wanted it for free.” I would actually find piracy less obnoxious if people didn’t try to come up with moral justifications for their actions and just said, “Yeah, I’m selfish and feel entitled, so I don’t want to have to pay.”
Almost every one of those arguments has a real counter. Even DRM, which is one of the few legitimate complaints.
The DRM argument is that if I buy a DRM-encumbered book from one store and that store goes out-of-business, the book may become unusable. Which has happened with music before, as well as Amazon’s pre-Kindle eBook store. Moreover, a book purchased for Kindle can’t then later be viewed on a Nook or a Sony Reader; if I get a different eReader, I have to re-purchase all my books. A pirate who downloads a copy has a book they can use anywhere, thus giving the pirate a better user experience than the legitimate purchaser.
Okay, I can grant that one. But I have a friend who is vehemently opposed to DRM, and so will seek his eBooks either from DRM-free stores (like Baen’s eBook store) or download them from pirate sites. But you know what? Before he’ll download one from a pirate site, he goes and buys the eBook on either Amazon or B&N, or if he can’t find it there he buys the print copy.
His logic is, even if he objects to DRM and refuses to have it on his own files, that doesn’t give him the right to take the work for free. If he buys the work on Amazon and then never uses the Kindle copy, he feels little guilt about then downloading the DRM-free copy off a pirate site.
I wish he didn’t do that — it certainly gives support to the pirate sites — but I’ll give him a gold star for at least actually taking action (insisting on buying the book in some format first) that backs up his moral justification for downloading the pirated copy (objection to DRM).
Most people don’t; the moral justifications they give are just excuses slapped on top of “I want it for free,” and nothing anyone says to convince them it /isn’t/ a victimless crime will make any difference. :(
You know what? I really do not blame people who jailbreak files they buy. You shouldn’t have to be afraid that a file you legitimately bought is going to disappear or become obsolete. I do wish your friend would just download Calibre and jailbreak his own file (it’s really not hard,) rather than supporting piracy sites. But I do totally get that. I just wish more people were willing to BUY it. Prices are going to come down as long as publishers see that people will BUY files that are reasonably priced. I just hope that the scale tips toward legal purchases before we’re all out of business. I’m sorry you have to deal with it in software; it’s hideous. I would really like to own the entire Photoshop suite too, but I can’t afford it! Guess I have to make do with Elements, which is in my price range!
Beautiful post. Really. Are these the same people that steal gum at the check out line because they felt entitled to?
I have never *NEVER* downloaded a book, nor do I encourage anyone else to. I actually do not buy many books. Almost all of the books I read come from my library. Which I used to feel guilty about for not supporting authors, so thanks for that bit. But with world wide connectivity via eReader sharing/lending and libraries ability to get items from anywhere in the world their is no reason to steal anything. I live in a podunk town of 350 people. My library is 15 minutes away. Yet I could get materials from China if I so desired. If you are thinking of stealing a digital copy, you need to stop and think, would I steal this out of brick and mortar Borders, B&N, ect. Because chances are that they would be mortified to steal a physical book.
I should say downloaded a book *illegally* without buying it.
AWESOME, AWESOME post. I’m in the exact same boat. My books are going gangbusters on torrent sites. I calculated that on one small press book alone, I’ve lost $24K.
And readers want to know why our next book won’t be out in Forever! Self-entitlement REALLY ticks me off!
I do wish somebody would convince JK Rowling to allow her works to be available in digital format. Neither the books or the audiobooks can be acquired in that way, which only serves in making the piracy of said skyrocket.
I cannot agree with this strongly enough. There is a pretty serious distinction in my mind for the work of an author. I think it’s so much better to buy the book, to own it, than to find it on some eyepatch-worthy website. If I’m broke, there’s always the library.
And while I’ve gotten the pegleg discount on a thing or two in my long life, I’m now a firm believer in setting a pack of rabid badgers on the lap of those who are truly stealing someone else’s hard work.
Heck, if for no less selfish reason than I hope to write something publishable at some point, I’d love to see some sort of wake up call amongst those who feel like they’re entitled to every gorram thing they want! Now where are those badgers…
I think this is a great post. I don’t understand people who do the downloading, but I understand even less those that try to make excuses for it.
I already feel guilty enough when I use the library and paperback swap, wishing I could buy more actual books brand new.
Saundra — You said this so well!! Thank you!!! We’re blessed in our area to have a rockin’ YA selection at our local libraries. They also have ebook lending software and I adore that. Such an easy way to get books without having to drive to the library worrying if they’re open. I donate a great number of books every other month to our library system. I hope we can change people’s minds on this and get more people doing the right thing and paying for their ebooks.
