Warning for Authors: Beware of Pirates Lurking!
With the recent resurgence of the subject of piracy surrounding the SOPA/PIPA legislation (which I'm against) I felt it important to not simply speak against the attack against freedoms that we enjoy through use of the internet but to offer a solution as well. Simply put, the solution is for authors to educate themselves on the subject of piracy and not fall victim to it.
I say this because it seems that in a lot of the online authors groups I belong to there are so-called publishing companies that are actively soliciting authors/illustrators to submit their work. If you know me personally you might be feeling that it's easy for me to say "please be careful who you submit to" when I've already been published.
Let me assure you that I do remember clearly what it was like to desperately want to be published. Even after being published, the feelings of wanting to do more never go away, please believe me.
So with that I'll add a friendly warning: please be careful who you submit your work to. This is especially true if they are overseas. This is not a warning against doing business with someone overseas simply because they are abroad. I'm not saying that at all but what I am saying is that our copyright laws cannot be enforced abroad and even if they could you and I don't have the money or resources to launch such a lawsuit against persons in countries whose economies even depend on piracy to survive. That point alone makes the whole notion of SOPA/PIPA utterly ridiculous but that's a whole other subject.
More thoughts on that can be found here.
It just seems that lately I've been coming across these aforementioned "solicitors" more and more (especially in LinkedIn) in reader/author/illustrator groups looking for folks to submit their work. Then when I scroll down there are ten or twelve people offering their links and contact information and I'm concerned for them.
Guys and gals, it's not worth the heartache of submitting your work to someone whom you've never met face-to-face or at least have had lengthy contact via e-mail. As authors we pour our heart and soul into our work so I would strongly encourage you to protect your work and if you feel so inclined, keep it here.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development offers a detailed report on piracy. There's quite a bit of reading but I would suggest going through it. The report can be found here.
It details which products/mediums have the highest rate of pirated product in which countries and yes, literary works are in the top tier right alongside music. In 2007, 69% of pirated products came from Southeast Asia while 1.1% came from the United States. You'd think with all the talk of pirated music that most of it took place here but according to this report, not so. Also, according to the black market watch website Havoscope, an estimated 20% of all e-books downloaded were pirated.
All this to say, please protect your precious work. Don't be too anxious to send it out to folks with no previous publishing track record in the United States. If you're considering self-publishing visit my previous post here for information on that.
Published or not, your work is your precious treasure. Guard it closely!
Chat soon,
Lenny
Leonardo Ramirez is an author of Science Fiction and Fantasy for all ages.
For more information please visit http://www.leonardoverse.com.Want to follow this blog? Visit http://leonardoverse.blogspot.com and sign up!Thanks for reading!
I say this because it seems that in a lot of the online authors groups I belong to there are so-called publishing companies that are actively soliciting authors/illustrators to submit their work. If you know me personally you might be feeling that it's easy for me to say "please be careful who you submit to" when I've already been published.
Let me assure you that I do remember clearly what it was like to desperately want to be published. Even after being published, the feelings of wanting to do more never go away, please believe me. So with that I'll add a friendly warning: please be careful who you submit your work to. This is especially true if they are overseas. This is not a warning against doing business with someone overseas simply because they are abroad. I'm not saying that at all but what I am saying is that our copyright laws cannot be enforced abroad and even if they could you and I don't have the money or resources to launch such a lawsuit against persons in countries whose economies even depend on piracy to survive. That point alone makes the whole notion of SOPA/PIPA utterly ridiculous but that's a whole other subject.
More thoughts on that can be found here.
It just seems that lately I've been coming across these aforementioned "solicitors" more and more (especially in LinkedIn) in reader/author/illustrator groups looking for folks to submit their work. Then when I scroll down there are ten or twelve people offering their links and contact information and I'm concerned for them.
Guys and gals, it's not worth the heartache of submitting your work to someone whom you've never met face-to-face or at least have had lengthy contact via e-mail. As authors we pour our heart and soul into our work so I would strongly encourage you to protect your work and if you feel so inclined, keep it here.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development offers a detailed report on piracy. There's quite a bit of reading but I would suggest going through it. The report can be found here.
It details which products/mediums have the highest rate of pirated product in which countries and yes, literary works are in the top tier right alongside music. In 2007, 69% of pirated products came from Southeast Asia while 1.1% came from the United States. You'd think with all the talk of pirated music that most of it took place here but according to this report, not so. Also, according to the black market watch website Havoscope, an estimated 20% of all e-books downloaded were pirated.
All this to say, please protect your precious work. Don't be too anxious to send it out to folks with no previous publishing track record in the United States. If you're considering self-publishing visit my previous post here for information on that.
Published or not, your work is your precious treasure. Guard it closely!
Chat soon,
Lenny
Leonardo Ramirez is an author of Science Fiction and Fantasy for all ages.
For more information please visit http://www.leonardoverse.com.Want to follow this blog? Visit http://leonardoverse.blogspot.com and sign up!Thanks for reading!
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