Bitten by Books
So the hot topic around the web the last few days has been e-piracy. That’s a term that breaks every author’s heart. I thought about how I wanted to approach this post for a while. I took it to the web and had some amazing responses from authors and reviewers. The one thing that stood out to me was the complete sadness in everyone’s response.
There’s been a big group, and I won’t name drop, that has publicly come out on FB and the web that is stealing eBooks and offering them up for free as a “Cultural right.” Well, I’m here to say that unfortunately books are not a “cultural right” unless you are in a library. And…even libraries buy the copies that are put on their shelf.
I’d like to believe that the people that go to these sites are not doing so with the intent to steal. Maybe they don’t realize that it’s wrong. Maybe they really can’t afford the $.99-9.99 price range for a copy. Here’s the irony of it all. Most authors are looking for readers and reviewers very early on when their book releases. Especially e-authors. Sometimes it only takes a, “Hey, I’d really enjoy reviewing your book. I post to Amazon and B&N and would really like to read your work.”
Does that mean that every author wants to hear from hundreds begging for free books? No. But it’s a much better way to ask for a free copy than to take it from someone that is breaking the law—therefore, making the reader break the law, too. Not knowing that it’s wrong doesn’t pardon the crime. Ask any judge.
I’m here today to let you know how it feels from our side. Every day, I check my Google alerts for my titles and my name. It’s not because I want to see how popular I am, well…not really. ☺ It’s to find out if my books are being handled properly on the web. I get an alert if a site is pirating my book. When this happens, I have to draft up a letter, track down an email address—when I can—and threaten with legal action to get the site to take down my book. Then, because I’m a good friend, I send out emails to as many as I can, letting them know about the site and to check it for their books. This takes time I don’t have. I’d rather be writing. Okay, that’s the actions I have to take. Now here are the mental repercussions: anger, sadness, despair, anger, helplessness, depression, anger, etc…
Does that sound like the emotions needed to write a steamy romance? It can mess up an author’s whole day, and sometimes even longer. Think of it like your house being broken into and whatever craft that is near and dear to your heart is taken. Maybe you sew or you scrapbook, and all the hours you spent working on those things has been taken from you for someone’s deemed “cultural right.” How would that make you feel? Would you be ready to jump back on the horse and start crafting right away?
I asked some authors and readers for their take on this horrible crime, and here is what they had to say:
“I used to worry when I first came out. I felt heartbroken when my first release was pirated. I wasted a lot of time searching for sites to make sure I wasn’t on them. Two years under my belt now, I only send DCMA notices if Google Alert flags me or an author dings and says to check. I realized some people are thieves and will download and not even read it. My new view is to keep writing for those who are dedicated readers who have bought me and will hopefully continue to.” ~~Mahalia Levey http://www.mahalialevey.com/
“I think it’s horrible. If authors are not making money they are not going to write due to lack/loss of income.” ~~Vanessa from TheJeepDiva Review Site http://www.thejeepdiva.com/
It’s interesting to see what worries different sides of the fence, but for those that truly love reading and really love their favorite authors, I hope they understand what an impact epiracy has on authors. Most of us are not getting “rich” off our stories. We’re still working a day job and writing into the wee hours of the morning. Please don’t steal these labors of our heart. They aren’t culture. They are entertainment, and yes, you have to pay for them. The only way to stop these sites is to stop using them. I hope you’ll help in our stand against pirating.
For authors, I found a great blog post on how to act against an epirate and here’s the link:
http://www.dinajames.com/how_to_fight_piracy.html
I’d love to discuss your take on this subject. If you are for or against, but let’s keep it civil please. If you’ve been a victim of piracy, please let us know and let me know how it affected your writing/reading/etc. Thanks for having me on and letting me discuss.
About the Author:
Rachel Firasek grew up in the south and despite the gentle pace, she harassed life at full steam. Her curiosity about mythology, human nature, and the chemical imbalance we call love led her to writing. Her stories began with macabre war poems and shifted to enchanted fairytales, before she settled on a blending of the two.
Today you’ll find her tucked on a small parcel of land, surrounded by bleating sheep and barking dogs, with her husband and children. She entertains them all with her wacky sense of humor or animated reenactments of bad 80’s dance moves.
She’s intrigued by anything unexplained and seeks the answers to this crazy thing we call life. You can find her where the heart twists the soul and lights the shadows… or at www.rachelfirasek.com
https://twitter.com/#!/RachelFirasek
Piracy is a perfect word for it. My house has been broken into a couple of times and although the loss of things (some sentimental, irreplaceable things) was awful, the absolute worse was the feeling of violation - it rocked my world. I cannot even begin to imagine how violated an author feels when someone has stolen a literal chunk of their life (time and sacrifices made), their livelihood, and a piece of the magic that is imagination and skill and should have been celebrated. There is no rationale, no reasoning, no excuse that can convince me it’s anything but theft.