Wow! As an agented, but not-yet-published author, I found your info extremely eye opening. Thanks so much for spreading the word about illegal downloads. We hear about book and music piracy all the time; we need people to educate us about the same problem with books and how detrimental it is to authors. I’m proud to say I have a hardcover copy of Shadowed Summer on my bookshelf, and I already preordered The Vespertine using a Powell’s gift card I received for Christmas. :-)
Hias
I happened across this from a tweet from Mari Adkins and you have perfectly valid points. I freely admit I have downloaded books in the past for free from the big name authors/musicans. Same goes true for music. And I freely admit it IS stealing.
For small artists that need to be paid as do not have millions in sales, I *ALWAYS* make sure to pay up. Or even check it out from the library.
I as a starting freelance web designer and and now a collage student again, I had a bit of karma bite me for downloading. Several CSS templates and Plugins I wrote were downloaded and up up on another guys store. The dude didn’t even change the names. I could b***h and while. But you know, I can just start over and make sure it’s paid for before downloading (and no static pages to simply copy).
Anyways. I liked your article.
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I write IT textbooks and had a student come in to a course I was teaching to happily announce to me that they’d downloaded my most recent book from a site that was doing huge numbers of downloads – even though my author copies had not yet arrived!
I get readers who’ll email me questions, which I duly spend time (sometimes hours) answering. After I’ve answered questions I’ll get the “oh and I’m sorry I didn’t buy your book, but I couldn’t afford it”.
Ms. Mitchell, I had never heard of you before one of my online friends posted todays blog. I want you to know that I just went and bought your book for my Kindle on Amazon and added you to my list of blogs to read.
It’s a shame that authors are having such a hard time right now. I know there are a few that I’ve read all their books but their publishing company has now given them back their book rights and pulled them from the stores.
I hope that enough people post the link for your blog today to get the word out about illegal downloading and maybe you can make some more sales. Your book got wonderful reviews and I can’t wait to read it and share it with my 13 yr old daughter.
First, just to be clear on my personal stake in this — I’m a published author with Baen, and I’ve seen the “filesharing” revolution from inside, too; and got subpoenaed over it.
Arguing against people doing this is like shoveling back the tide. It’s like the foolishness of the MPAA and RIAA trying to stop downloads of music and movies.
Your numbers assume “half”; I would assume that, if there was no other way to get the book, one out of a hundred of those downloaders would probably buy the book.
There is only ONE way to mitigate this activity; make the book available easily, very cheaply, online. This is why iTunes makes billions; they recognized that people WILL pay for stuff, but they won’t pay what they think are excessive prices, and they won’t pay ANYTHING if it takes them ANY effort to go looking for it, sign into some arcane website, and — eventually — they learned that they don’t like DRM, either.
All of my books are torrented, I’m sure. I don’t really care that much, because I know that the torrenters DON’T MATTER. The ones who WOULD buy my book… probably will, eventually. Those who won’t, weren’t customers, and them getting a (often very crappy!) E-copy of my book DOESN’T COST ME A THING. They weren’t going to buy anyway. They are NOT LOST SALES. This is a lesson the MPAA and RIAA *still* haven’t learned.
What the torrents MAY be is free publicity. Maybe not; I’m not contending that they’re necessarily good — but they could be, because the enemy of any author except, possibly, J.K. Rowling is OBSCURITY. The fact that 99% of the people who WOULD like your book DO NOT KNOW ABOUT YOU. This is true even of people like Stephen King, though in his case it’s probably only 50% instead of 99%.
That said, the torrenters/downloaders are *RUDE*, and I object to them on that basis; I just don’t worry about their possible effect on my sales, because it’s unlikely to actually be significant. I *know* how these people work — I was (unfortunately) involved in one of the early filesharing companies (it started out as a completely different kind of company and morphed into this while I was there; worst job experience I ever had).
What I want to know is– if none of those people don’t actually want my book… why are they illegally downloading it? I don’t buy things I don’t want, what’s the point in stealing things you don’t want?
I have no reasonable hope that half, or any of those people would have bought it. I’m not assuming lost sales– I’m explaining what those numbers actually represent in real terms. If I sell 2400 more books, I earn out. If I sell 3000 books in one week, I hit the NYT list. I don’t think people realize how small the margins are in this industry, and how little authors actually get paid.
But that’s neither here nor there. NO one is going to stop ALL digital piracy. People who want to illegally download books, software, music, films, etc., are going to do it. But I actually had to have this discussion with my own son– he didn’t realize it was an issue. I think a *lot* of people don’t realize it’s an issue, or that it’s hurting anyone. And I really do believe that most people want to do right by the artists they enjoy.
