Pirates and Piracy
Pirates and Piracy
Authors are some of the hardest working people I've ever known. Hours and hours are spent in the preparation stage of writing a book - be it research, plotting, creating the character list or writing that pivotal opening scene, the one that will compel readers to continue reading.
The twists and turns of turning an idea into a book are amazing at times and at others, an author might want to chuck the whole thing, but ultimately the characters speak to them and a wonderful story is born.
The expectation is many sales, garnering some new readers and of course, getting great reviews.
The one thing no author looks forward to is having their work stolen and yes, it happens everyday. People either purchase our work or worse, they win a free copy in a contest and promptly upload the file to a piracy site.
In the past couple of weeks, two good friends of mine have had their entire backlists stolen and illegally downloaded hundreds of time, at the loss of hundreds of dollars. I've had my catalog uploaded to various sites as well. It's theft plain and simple and quite discouraging.
I equate this to someone coming into my home and taking food directly off my plate and those of my family.
To get our work stolen is disturbing and to get it taken down causes us any amount of trouble.
To make it perfectly clear - authors own the copyright on our work, which means no one has the right to sell or give away our work but us and our publishers, as per our contract.
Please, don't down load copyrighted material and a copyright is good for 72 years. If you really want a free book, ask for it, don't take it.
Authors are some of the hardest working people I've ever known. Hours and hours are spent in the preparation stage of writing a book - be it research, plotting, creating the character list or writing that pivotal opening scene, the one that will compel readers to continue reading. The twists and turns of turning an idea into a book are amazing at times and at others, an author might want to chuck the whole thing, but ultimately the characters speak to them and a wonderful story is born.
The expectation is many sales, garnering some new readers and of course, getting great reviews.
The one thing no author looks forward to is having their work stolen and yes, it happens everyday. People either purchase our work or worse, they win a free copy in a contest and promptly upload the file to a piracy site.
In the past couple of weeks, two good friends of mine have had their entire backlists stolen and illegally downloaded hundreds of time, at the loss of hundreds of dollars. I've had my catalog uploaded to various sites as well. It's theft plain and simple and quite discouraging.
I equate this to someone coming into my home and taking food directly off my plate and those of my family.
To get our work stolen is disturbing and to get it taken down causes us any amount of trouble.
To make it perfectly clear - authors own the copyright on our work, which means no one has the right to sell or give away our work but us and our publishers, as per our contract.
Please, don't down load copyrighted material and a copyright is good for 72 years. If you really want a free book, ask for it, don't take it.
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