An Author's Take on Pirating

When did pirating become a verb? Never mind, it’s not important. What is important (to me) is that I found out over the weekend that two out of three of my books are being pirated. A lot of things went through my mind at the discovery: I was flattered, amazed, curious, irritated, and concerned. Let’s discuss those.

First, I was flattered. I think this is the appropriate response for writers. Authors think of other things too, but writers are all about wanting to tell a story. It’s nice to think that someone wants to spend time with characters you created, in a world you crafted. That someone out there thinks the book you spent time pouring your heart and soul into is worth copying and spreading is amazing.

Authors . . . well, we're writers. But there’s also the ‘Damn! If I’m not going to get paid for it, can I at least get a good review out of it?’ thought. Unfortunately, not usually. That is irritating. Few readers leave reviews and every time you see there’s a new one, your breath catches, your heart leaps into your throat, and you cross your fingers while you pull it up to read it. (Personally, I live by Disney’s “if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all” line. It might be because I’m an indie author and I know how hard it is, or it might be because the only part of “Bambi” I liked was Thumper.)

Some authors get more upset about lost revenue. Yeah, I’ll go along with that to a point. I’m more irritated about lower than usual chance of a review, therefore lost future sales, and the extra work. Yes, work. You see, authors have to defend their copyright. Even if an author doesn’t care, if he/she finds out about a copyright/trademark violation, they’re obligated to address it. Take-down notices don’t put anyone in a good mood.

Finally, concern. This kicked in after I forwarded my revelation on to Hubby and he discussed it with some ‘interesting people’ he knows in his security business who specialize more in that sort of thing. So, if you’re going to download books off a disreputable site, there is something I’d like you to pay attention to:

Download buttons are not always download buttons. Sometimes they download the book. Sometimes the book comes with ‘extras’ you didn’t expect. And sometimes you get the ‘extras’ but not the book. Hubby & Co. looked at one place and said anyone who wanted that book that bad, was asking for trouble. They were going to get spyware (apparently not malware, although how these cybergeeks could tell by looking I don’t know). If you hover your mouse over the button (or each button) your browser should tell you where the link goes. Make sure it’s somewhere you trust. Multiple identical download buttons is a bad sign. One of these things is not like the others . . . and, more specifically, doesn’t belong. (Everything you need to know you learned in kindergarten, right?)

So, (while my publisher doesn’t condone illegal piracy and I will get an earful for not writing a smack-down post on the subject) if you’re going to pirate my books: please do it safely and I’d really like a decent review out of it (Amazon and/or Goodreads are good places). Obviously, I can’t speak for other authors, this is just my two cents.