So, posts like this. To try to put it in perspective. My book was never actually going to list. But enough people illegally downloaded it, to accurately represent how many books I would have needed to sell to get on the list *that week*.
I just want people to understand the actual numbers here. I think a lot of people believe authors are all rolling in dough and selling millions, and that’s just not the case.
Obviously I can’t speak for anyone else commenting here, but I know my main objection to the pirates is how self-righteous they get. Many will frame their decision to download pirated copies as some sort of moral stand, the Good Guys standing bravely against the tide of Evil Big Business. But all their arguments are basically hokum.
I’d personally find piracy less aggravating if the pirates were less engaged in moral justification and more up-front about, “No, I pirated it because I want stuff and I don’t like/want to pay for it.” But trying to pretend they have the moral high ground — or even more obnoxiously, that they’re Taking A Stand For Culture And The People And FREEEEEEDOM or whatever — is sort of like rubbing salt in the wound and then scrubbing it with lemon juice for good measure.
Even things like DRM objections can be dealt with. A friend will pirate eBooks to avoid the DRM; he commutes by public transit and tears through books on his reader like a madman… but he only will download one after picking up the print copy, to ensure the author still gets a sale credited to them. I’ll grant him some moral high ground: he won’t support DRM, but still makes an effort to support the author.
Oh my, I feel your pain. That’s terrible, but people never realize the effects of ‘stealing’ the work. Unfortunately, music artist, movie makers and authors stuff is easily snatched. Hopefully your numbers will improve. Also, thanks for the reality check.
Thank you for your kind words! I do hope it makes a difference!
Saundra,
Wow, I must say thank you for your honesty! Many people assume authors make millions right out the door and clearly that is untrue. I don’t download books or music illegally, I’d rather show my appreciation to the artist/author in real dollars and cents if I happen to not get it as a review copy. I hope things start to look up and I hope you keep spreading the word about the effects of illegal downloading on authors!
Saundra,
The problem is that you’re really preaching to the choir here. The people that do this stuff may want to read *something*, and your stuff looks like the something, and since it’s free, they take it. But they’re not listening to you in that area; anime fandom sees the same things with the downloaders — some of whom will quite literally be mortally offended by the implication that they should be paying for the stuff they watch. It’s a mindset I can’t understand, but it’s there.
But that very mindset means that the people involved aren’t the ones who will listen to your explanation of why those numbers *hurt* to see. Someone who’s reading your blog may be surprised somewhat by the margins, but almost all of them really WILL buy your book if they haven’t already.
It’s best to remember that those people are also the ones who DON’T MATTER for our bottom line. At worst, they’re just rude. At best, they are unintentionally advertising us by spreading the word around. But in no case would 99% of them pay the full price for the book.
Now, make your ebook available on iTunes for $0.99, you might get something. Kindle’s probably eating into some of the download pie because it’s doing similar things, although the prices are on the edge of what such people will consider reasonable; Baen’s Webscriptions typically sell at a dollar below the MMPB price (or at about $15 when there’s only a HC available), and I think they’re doing pretty well (last royalty I saw, about 10-15% of my income was coming from ebooks, and that was before the real surge; though I don’t know if Baen will benefit a huge amount from that because they haven’t yet reached agreement with Amazon).
Is there anything we can do to shut those sites?
Not really. They’re hydras. I can turn the sites in when I catch them at it, and my publisher will get them to stop. Another will pop up. The real solution is to get people to stop wanting to do it!
Thanks, Saundra, for being so honest and laying the figures out there. People hear about Stephen King contracts and assume we all make a fortune. When I explain that I’ve only had one of my books earn out, they’re mightily puzzled. Maybe your explanation will be passed along and open a few eyes.
Saundra,
I came here via Kim Pauley’s site. I posted a link on my own blog, http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2011/01/buy-some-books-part-2.html because we see the exact same thing happening in the RPG biz too. Games I have written, that I have not even been paid for yet and are not even in brick and mortar stores are being downloaded all over the net.
I wish I knew more about what to do about it. I love book, I love my ebooks, but more than anything I want people to still be able to do what they want for a living.
I guess the best thing to do is keep educating people that it is wrong to do this because it is stealing.
Its not much help I know, but I will pick up one of your books the next time I am at the bookstore. Solidarity and all. The Vespertine looks really cool and is right up my alley.
Thank you so much for your solidarity, and for your linkage, I appreciate it. I really do think that raising awareness is going to make a huge difference. Because I do believe that people want to support artists; I also believe they don’t know how thin the margins are in the book publishing industry. All we can do is point it out, you know?
