Don't steal!

Hello!

I plan my newsletters in advance, and yet I've rewritten this one three or four times, because the issue keeps advancing.

Piracy is a big problem in the literary world at the moment (as it is in the music and film biz too). Initially, I was just going to write a generic 'piracy is bad and I see my books on these sites all the time' post, but then Joanne Harris tweeted about it, and faced a huge backlash from people who chose to wilfully misunderstand her, and call out authors for basically being greedy. As if being paid for the job you do is somehow a bad thing.

And then a site called OceanofPDF tried to legitimise their criminal activity (piracy = stealing, of course) by asking people to share their comments of gratitude and 'review' the books they'd stolen.

And then it was closed down after pressure by authors and publishers, and with the involvement of the Society of Authors.

And then... this article appeared in the Guardian detailing the backlash by readers to that closure.

You'll be able to read a whole heap of vitriolic tweets on the issue if you search for it. People who are otherwise law-abiding, and wouldn't even consider walking into a bookshop and pocketing the latest Ian Rankin, seemingly have no issue with downloading a copy without payment. Some of the bizarre comments I read included: 'what if you lose your original, paid-for copy?', and 'what if I want to check I like the book first?' 

The average UK author earns £11,000. a figure skewed by the few very high-earning writers. If you took away JK Rowling, Neil Gaiman, Zadie Smith etc, the figure would be much lower. Many writers like me receive the cost of a coffee a few times a year.

When people steal my books, I earn nothing.

I don't get reviews that might turn people onto my books, and the people who are using these sites don't recommend the books to their friends to buy - another justification I read. If you've downloaded a pirated book, would you really tell your friend to buy it, or would you send them to the same site you used?

There’s a great service called Blasty,which seeks out these dubious sites. I was involved with the beta testing. They flag up sites and give the author the opportunity to blast the page out of existence. It’s out of beta testing now, and unfortunately I can’t afford the fee to continue with the service (see royalty revelation above). But I’m still signed up to receive notifications, and it’s currently telling me there are 113 sites with my name or my books mentioned. That number doesn’t get close to the number I was regularly blasting under the beta test.

And it doesn't include the emails I get from Google which tell me when my name or books are mentioned - when I set up that service I'd hoped to see lots of positive mentions and reviews... maybe one day.

Of course, I believe everyone deserves access to literature, but there are many legal ways to do it. Libraries, charity shops (the donated books were originally bought, so royalty was obtained), and borrowing from friends can all be great alternatives. Project Gutenberg makes out-of-copyright books freely available - currently over 57,000 of them!

Finally, here's a great article from Joanne Harris, who has brought a lot of attention to the plight of struggling authors, saying the same thing I have here but with better words 😉