Why book pirates should walk the plank …

• Posted in About Books, On Writing

Something that I’ve noticed with the release of Web of Lies is this — I’m having a lot more trouble with book pirates these days.

What’s a book pirate? Basically, it’s someone who posts a free download of a book on the internet without the permission of the author/publisher. And believe me when I tell you that there are hundreds and hundreds of these sites out there with every kind of book on them that you can imagine.

So what’s the big deal? First and foremost, it’s illegal. Just because you have a digital copy of a book doesn’t mean that you have the right to post it online for the whole world to see. You may think that you’re doing your friends a favor by giving them something for free. You may even think that you’re doing your favorite author a favor by posting her work on a site for others to read.

Let me tell you that you are not.

Now, there’s a lot of debate about whether or not e-book piracy hurts an author’s sales. I don’t see how it can’t hurt sales. Why should a person buy my book in the store when they can read it online somewhere for free? Sure, maybe someone will like that first free book enough to legally purchase my next book — but I doubt it. After all, they found the first book online for free, so why not the second or the third or all of my backlist?

I only make 64 cents per book in royalties, and let me tell you that I need every single sale that I can get, just like all the other midlist authors out there. Publishing is a tough business to be in, and every sale matters, especially these days, when the economy is so craptastic. Publishers are dropping authors right and left. I saw one site where it said that a couple of hundred people had viewed my book — more than likely, that’s a couple hundred sales that I lost.

If you can’t afford to buy one of my books, there is a simple solution — go to your local library and request it. That’s what the libraries are there for, and your tax dollars go to support them. (And yes, I get royalties on library sales.)

I don’t claim to know all the ins and outs regarding book piracy. But more than the fact that it’s illegal, to me, it’s as annoying as all get-out. I work hard on my books — harder than anyone who’s not a writer can possibly imagine. I think I deserved to be paid for the work that I put into my books. I think that my publisher deserves to be paid for the various formats that they package my books in. You wouldn’t go to the grocery store and expect to just walk out with a loaf of bread for free, would you? Or walk out of Target with a free DVD or CD? So why do folks think that books are somehow different?

But perhaps the real kicker is this. I have some free Elemental Assassin short stories posted here on the website. This is something that I did for fans of the series and my other books. Not too long ago, I saw where the stories had been reposted on another site without my permission. The stories were here FOR FREE ALREADY, and someone pirated them anyway.

Grr! That’s the kind of thing that makes me angry — Hulk angry.

I don’t know why folks think that they can get away with this — I guess because the internet is so vast and it’s a hard crime to prosecute. Still, don’t they know that the links to the free downloads pop up in my Google Alerts? As soon as I see them, I contact my publisher and fill out a take-down form — EVERY SINGLE TIME. Yeah, I know, it basically amounts to nothing more than a slap on the wrist, but I still do it.

So what’s the solution? I don’t know that there is one. I’m careful about who I send e-ARCs to, and if I find out that someone who got an e-ARC posted it online for free, well, they don’t get any more books from me — ever. That’s really all that I can do on my end. I think that until publishers really crack down on a consistent basis on all these sites, that people will keep on pirating books — and keep on stealing from authors.

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10 Responses to “Why book pirates should walk the plank …”

  1. Christopher Estep says:

    I’m curious about something. I understand how/why technical books are digitized in PDF’s, etc. because as a programmer, it’s nice to have searchable versions and digital purchases make sense in that context.

    What I don’t understand is how/why fiction books end up digital, aside from editions like Kindle which I believe have decent DRM. Are people just scanning them?

  2. Jennifer Estep says:

    Some of the books are scanned in, although I think that’s a dying trend since it’s so painstaking.

    Nowadays, though, lots of fiction publishers, including mine, have gone to electronic advanced reading copies (e-ARCs) to send to reviewers. An e-ARC is basically a PDF of the book that you can read on your Kindle/iPad/whatever. Get a hold of one of those, and you could post it online, which is what some people do, even though they are for review purposes only.

    And it doesn’t matter if it’s a fiction or technical book or whatever. Posting it for free online without permission is piracy, as far as I’m concerned.

    • Christopher Estep says:

      Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t saying that I understand why they would be pirated (technical books), I meant that I understand why the publisher would put them in that format. O’Reilly’s Safari is a good use of that technology.

      Reading books on a computer (at least fiction, for me) is ponderous anyway. Lately I’ve been getting them on my BlackBerry Storm (Kindle) because it’s so convenient. It’s cheaper than print and I can read in the dark. The down side is that it’s so convenient. 🙂 I can easily go broke with one-click, $10 at a time.

      I do have a sample of yours sitting there and I’ll naturally buy it if I like it. I like urban fantasy and I’ve been seeing good things about your work, so I’ll probably end up getting it.

      Thanks for answering the Q.

      • Jennifer Estep says:

        Okay, I understand now.

        It is really convenient to order e-books, but I think that I’ll always prefer reading paper books. I spend so much time on the computer already. The last thing I want to do when I go home is read on a screen all night long.

        Cool. I hope you enjoy the sample. Happy reading! 😉

  3. Jennifer Rayment says:

    Nicely written Jennifer! Glad you get royalties on Library sales too : ) Now off to recommend our public library to buy some of your Gin books, they have your other series but neither one of the elemental assassins series — I know SHAME

  5. Amy says:

    I know of one librarian who always buys the latest Jennifer Estep books for her shelves! 😉 (Not to mention the copy for her personal shelves, and the copy for her friend’s shelves…)

    Seriously, though. I hate that you have had to deal with the whole pirating thing. When there are other, legal, ways to read books for free, why on earth do something that could potentially get you in trouble (if they ever decide to crack down on this) and hurts the author. Don’t they understand that if they continue to hurt the author by disrupting sales, then the author won’t put out any more books? So frustrating! I can only imagine how you feel!

  6. Jennifer Estep says:

    Have I mentioned how much I appreciate that librarian? 😉

    Exactly! Sales are everything in this business. If your books don’t sell, your publisher won’t ask you to write any more of them.

    What really kills me is when I see that the books have been posted online … before I’ve even seen a hard, finished copy of the book yet. That happened with Web of Lies. I saw pirated copies online in early May when the book didn’t even come out until May 25. Grr …

  7. Tia Nevitt says:

    “Now, there’s a lot of debate about whether or not e-book piracy hurts an author’s sales. I don’t see how it can’t hurt sales. Why should a per­son buy my book in the store when they can read it online some­where for free?”

    Because they are honest. The jerks who are downloading your book for free probably aren’t people who would have bought it, anyway.

    Years ago, a former friend tried to get us to download software from the piracy sites. Back then, there was absolutely no penalty. You could totally get away with it. But we never were tempted; we shelled out 49 bucks for Balder’s Gate even though he thought we were insane.

    Notice I said he was a former friend.

    There’s nothing I can say that will make you feel better about this. Bravo for sending those takedown letters. My own publisher, Carina Press, isn’t bothering with DRM because the pirates know how to get around it, and the customers are only annoyed by it. I’m wondering how much this will be a problem when my turn comes, but I guess I will soon find out.

  8. Jennifer Estep says:

    That’s a good point you make about honest folks.

    I also think part of the problem is that a lot of people just don’t realize that it’s wrong/illegal to post/read the books for free.

    Ah, Balder’s Gate. Wheezley bought me a copy of that to play on my computer several years ago. Good times.

    I admit that I don’t now everything these is to know about DRM, but I’ve seen tons of romance readers complaining about it online. You would think that the publishers would come up with a better solution. Anyway, I hope you don’t have the same problems with pirates that I’ve been having. Good luck with your release! 😉

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