You realize your website footer reads, “© S. Mitchell. If you want to steal something, knock yourself out.” :)
Yes, I do. And if you want to steal something from my website, knock yourself out. I assure you that footer doesn’t appear anywhere in my books.
My tactic is to be so far behind on my reading that I can order a book from a book-shop and not be impacted by the delay in getting my hands on it. People should have more respect for themselves than to steal from authors, or musicians. If you really can’t afford to buy a book, go to the library, that’s what they are there for.
LOL that’s often my tactic too- get too busy to read them when they first come out. I don’t blame people for waiting for paperback, and I heartily encourage a trip to the library if you’re not sure it’s a book you want to keep. The worst thing that happens is… somebody reads the book they wanted to read!
Thanks for the great blog – I think you speak for so many authors who’ve had to deal with this, myself included.
Thank you for your kind support, Leigh. I’m sorry you’ve had to deal with it as well.
There are several angles I can see to this, and just from my personal experience
1) I’ve downloaded books before because I’m disabled, and while I own the hardback, I can’t hold it and I want to be able to read, easily without having to wait for the paperback to be published and without paying twice for something I already own.
2) someone’s told me to read an author, i have no access to their books in a library or bookstore, so will download an ebook in a similar way to flicking through the pages in a bookstore to see if I like it – If more people published sample chapters, i would abolutely use those instead
3) I travel a lot, and the ability to have all of an author’s works with me, on my smartphone instead of taking 10 paperbacks on holiday, again if i already own them – so much simpler.
4) I know that a lot of the cost of publishing is in the editing etc, but the differential between a book and an ebook is still too small. I hate the idea of paying that much for something i don’t get to hold and display, and if amazon has their way, might not get to keep forever either.
I count two new york times multi bestselling authors as friends, so I am intimitely acquainted with the issue from the other side, but for me, the costs of legal ebooks are prohibitive and i’ve already supported the author through other means.
I’m reposting a reply I made to someone else, on the other site this post is on, full disclosure. Disability access is SO SO important. I make an absolute exception- as does US law- when it comes to converting and using downloads to facilitate people who can’t read the standard editions of my books.
I have, and I will continue, to provide copies of my books to folks willing to make the conversions, and to make those conversions easily and freely available to people who need them. YA is an especially underserved market when it comes to access copies, so- no pun intended- on the few occasions that I’ve seen my work on accessibility sites, I have turned a blind eye.
I do NOT want to keep people who *need* alternate access versions from my books.
I just really want people who simply WANT an immediate, free version of my book to think about what they’re really doing when they illegally download it.
I get a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach when I’m doing Google searches on authors and see the torrent sites come up. I can’t imagine any “fan” thinking it’s okay to use one.
My family figured out a long time ago that the way to my cold, shriveled heart three sizes too small was through book store gift certificates to get me through book-jonesing and other things. It’s funny that I saw this this morning – later today I’m dragging my dad to a sale at a half-priced book store to see what kind of good stuff’s been hiding in the corners. I want some older books for my library but at Amazon they’re too expensive to pay full retail for.
I have a very legitimate review copy of The Vespertine sizzling in my hands and yep, I’m reviewing it. I’m sorry to hear you had issues after Shadowed Summer. I never would have guessed piracy was the reason for the lull between books.
Thank you so much, Barbara, and I do hope you enjoy The Vespertine! I’m with you– my family wanders a little aimlessly each year, because my entire wish list is made up of books. They apologize because they “only” got me books. One of these days, they’ll figure out that books make me ecstatically happy, and transport me everywhere. They are the perfect, all purpose, amazing gift and I love them.
AAAH! Vespertine, Vespertine!
I knew that, not enough coffee.
I had Johnny Depp on the brain. Yeah, that’s it. Garh.
Thanks for a great post. I had no idea the numbers of illeagal downloads were that high. I read Shadowed Summer as an ebook from my library. It really isn’t that hard to get legal copies of ebooks. I hate to see talented writers not get the recognition they deserve. It is even worse to think that illeagal downloading makes it harder for authors to stay published. I am on my second reading of The Vespertine from netgalley and look forward to purchasing the hard cover when it comes out. I hope that posts like this make a difference to help rai se awareness to readers to support the authors they enjoy. Best of luck on the new release.
Thank you for reading (and your kind words!) and for supporting your libraries! I know the industry can be slow to move sometimes, but I don’t feel like YA is one of the parts of it that is slow moving at all. There are so, so many options to get YA books in the files people want, when they want them, at the price they want (down to free, from your library!!) I just really believe that most people don’t know how thin the margins are in this industry; I really believe that most people want to support the artists whose work they enjoy. I just hope talking about it will make people think twice before they illegally download. Blah blah blah, I’m starting to repeat myself at this point. :D
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Thank you, Saundra.
