Piracy Kills Authors

Book Pirates Suck!

I spent part of today once again taking time (instead of writing) to send out DMCA notices to pirates sites hosting illegal copies of my books. And once again I'm wondering if it is worth continuing to publish my books.

This is what goes through my head every time I find one of my books has been pirated by some arrogant, selfish individual, who has no regard about the consequences of their actions. I wonder why I publish books at all if I inevitably will have to face this total ingratitude and asshole behavior.

Because I don't have to publish books. No writer has to publish their books. We do it because we want to publish. We want to connect with readers.

This is why it is so disheartening when readers use pirate sites. When readers support pirate sites and screw over authors when they do so. And the sad thing is, readers don't have to use pirate sites, not these days. Amazon, Smashwords, author websites, they all offer legal and free or discounted books for readers. Yet piracy persists.

It makes me ask the questions: 

Why am I bothering?

If people think so little of authors why do I publish at all?

And I don't have an answer.

I wish I did. 

I wish I could tell you that it will get better.

But I can't.

I haven't quit yet. Maybe I never will. Or maybe someday I will say, I've had enough. Take your pirated books, I'm done.  If I do, I'm sure my small career will join the sad ranks of dead authors killed by pirates.

When Did Authors Become Second Class Citizens?

When Did Authors Become Second Class Citizens?

Why are people still condoning online piracy and pirate sites?  And worse yet, participating and encouraging these sites.  Why the lack of respect for authors and other artists, people that you the public supposedly admire?

What is it about being online that makes illegal activities so appealing?  Is it the anonymity?  Except with the technology today, anonymity is harder to come by, users can be tracked, and there is a real possibility that someone will prosecute you.  So why do people do it?

Frankly, I don’t know why people are that offensive and callous, perhaps they just don’t consider what they are doing wrong.  Well consider this, if someone walked into a brick and mortar store, bought several books and then handed those copies out free to incoming shoppers, the owners (or security) would evict them from the store.

But that is exactly what people are doing on pirate sites and in far greater numbers than a few books.  So why is it acceptable online and frowned upon in the real world?

Stop treating authors like they don’t have feelings and they’re not worthy of ethical treatment!