Storm, you totally get where I’m coming from and I’m very sorry that you had to go through that-especially more than once. Imagine the frustration an author goes through when you finally get your “free” book removed from a site just to have it reloaded days later. Yes, that happens. Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts and your experience today.
This is a great blog post. As an author I’ve had my work pirated many times. I try to stay on top of it, but of course it takes away from the actual writing. We are living in a digital age…you would think there was a better handle on this piracy thing. Many amazing authors have actually stopped writing because of their work being pirated so much.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and link.
Tom, we have to stick together. And, I agree, pirates have been around in some way, shape, or form since the beginning of time.
Great post, Rachel. I think the bigger problem is that many readers/consumers Don’t understand that they are doing something wrong when they get books from these sites. There are “free reads” offered at legit sites all the time, right? Educating our readers is a good first step… getting web hosters to enforce existing laws and take these sites down would also be great!
Katie, great points. I’m surprised that more web hosts aren’t sued for fault or damages in these cases. But, then again, I’m not totally up on all the laws. Educating the reader is the most important thing at this point.
I have kind of mixed feelings. On the one hand, I want to sell my stories, not have them passed around for free. Somehow, between the day job and my royalties, the we and the cats have to eat, and the other bills get paid. But, at the same time I feel a little hypocritical because I have a house full of thousands of paper books, a significant portion of which came from used bookstores. The authors got no royalties from those either, but they’re legal. The obvious difference is that you can’t trade in a book at the used book store and still have your copy of it too, as you could with an Ebook. It requires a paradigm shift, which I think is where lots of good people have trouble. They’re still wrapping their brains around the notion that ebooks aren’t exactly like paper books.
On the other hand, I don’t think that the answer is DRM. That just makes life difficult for the people who are honest. If I’ve bought the book I don’t want to worry that the vendor who sold it to me may suddenly go out of business and my entire library disappears. Or that my reading device dies, and the vendor isn’t willing to transfer all my books to the new one, or even that I have to go through the process with a couple of dozen different vendors because I buy books in multiple places. That means that I just don’t buy ebooks with DRM on them unless they’re very exceptional. The answer may just be that we do what we can, complain to the ISPs about sites that do this sort of thing repeatedly, and accept that it will happen but hope to limit it to small operators which will keep springing up like weeds in your lawn.
Kathryn, I agree with half.
I do think it’s hard to know when it’s right to buy used, and when it’s not. The point is that you still paid for that book. 
And with epirates they are giving away hundreds, and sometimes thousands for free. I don’t think we can just throw our hands up though. It may be tedious, but the more people that protest, petition, and sometimes take legal action, will make it harder on these pirates.
Great points, and thank you for sharing!
I’ve also been a victim of piracy and I do what I can to stop it, issuing takedown notices and such. I’m not sure it’s very successful, but I hate not trying at all. I *was* instrumental in getting one large site entirely shut down though, by reporting it to its ISP. I highly recommend that route. The ISPs, if they are not in Russia, are pretty good at responding.
But one of the better tools you can use is to put a little blurb in your book about it, just educating the reader. Mine reads something to this effect: “If you did not purchase this ebook or receive it from the author directly or via an author-authorized promotion on Amazon, you are in violation of the author’s copyright. Help stop the piracy of intellectual property by purchasing a copy.”
It’s not perfect, but at least it gets rid of that excuse “I didn’t know”.
I have also been known to put ARC COPY GIVEN TO SO AND SO in the front of the book so they ARCS don’t get passed around innocently.
I really like your book blurb idea, Elle. I wonder if it helps at all…
Elle, great ideas for helping to educate! And kudos for being an instrument in the fight! Woot!
A thoughtful, insightful post, Rachel. As you say, one of the most ironic aspects of the situation is the fact that authors give away so many books already that’s it’s typically pretty easy to obtain a legitimate copy-and it doesn’t take any more effort than finding an illegal one does!
Unfortunately, it’s a problem that isn’t going to go away. Authors supporting each other is all we can do, so thank you for your efforts in that respect.
I think it’s sad and ridiculous how often stuff like this happens.
Kitty, I agree!
I wish I had books people wanted bad enough to steal. :). Perhaps this is a side effect of so many authors giving books away for free that more people are expecting that to be the price. When Napster was in trouble for giving music away free, market studies shied that overall more albums were sold as a result of people getting some free. Thou it should be stopped, it would be good if free and pirated books led to more people reading and buying books in the future.
I blogged about this under The Prisoners Dilemma and Free Milk. It’s probably no coincidence this comes on the heels of DRM free books becoming more common. Or maybe it is why they gave up on DRM.
James, sadly I think even a lot of the Amazon “free” books are never read. I know for a fact that I’ll read a book a buy over a book I’m given. Crazy, huh?
Piracy is stealing and wrong any way you look at it. There are enough free ebooks offered on Amazon that an individual should never have to stoop so low as to steal one.