For my part, I cannot say enough good things about libraries. I’ve read soooo many books I couldn’t afford to buy over the past couple years, thanks to the Philly library system (and interlibrary loan)! The Philly system’s also great for buying books I request. I love it so.
In fact, I shall have to make sure it gets hold of The Vespertine.
Thank you very much!! I love libraries so much. Without libraries, I wouldn’t have had books growing up, and I am a big, big booster of people using the systems. Interlibrary loan is AMAZING, and I wonder if most people know they can ASK their libraries to buy books that interest them. Libraries WANT to give their patrons the right selection!!
I, too, had no idea that many books were being downloaded illegally.
Pisses me off.
I did a blogpost on it today, just to get my anger out of my system.
I hope you sell a HUGE amount of your next book.
Thank you very much, Nancy! I really do feel like this is problem that can be solved in large part by awareness. I appreciate you blogging about it; that can only help!
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Thanks for this post, Saundra. I own the hardback copy of Shadowed Summer that I bought off of Amazon, and plan on grabbing The Vespertine up at the bookstore. I guess I could pre-order, but I love the thrill of seeing it sitting on the shelf and snatching it up. The huntress in me, perhaps? =) Here’s to hoping that The Vespertine makes the NYTBL, you deserve it!
Thank you so much!! I have to admit, as an author, it’s crazy exciting to go into stores and see your book there on the shelf, so I totally get wanting to wait to grab something until it’s there.
Thank you so much for posting this. I’ve tweeted and Facebooked it, and I think a link will be going into the QueryTracker Blog on Friday. EVERYONE needs to read this, whether they’re writers or not.
Thank you for reading and your kind words, Carolyn, I really appreciate it!
So true on libraries being an alternative if you don’t have money to buy all the books you want. Many people don’t consider that they can request through interlibrary loan if their library doesn’t have it. And for some libraries, any ILL request automatically converts to a purchase request. I’ve had bit and small libraries, in good and bad economies, but I’ve never yet had a purchase request turned down. Libraries WANT to carry books that people want to read! And that is happiness for all–the library (and the reader) have a book to read, and the author has sold another copy.
Yes, OMG, interlibrary loan is AMAZING. It’s SO amazing. I have never, ever met a librarian who wasn’t thrilled to get the right book into the right readers’ hands!
I live in Mexico City and I love to read,many books in English aren’t available here but I you want it you can get it. I saved all I could 2 years to buy a kindle and then I buyed the books I wanted. I know there are books even not available for my region in amazon but if you want a book you can, you register as US citizen ask a friend for his address they aren’t going to send her anything only is for having an US adress. That way I buy legaly books that are only sold in the US.
I you want to do things correctly you always can. I hope people can see how hard it is for writers.
Thank you so much for commenting, Anabel, I appreciate it. I know it’s especially frustrating for people who run into the region restrictions and I really appreciate the effort you put into legally buying books and supporting those authors.
Very well said, Saundra. In the past couple of months, I had a long, vehement, conversation with a young man of my acquaintance, an aspiring writer, no less, who illegally downloads a lot of movies, “because he can’t afford to pay for them.” It doesn’t matter what is being downloaded, if it’s illegal, it’s stealing from those who sweated to create it.
I really just don’t get that. I can’t afford a lot of things– and that means I don’t get to have them. I’m truly, truly baffled by the sense of entitlement that some people have.
There are also heaps of authors and reviewers who give away copies of books on their blogs and websites, (I myself won a copy of Shadow Summer). I plan now on buying a few copies as birthday presents for friends, because firstly I think theyd love it as well, and secondly I really want to be able to read more books you have written.
It makes me upset that authors I love, aren’t doing nearly as well as they deserve to and some of which that havent been able to sell a second book or finish of the series.
Thank you so much for reading my book, and for supporting it, I appreciate it! And I really do understand that books are expensive, which is why I love the library system so much. There is totally a free way to support any book and any author you love- and that’s by checking it out from the library. It just really baffles me that we have a system already in place to get free books and people don’t want to use it!
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Another problem is that enterprising people on EBay and other internet auction sites are snagging collections of e-books from “file-sharing” sites, burning them onto multiple CDs, and selling them.
Worse, these copyright infringing sellers swear up and down that they own the copyright (which they don’t), or that the books are “in the public domain” (which they aren’t) or that they have “ReSell Rights” or permission.
Authors generally don’t give resell rights or permission. For one thing, it would be breach of contract with the publisher. For another, authors are not stupid.
