Okay, I'm taking a stand. Stealing the work of writers and posting books on file sharing sites is evil. I'm not good-natured about this anymore. I'm tired of people telling me, "Well, there is a school of thought which says piracy builds readers."
No. It doesn't. What it does is steal money from the author and the publisher. In the last two days I've had ONE file-sharing site take down files with over 500 downloads for ONE of our titles - BITE ME by Parker Blue.
What did that mean to her in real dollars? A lot. You can assume that not every scumbag who downloaded the free book would have bought a copy, but this is still a lot of money the author has lost, and from just one of these file sharing sites.
Large publishers and their authors suffer just as much.
When did it become okay to steal?
I checked this same site (there are dozens to work through) and found other books of ours. For EACH violation I have to fill out a separate form to request the file be pulled. www.4shared.com has quickly taken down the files, but WE (the publisher and the author) are required to find these violations. The process is a continual one. Get to the end of the file sharing sites and start again. Why? Because new files had been posted within 24 hours of having the first files removed from 4Shared.
How about the authors on this blog?
Christie? Probably a 1000 downloads from 15 files.
Cindy Gerard - tons of files, many foreign editions
Michele Hauf - yep, her books were there and not just the free one from Harlequin
Lois Greiman - 106 downloads from 2 books, 3 files.
Kathleen Eagle - yep. Looks like mostly foreign editions.
I bet Helen and Kylie's work was there. My work wasn't on the site. Neither was Betina's or Susie's. But there are many other sites. Dozens.
Some folks say book publishing better take a lesson from music file sharing and get the price down. What they don't realize is the printing cost is nothing. Not if you're a large publisher printing thousands of units at once. Books can't be divided into discrete units in the same way that music can. Kindle lets you download a nice sample for free as do most of the ebook sites. Can't get much fairer than that. When wholesalers and booksellers expect discounts of 40-55% off the cover price of the book, there isn't much room for maneuvering on price. No one works for free.
If the authors can't make a living, maybe they'll go back to Corporate America, to the farm or simply retire. Then where would we be without that next great book from our favorite author?
Romance Writers of America has compiled an extensive list of file sharing sites. I see this as a never-ending battle, but I'm going to make the effort to treat this like the crime it is. I'm not going to ignore this.
Am I over-reacting? Is stealing a basic human right that stems from our survival instincts? Have we missed the boat in teaching some of these concepts to our children? Please don't tell me to bend over, close my eyes and think of England!
