Good morning!
Recently I’ve seen a lot of people posting on social media about book piracy. If you don’t know what that is, it’s when someone creates a site and uploads authors books without our permission, and either sells them or just lets people download them for free. As if we have no right to expect to be paid for our hard work. Some of the thieves AKA customers who use pirate sites like to whine that they are on a fixed income. They can’t afford to buy all the books they want to read. Here’s a news flash, everybody is on a fixed income of some sort, but some of us don’t have a guaranteed amount. Authors never know for sure what they’ll make one month to the next. Some months are amazing, and some months are terrifying. We have zero control over when or why people will buy our books.
I’m tired of people making authors feel guilty because we expect to be paid. Authors are just people, and we need to pay our rent and feed ourselves like anyone else. Yes, I’m thankful I get to make my living doing something I love, but writing is hard work. It’s a tough gig. It’s an uncertain gig. We never know what new thing Amazon will come up with that will mess with our income.
If I went into Walmart and just helped myself to things I wanted without paying, I’d be arrested. Why when it comes to The Arts do people suddenly act like we don’t deserve an income? Some people have the audacity to say we shouldn’t be paid for our books because it just came out of our head. That’s the silliest thing I’ve ever heard. Okay, not the silliest actually, that would be the USB Pet Rock. Yes, it’s a real thing! LOOK! I’M NOT KIDDING. Of course we deserve to be paid for our hard work, just like the guy who digs ditches or the girl who slings hash.
Some of the pirate site owners are super aggressive too. One in particular was threatening to hack all of our Facebook accounts etc if we didn’t shut up. Sounds like a charming man. He must be a joy to live next door to. You’d probably find all of your lawn furniture in his backyard eventually.
Some people say book piracy doesn’t hurt authors because the type of person who would use the sites would never have been a customer anyway. That argument doesn’t hold up for any other kind of theft, and it doesn’t hold up for books either.
I guess my point is; stealing is stealing. Authors work hard and deserve to profit from our hard work; just like anyone else.
S.C.
The problem with combating piracy is most of the sites are in foreign countries where our laws or rules don’t apply. I got tired over the years of emailing them and asking they take down my books. Sometimes they do then someone else uploads the book again. It’s annoying as hell, but we’re pretty defenseless against it unfortunately.
I’ll never understand the dark web, the audacity of criminals and the blatant disregard for laws, human decency or the fear of getting caught.
I’ll just keep buying my books and hope the law abiding citizens outweigh those who choose to steal.