To publish or not to publish ONLINE?

I have to blow off some steam and I guess this may be the best place to do it. It's no secret that my first novel was uploaded on "sharing websites" illegally after it was published by me a year ago. For about nine months or so I've contacted the numerous sites about copyright infringement and have been able to remove my book from a few, but my novel is still available to download illegally as so many other author's books are. Maybe some author's are ok with this, but it's not cool to me.


But I really lost all hope when the copy of my final draft of my second novel Sacrifice was uploaded on a sharing site - before its even been published!!!.You can't imagine how devasted I was when a reader emailed me, telling she was so excited that my book was available to read online. Since I only asked a few people to read it for feedback, I'm not 100% sure which person leaked it. Each one denied it. If it was a mistake, I could forgive you. If not... well karma will deal with you.
I don't even know how many people downloaded it. Thankfully, I was able to have the draft removed after emailing the site about copyright infringement.


Since then I've had to basically rewrite it in order to have a fresh story. It sucks because I felt the storyline was really good the first time. I had even pushed the date out from December just to ensure that the editing was done properly. I liked the fact that I could publish my own work online. I liked the sense of control. But its bad that once you publish something online you lose some of that control over how your book is distributed. People think that it's ok to share stuff that doesn't belong to them on the internet just because they've been able to obtain it. And those who download it thinking it's a freebie doesn't make it right. It's dishonest. Someone said I shouldn't be upset. That this is the risk of publishing online. But I am upset because I feel that it's really f*cked up when you haven't even published it yet!! It's a shame and unfair and I'm still pretty damn pissed.


I was so broken up over this (and still am) that I was ready to stop writing the trilogy. If it weren't for my family pushing me to revise it and all the devoted readers who enjoyed Betrayal and look forward to reading the next installmet, the story would have ended with Betrayal and I would never publish anything else to the internet. I want to make my books as accessible as possible and I like reading a book on my nook but I'm not sure if I want to upload an ebook version anymore. I'm still undecided on that.


The worst is that Sacrifice will not be available for a while. I will do my best to publish it as soon as I can, but right now, the new draft is being edited.


I apologise for not answering comments or emails from readers who either wanted to let me know how much they enjoyed my first novel or to inquire about the next installment. I shouldn't have taken my anger out on you. I appreciate your continued interest and hope that you all hang in there a little longer to read the second novel.