NaNo 24: Piracy
I like pirates. The fictional kind. You know, big hats, swords, and a penchant for rum. I really like sky pirates in their clockwork ships.
I don’t like internet pirates. Not at all. They make me sad.
Google alerted me this morning that someone made a copy of OB available for download. It was suggested that I should feel flattered that someone liked my book enough to give it away. I don’t feel flattered. I want to cry.
On average, authors make 8% of the cover price from books (that means, on your average 7.99 mass market book the author makes about 64 cent) but they make 0% on pirated downloads. Everything comes down to numbers in publishing, so not only do pirated downloads affect an author’s bottom line, but they can actually jeopardize her ability to convince publishers to purchase future books from her. Which translates to no sequels, and the author possibly having to use a pseudonym to sell another series.
Now, one little download site on my one little book isn’t the biggest concern in the world, and I’ve already earned out my advance and received a second contract. But this is still not a happy thing. So, this is a friendly message to remind people that if you like something, whether it is a book, a song, a movie, ect., please support the artist, not the pirate.
Thank you everyone who already does support the artists. I *heart* you! ^_^
P.S. Sorry for the short rant, but it really did make me sad when the site showed up.
So, how are the word counts going? Let's see some numbers. I have one follow up question from Cher I’ll be addressing later this week, and then I'm out of questions. Does anyone else have any questions or topics they’d like me to address?
I don’t like internet pirates. Not at all. They make me sad.
Google alerted me this morning that someone made a copy of OB available for download. It was suggested that I should feel flattered that someone liked my book enough to give it away. I don’t feel flattered. I want to cry.
On average, authors make 8% of the cover price from books (that means, on your average 7.99 mass market book the author makes about 64 cent) but they make 0% on pirated downloads. Everything comes down to numbers in publishing, so not only do pirated downloads affect an author’s bottom line, but they can actually jeopardize her ability to convince publishers to purchase future books from her. Which translates to no sequels, and the author possibly having to use a pseudonym to sell another series.
Now, one little download site on my one little book isn’t the biggest concern in the world, and I’ve already earned out my advance and received a second contract. But this is still not a happy thing. So, this is a friendly message to remind people that if you like something, whether it is a book, a song, a movie, ect., please support the artist, not the pirate.
Thank you everyone who already does support the artists. I *heart* you! ^_^
P.S. Sorry for the short rant, but it really did make me sad when the site showed up.
So, how are the word counts going? Let's see some numbers. I have one follow up question from Cher I’ll be addressing later this week, and then I'm out of questions. Does anyone else have any questions or topics they’d like me to address?
Comments
-PheX
Anyway, as of right now, my word count is 38,003. :-D Now I'm going to bed. :-D
It does suck for this to happen to you, especially since you are a new artist and the margins are razor thin. I mean, if you are selling millions of copies, pirates are not going to really bust up your bottom line too badly, but for newer artists, I could see it making a significant difference.
On the bright side, since your next foray will probably not be "0 day warez", maybe some people out there will be introduced to the world of Kita and like it enough that they run out to purchase your next release because they just cannot wait for more.
All in all, monetary concerns aside, I never really understood pirating books. They are pretty cheap, have a good resell value, and are much more convenient than computer screen reading.
-- Brandon Barkley
On the book...I'm not a published author so I don't know what it's like to have something pirated...but in the long run, it might not be as bad as you think. I know that I've read a lot of books from a library or from somewhere like http://www.baen.com/library/ and then gone on the buy a copy of the book later because I just really wanted to own one. Would you feel sad if people borrowed your book from the library or a friend because borrowing it from the library made you lose sales?
I know that when I first found Once Bitten, I fretted for weeks because it looked interesting but money is tight and I hate to spend money to buy something from an author I hadn't read before. I ended up buying it with micro pay rebates from fictionwise so it essentially cost me nothing. And now I have a print copy too because I just had to have one. I can't count the number of authors I've discovered by borrowing books from a friend and then later bought my own copy...and I just can't believe that I'm the only person to do that...
Word count: 34874
You're moving write along Tyhitia! Keep powering on.
Good point Ginger. I'm actually a huge fan of libraries. Pirating just seems so . . . dirty. I don't cross associate them. But you are right, maybe new readers will come from it. ^_^
Oh look at that word count. So close! Do you think you'll be able to squeeze in those last 800 words tomorrow? Do you have big plans?
Thanks Cher, I forwarded it on to my publisher and asked the site to remove the download. We'll see what happens. Your word count is moving along. Will you have much time to write over the holiday?