The Price of Book Pirates

Serious subject most authors won’t approach. Book Pirates are a real thing. They steal books and offer them to readers for free. That’s right, unless you received a free copy of a book from the author or from an approved giveaway, it’s been stolen. Even worse, you may be paying a price you never expected. These book pirates don’t just steal books, they also go after your information such as your credit or debit card.                                Like most thieves, these pirates don’t care what you lose. They laugh when confronted by authors and publishers seeking to stop them. Their only interest is in getting what they can from a gullible public who believes the author has provided the book for their website to give to you for nothing.
Before you object strenuously, ask yourself a few questions.
Why would an author give away a book they’re working hard to promote on an authorized sales such as Amazon daily?
Why would an author make spiteful comments about websites that claim they have permission to give away this book?
Why are authors being so angry about book pirates, who seem to be giving away thousands of their books daily?
Let’s address these questions by asking another one…
Do you consider yourself a thief?
I heard that. Many people are screaming that of course they’re not a thief. Yet, if pressed, more than a few will admit to getting a book from a website the author gave to said site.
Backing up again. No, I didn’t give that website a book to giveaway. Nor did any of the hundreds of other authors I know do this. We’re all together in our plan to take these sites down, but as soon as one comes down, another ten are up in moments, with our books offered for free. It’s a losing battle, but one I’m not backing away from because they have my hard work and are giving it away, thereby depriving me of hard earned money.
I use only authorized sales venues, actually my publisher does this. Self-published authors without the protection of a publisher must do this on their own. We spend many days, weeks, and months writing our books, going through and editing, hiring someone to edit (or in the case of a publisher, being assigned an editor), proofreading, and publishing. All in all, it takes us a long time for our books to be considered a success financially. We do not and will not willingly give our books to one of these sites.
The bottom line of why we object to these pirates? It all comes down to earning a living. One of these sites posted numbers of downloads of my books. It was actually quite amazing to see a number like that, not that I truly believe it. After all, if they’re lying about permission to have my book, lying about not using your credit/debit card for nefarious means, why shouldn’t they be lying about download numbers. But without any factual information, I used that number to figure out exactly how much these pirates have taken from me in a year.
Now, the number they had posted bold as brass on their website was 1948 downloads a month. Sweet! Any author wants to see that kind of number—from an authorized sales venue. My ebooks never cost more than $6.00, so the individual thefts don’t seem like much, unless you calculate those losses in terms of overall books. I have 74 currently available. And then use that same information, minus what the sales venue takes as their fee and my publisher receives. Many people are now thinking that I can’t make very much even calculating in what book pirates claim they’ve given to readers.
You would be wrong in that assumption. Based on the information above, if those books had sold from an authorized sales venue, my monthly income would be approximately $118,200.74 and the annual income would be $1,418,408.88.
Yes, those are serious numbers and they are right. That’s just with one author. Think about the thousands of authors on all authorized sales venues experiencing the same thing and you now know why we are so focused on stopping these pirates. Oh, they don’t only operate on individual websites. Torrents boasts some of the most difficult to take down pirate sites around.
The next time you see a giveaway of your favorite author’s book, make sure it’s from an authorized sales venue, or a site authorized to host this giveaway such as Book Bub. Don’t think the author has given up their book to potential readers for free. Even contacting this author through social media (Twitter and Facebook) will be wonderful. Please be sure to include the link to the website. We all thank you for helping us stop these pirates.


About K.C. Sprayberry
Born and raised in Southern California’s Los Angeles basin, K.C. Sprayberry spent years traveling the United States and Europe while in the Air Force before settling in northwest Georgia. A new empty nester with her husband of more than twenty years, she spends her days figuring out new ways to torment her characters and coming up with innovative tales from the South and beyond.
She’s a multi-genre author who comes up with ideas from the strangest sources. Those who know her best will tell you that nothing is safe or sacred when she is observing real life. In fact, she considers any situation she witnesses as fair game when plotting a new story. 



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