There are also tons of illegal download sites that charge a membership fee to join! Frankly, I’m less upset with somebody who randomly, illegally downloads my book because they want to read it, than I am with people who are making a profit from illegally downloading my book. I mean hello??
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Saundra,
I didn’t realize that the illegal downloading of books was this much of an issue especially when eBooks and readers are all the rage in the U.S. at the moment. I am sorry that your publishing career has hit this snag, but I hope you will continue to write and to fight to protect your intellectual property.
Laurie Fowler
It’s definitely an issue for all artists. I think that with books, it’s particularly onerous because there’s no second market for a book. We have three months to perform as well as we’re going to perform and if we’re not a bestseller by then, it goes out of print. And our numbers are shockingly small– to sell 2000 copies of an album in its first week would be a dismal failure. To sell 2000 copies of a book in its first week gets you on the NYT list!
Saundra — excellent, clear, from-the-heart explanation of how piracy effects authors. I don’t look at how many times my books are being illegally downloaded because it makes me ill. I have a novella coming out on 1.24.11 in ebook only–for 99 cents. From my publisher. It’s widely available now, illegally, on torrent sites. It’s not the money–I didn’t write it solely for the money which is why we priced it so low–it’s the principle. My audio books are available for illegal download within 24 hours of release. I’ve taught my kids from the get-go that I will not tolerate illegal downloads of music or anything else–or they won’t have an iPod to listen to. Unfortunately, a lot of parents don’t think there’s anything wrong with illegal downloads, and practice it themselves, setting a poor example for their children.
Anyway, great post.
Thank you for commenting and for sharing your experiences, I really appreciate it! I was really surprised when I had to have this talk with my son– it just didn’t occur to him that illegally downloading a book would make a difference at all. Education really is key!
It seems that you already have an audience for your next book. Why not make an entry in kickstarter.com for its release and provide a DRM free copy for your supporters ? At least this way you ensure a minimal revenue for its release. Dozens of projects of multiple tens of thousands of dollars have been funded this way.
Even with a released version online you can still publish a paper version for the people out there who like to have books on their hands.
I actually have a self-published e-book available right now on Smashwords and Amazon under a pseudonym, available for 99 cents, completely DRM free. (You can even download a plain text copy of it, it doesn’t get more DRM-free than that.) I’m not unaware of freeware, shareware, creative commons publishing, etc; in fact, I’m actively doing it. However, young adult and middle grade fiction hasn’t really come into the digital center yet, especially because most of our hardback sales are not to consumers, but to libraries and schools. Right now, there is no mechanism in place for me to self-publish in a way that makes those library and school sales possible.
Damn that’s frustrating. :(
Saundra, I’m not familiar with your books (found you in a discussion about ebooks) BUT I am an author too. I write tech ebooks, which cost a lot more than novels and are probably pirated even more often.
But not mine. I’ve never found a copy of mine up for pirating. And I believe that this is because of something I’ve done, based on psychological research that I’ve found about petty thieving and anonymity and how to combat it :)
Here’s what I did… maybe it’ll work for you too?
In the front piece of my (digital) book, I added a personal note from myself & my husband. I made comparisons to show how the price is fair for what they get, & that we don’t cripple it with DRM (we respect you, please respect us), & all the good things that the book money pays for. (We do open source programming work and write on our blogs etc. that helps many of our readers.)
What if you tried a similar tactic? You could…
* dominate that search term — “your book +yourname download”
* write a personal plea to your readers
* explain about your advances & wanting to continue writing great books for them in the future
* explain that you DO get a reasonable share of the money
* link to a way to buy it on amazon etc.
The thing is not to lay a guilt trip on them but to make yourself human. Put your picture on it, too — or a cartoon of you or something. People have a much harder time stealing even pennies when they can see a face, any face, but especially when it’s the person they’d be stiffing.
As for countries where they can’t buy it, maybe you could work out a little ordering program or something yourself? Like, pay a little extra for a signed copy.
I don’t know what the story is with your contractual rights about selling your own copies of the book, but it’s worth a shot :)
In short: It sucks! But don’t take it lying down… figure out what you can do about it!
Good luck!
Well, hopefully this post will help put a human face on my books when people are searching for illegal downloads. My publisher owns the rights to distribute the ebooks, so being here, being present and… well, being here and being present is the best thing I can do!
AMEN, Saundra!
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2109785
You’re on the front page of Hacker News, might want to go take a look at the discussion over there. There are some interesting suggestions.
I know, thank you for stopping by. I figure that discussion is for that community, though I’ve appreciated the folks who’ve come over and commented here or on my LJ, as well!
