A Few Thoughts on Piracy

Every few days, I click over to the good old trusty Google and search my book title. Everyone does that, right? I’m sure you all do, even if you won’t admit it. I mean, come on. I want to know if anyone has mentioned it in a blog, on a review site or hell, even a comment on a public page. I want to know if word is getting out about my pride and joy.

Well, the word is getting out alright. I have found no less than fifteen sites offering a “free” pdf download of my title. What, now?!?

“Who are these people and how can I hunt them down?” was my first train of thought. I’m new to all this and though I’ve heard of music piracy and bootleg movies, it never really occurred to me that there would be people stealing books. I mean, come on, isn’t that right up there with burning them, or something?

I have read community discussions about this trend and have come to realize two things:

Many, if not all, of these sites are phishing scams. If people try to download my book for free, they may be getting a whole lot more than they bargained for.
Despite being immoral, and possibly illegal, my book is listed on at least fifteen more sites than it would have been otherwise. Should someone actually get a free copy, that’s one more person added to my audience. Maybe they’ll tell a friend. Maybe that friend will actually buy the book legitimately.

Having my book stolen really sucks, but that means someone wanted to read it, right? For now, as a struggling, self published author, that’s what I’ll keep telling myself.