I do know that I have bought several series books based on the fact that the author has offered free an earlier ecopy of one of their books in a series. I actually think this is a smart move on the part of the author. They manage to hook me on a great series which ensures I’ll buy all the upcoming books in the series.
Great post, Rachel. It is an issue, and one I really didn’t know about until recently. I have a hard time with the idea people don’t realize it’s wrong, though. Deep down, they know.
I’ve written 30 category romance novels and I think all of them have been on pirate sites as they continue to be.
Piracy makes me angry. Really angry.
Anger kills my creativity as you so rightly pointed out Rachel.
So I chose to let it go. To ignore it. To not waste emotional energy on something I cant control and put it into something I can - my books.
I truly, truly do not believe that authors throwing twigs at evil giants will get us anywhere and it wont be until equally giant publishing houses band together to do something about it that we’ll see real results. And that makes me probably angriest of all - the solution is out there, but where is the will?
I stumbled on somebody on a newsgroup (think “forum” or “bulletin board”) that openly admitted to pirating one of my titles and then proceeded to rip it apart with a ruthless, evil drive by review. The dirtbag lives in the UK. I’m in America. I explored all of my legal options and all of them came back as “expensive and not worth the trouble.” so I can personally relate to the earthquake e-piracy creates in our lives as writers.
I scared the crap out of the thief and that had to suffice as my pound of flesh.
I shook it off and moved on without looking back. What was my secret? So many other people are open and honst and sincerely want to do the right thing. Go with the good and ignore the rest. Think good and it will be good.
I have a friend that is always telling about this site or that to download books”free”. I can honestly say I have not ever gone to a single site. It would be like shop lifting from a store, I might be able to get away with it but it doesn’t make it right.
Mostly, I just don’t think about piracy. I can’t control it and I don’t want the waste of emotional energy it brings.
What I do think, very strongly, is that the single biggest way to minimise piracy is for publishers to make it easy for genuine customers to buy their books. Geographical restrictions and DRM are the kind of things that will drive honest purchasers to pirate sites. I have never downloaded a pirated book but I have been incredibly tempted to do so when books that I’ve purchased disappear from my ereader because of a clampdown on geographical restrictions. If a publisher thinks my money isn’t good enough to buy their books legitimately, the temptation to download a pirated copy is huge. Or if, having bought a book, I decide I want to read it on a different ereader, but the publisher has installed DRM that prevents me from changing the format, the temptation to download a pirate copy in the other format is obvious.
Some people will always steal for stealing’s sake. I’m not sure that there’s anything much we can do about them. But we can do a lot more to make it easier for people not to be driven to steal in the first place.
Thanks for a very thoughtful post, Rachel. I agree completely.
Also, I think sometimes e-thieves have this idea that they are hurting big publishers and authors with millions. When the truth of the matter is that most author don’t make enough even to cross the poverty line. And it’s authors who do the work of having the material taken down. How would these thieves feel if they did a day’s work (or a month’s or a year’s or more) and found out part of their labour had been stolen, and they weren’t going to be paid for it?
Steeling is steeling and it is something we teach our children not to do. Un-
fortunatly the grown ups forget that and greed makes them want something for nothing. Too bad that all the thieves don’t have a concious.
I really appreciate it that you wrote this article. It is a hot button for all authors, myself included! Generally, authors receive the smallest percentage of the overall profits made from book sales (aka royalties from the publisher). Therefore, in order to make a living, authors need to sell a LOT of books. When our work is illegally distributed and consumed, it diminishes our ability to make a living. It’s heartbreaking for any author who has spent months in front of a computer crafting a book to have the work pirated right out from under them. Consumers of pirated books should keep in mind that writing is our job. We don’t receive a paycheck, and most authors only get paid twice a year. We are real people with real families and real financial obligations. Piracy truly hurts all of us.
Great post, Rachel. My books are pirated all over. And it makes me more than angry — it makes me furious. I’m not on the “sad” side of the house. I’m on the “fight them until we win” side of the house. I can’t afford to ignore these thieves — their stealing takes money from my family, puts my sell through in jeopardy, risks my sales being too low for my series’ to be continued, and promotes a terrible mindset, the “I can do whatever I want and it should all be FREE except, you know, MY things” entitlement mindset. And many of these pirates are making money off of the books of ours that they steal, adding insult to injury. Oh, and readers? If you’ll pay a pirate for a book you won’t pay a bookstore for, you’re as much to blame as the pirates themselves. If no one downloads illegally, then illegal downloads will stop.
I can’t say any more without sounding like I’m frothing at the mouth (’cause I am). All I can say is that doing nothing when someone robs you, over and over again, isn’t going to be the answer. At least, not MY answer. I’m with Metallica — fight them all the way to the courts and get them shut down.
This is terrible that this is happening. The only free books that I get, I get from Amazon for my kindle, and I still buy a lot of my kindle books as well.
I am a reader and my thing is if a writer is not getting paid for writing them maybe the won’t be writing as much or at all. And that is not good.