This is exactly why I always buy myself a copy of any review books I read. I recognize that authors are being generous when they give free copies to reviewers. I always want to help out with an author’s book sales, especially if it’s a book I loved! I’ve already got The Vespertine marked on my to-buy list on Goodreads so that I can remember to go pick up a copy as soon as it comes out.
I’m a college student so I know how tempting it is to just take things for “free” and makes excuses about how you can’t afford it or don’t want to wait, ect. I just can’t see myself getting online to illegally download someone’s book. That’s so unethical it make me sick.
I haven’t read Shadowed Summer yet, but I’ll be sure to purchase my copy when I do get to reading it.
Hey Saundra,
My 3 cents…
1) You’re right that a lot of the problem is the convenience factor;
crazy as all the power is still with the distributors rather than
creators of content. It’s 2011, why should that be the case?!! People
want the content they want, where and when they want it, and creators need to find a way to meet that need.
2) Have you considered other ways of letting your readers support you?
Lots of people are willing to pay I it makes it easier for them, for example
an excellent service I use regularly called instapaper recently added
a “support us by giving us $1 per month” via paypal. They’re not
giving anything in return at the moment but they’d made it so easy for
me I contribute. As an author you could probably send out an early preview or something to those that contribute?
3) Of course there are always going to be people who won’t pay, and I don’t think there’s any way you’re going to prevent that whilst satisfying point 1. But if you do get it right the effect will be positive I’m sure.
Craig
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Saundra,
Thanks for the wonderful post! If we all work together, perhaps we can find ways to protect our writing, and educate readers that they hold the power to destroy the very thing they love.
I also remind readers that illegal torrent sites are often a fabulous way to download spybots and viruses. Hackers love to use them to get into computers and use them as ‘robots’ to bounce their own theft and mayhem around the web.
Cathryn
This free downlading is a huge problem. What I don’t understand is why the publishers aren’t stepping up and putting pressure where it counts to get it stopped. It’s money out of their pockets also??
Mimi
Have you considered creating a landing page on your site for “download vespertine” that includes sample chapters and store links?
Well, no, because they’re trying to download a book *I* don’t even have yet. It’s not going to be available for two more months.
I know you must think I live under a rock, however, I had no idea that free downloading was available. This sounds so implausible to me. It’s outright theft, copyright infringement and illegal. 800 books a week? And yet, I know you aren’t lying. After reading your blog from a prompt on Query Tracker, I bought a kindle edition of Shadowed Summer. It was very good. I especially like the way you made room for church and God and successfully wove her respect for adults and religion within a ghost story. It was a very classy book.
Then I went on-line to see if I could down load it… I felt dirty but after buying the book, I just wanted to experiment to see if I could do it.
The website, Lime Torrents wanted me to pay them $32 for a year subscription to their website to download your book for free. I never went through with it, of course, but why don’t you sue them. It seems to me you make up your losses and the case shouldn’t be hard to prove. Your evidence is black and white on their web page and your book is available in several countries. Why don’t you fight back?
I am asking this, not because I’m finding fault with you. I am truly asking because it just doesn’t make sense to me that this is allowed. Why?
mary beth baron
It’s not really allowed, but it’s hard to stop. The publishers do their best to cut down the downloads when they show up, but they’re digital files. It’s not hard to hide trading them, or to just have someone else start to pay for them. Many of the sites operate in places where it’s legal to share anything, and aren’t subject to US laws. It’s a big, tangled up mess. It’s kind of like a hydra, it has many, many heads, and cutting them off just means more will grow in. :(
Thank you though for you support, and for your kind words about Shadowed Summer. I wanted to write honestly about Iris and her world, and the church is an integral part of that. I may not share her faith, but it would be wrong to pretend it’s not rational or real for her to have it!
Exactly. I thought you did an amazing job weaving that thread through the book. It made it real and believable; especially in New Orleans where the church and voodoo are often spoken of in the same sentence without anyone wincing.
So much of YA is ignoring that real portion as well as the real consequences that come with dabbling in the arts and intermixing with evil. I thought you hit the right mixture with the right amount of consequences.
I especially like the way she handled Ben at the end. Also, a very honest and wise choice for a little girl that was just beginning to find her voice and figuring out how to make people listen to her.
Also, kudos for being so honest about how this all works. I found it very helpful. If there is anything I can do, as far as email campaign or anything I can do to bring popularity to the book or the cause please do not hesitate to email me. I am buying the book and I will be sending it to my thirteen year old neice because it was so very tasteful.
You might find with Vespertine and a heavy duty email campaign, this might be a sleeper. So keep on writing and forge ahead. I think it will have a latent affect on the market.
mbb
This makes me ill. I have Shadowed Summer and the school library I work at has it, too. My debut YA will be coming out in October and it freaks me out to think people might actually steal a downloaded copy. Ick.
What I don’t understand is how have you learned about the number of downloads? Where is that info available?
Many download sites keep track- it’s a point of pride. Look how many files we have available! My house also keeps internal track of all the sites they C&D. If illegal downloaders think that publishers aren’t paying attention to those stats, and those stats aren’t affecting authors’ contracts, they’re crazy.
I can’t imagine stealing a book. Just can’t imagine it. I adore books, live with a 12,000+ volume library, have huge bills for books every month, have sunk thousands and thousands of dollars into books every year of my working life — and will probably continue to do this until I die. If I want people to keep writing, buying their books is the only way to do it!
I just don’t understand how people can justify theft to themselves so easily.
I am a happy owner of SHADOWED SUMMER in hardcover, and have just requested that my library acquire THE VESPERTINE. I have also requested at Amazon that the publisher make it available via Kindle; I truly think that if there’s an easy way to pay for the download, people will buy it.
However, yeah, the whole “Can’t get it in my region” thing. Um… I buy books all the time via this thing called the internet. I have yet to find myself unable to get my hands on something, whether it be via Powell’s or Amazon or Amazon.co.uk or whatever.
Also, the library. Every time I’ve requested they buy a certain book, THEY HAVE. I haven’t been working much recently but I’ve been able to get almost everything I wanted to read from my library. And if I love a book I’ve read at the library, I will inevitably need to own my own copy when it comes out in paperback.
There’s something really squicky about stealing a book via download, and now I can point to this post and tell people why in a way that might make them think twice about it.
Thanks.
I love downloading books, but I wouldn’t DREAM about downloading anything illegal. I love my kindle and the books I buy, and I LOVE that libraries now have books available for temporary download ‘on loan’ (though not for kindle yet).
I do think a lot of it is information. And I think posts like this help a lot. Ten years ago when I first started on the internet, I received a lot of ‘free programs’ or music, from friends. Little did I realize that this was not free, but stolen. Even though it would be convenient, after I realized what was going on, I never ‘stole’ again.
Would it be okay for me to link back to this post on my blog?
Please do feel free! And you know, I think most of us who were online in the mid-90s had no idea what was actually going on with those free files. But we’ve certainly learned by now, you know??
Hi Saundra,
I was particularly struck by the hardship piracy is causing you. We (Attributor) work with both authors and publishers to eliminate much of the problem via technology, and we’re now engaging in a social responsibility campaign. NOTE: this is NOT a sales pitch for our services. I’d simply like to talk with you about your experience and possibly your willingness to participate in our upcoming educational efforts.
Best regards,
Matt Robinson
Attributor
Stealing, of course, is immoral. Just because it is easier to steal a digital copy of a book rather than going into a store and shop lifting it, doesn’t make it any less of a transgression.
However, I am always skeptical of the monetary value of illicit downloads. I think that you need to seriously discount the figures to accommodate the numbers of people who no way no how would actually shell out real money for the book, digital or otherwise.
In the long run, the publishing industry will react to the challenges of the digital age. Stronger, less objectionable digital protection combined with much lower prices and a system efficiently supporting micropayments may lessen the frustrations of artists such as yourself.
The point is not that I think those people would have bought it. (And as a matter of fact, I’ve explained how the NYT list works in other entries, and point out that I was never a lead title, and never going to hit that list.) The point is, this is how small the margins are in the book industry. I sell 1500 copies and my career is screwed. I sell 3000, and I’m a NYT Bestseller. Our margins are TINY, and even the tiniest sliver of illegal downloaders who would have bought it if they had any idea how much piracy hurts the artists, makes a huge difference to the individual artists.
Even most MASSIVE bestsellers are counted in the hundreds of thousands, not the multiple millions that films and music are. And to have people premeditating their illegal downloads of a book that’s not even out? That’s deliberate. That’s an active attempt to cut into my sales, and it’s both illegal and wrong. We’re working hard from the author side to get publishers comfortable with digital books and their distribution but it’s very, very hard to convince monolithic corporations that putting LESS protection on their files is in their interest when people are already gleefully downloading the files that *are* supposed to be protected.
More than that, the same people who feel like they have a right to illegally download a debut author to try it first is the same person who guarantees that the book industry becomes more and more bestseller based. If you want nothing but John Grisham, Stephen King, Stephenie Meyer, and James Patterson, illegally downloading debuts and running them out of the market before they get a chance to establish themselves is exactly the way to accomplish that.