Looking for free Shiloh Walker ebooks?
Well, with the exception of this one or those given (legally) away in
contests, you're not going to find any free ones.
Piracy comes with costs... to the publisher, to the
author, and yes, to the reader. it costs you
books. Want to know how? Read on.
When you look for 'free Shiloh Walker ebooks' and
end up on a torrent site or a filesharing site, the
books you find aren't really free-they cost me. The ones you find will be illegal,
unauthorized copies. They are unauthorized and
they are illegal. It's copyright
infringement.
Unsure on what constitutes copyright infringement?
Here's the bottom line. I own the books I
write. I created them. I contract with
publishers who then pay me to release to books for
readers to read. Readers buy the one copy and
they are entitled to do whatever they want...with
that one copy. But when you uploaded
onto a filesharing site or a torrent site-it's no
longer one copy. You have made
copies-they are unauthorized copies. That is
illegal. If you don't believe me...here's what
the FBI has to say about copyrighted works:
"Warning: The unauthorized reproduction or
distribution of this copyrighted work is
illegal. Criminal copyright infringement,
including infringement without monetary gain, is
investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up
to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of
$250,000."
So maybe now you're thinking... "I don't upload to filesharing sites. I just download.
Whoever uploaded them is the one in trouble."
Wrong. Did you hear about the woman who was
fined $1.9 million because she downloaded
roughly 20 songs?
The US Copyright Office says:
"Uploading or downloading works protected by
copyright without the authority of the copyright
owner is an infringement of the copyright
owner's exclusive rights of reproduction and/or
distribution. Anyone found to have infringed a
copyrighted work may be liable for statutory
damages up to $30,000 for each work infringed
and, if willful infringement is proven by the
copyright owner, that amount may be increased up
to $150,000 for each work infringed."
By placing one of my books on a filesharing site,
you're breaking the law. You do not
have my authorization, and I can't give it because
it violates my contract. I can't give it,
because if I give my work away for free, how do I
meet my responsibilities?
Now maybe you're thinking..."well, ya know... your
responsibilities aren't my problem."
No...they aren't. They are mine and I'm just
fine with that. However, when you pirate my
work, whether you realize it or not, you're
contributing to a problem I've been dealing with,
and if you enjoy my work? It does affect you.
How?
Writing is my job. It is how I pay for
my obligations, it's how I provide for my
family...and ironically, it's what allows me to
continue to write. Writing isn't free. I
spent thousands every year on books, research,
contests, promotional needs, and health issues that
I've developed because of writing. If I don'tmake money writing, I won't continue to
write.
Now I don't see me hanging up my writer's hat any
time soon. But... I have ended a series.
The deciding factor were money and piracy. The Mythe series is pretty much dead.
I have no plans at this point to continue it.
If you want more detail, follow thelink. But the series is pretty much over
and will remain unfinished.
So if you liked that series and you pirate books,
you added to that problem and you helped bring about
this decision.
What about the Hunters? The
vamp/shifter series is certainly my most popular
series. No, I'm not ending that one any time
soon. But piracy played into a decision that
is going to cost readers books.
My writing is a business and I have to treat it as
such. I came to the decision that I should
place my work where it's going to be the biggest
benefit to my career. I decided the best place
for the Hunters books was Berkley, one of my
mainstream publishers. Issues with piracy was
one of the deciding factors and because of those
issues, I switched the Hunter books to my
mainstream publisher. Here's where it affects
readers: With my epubs, I could put out 2-4 Hunter books a year. With my mainstream
publisher, the plan is one a year, possibly two
after I wrap up the Veil series.
Mainstream publishers require longer story lengths,
so the shorter ideas I had will remain unwritten
unless I can figure out a way to either lengthen the
story or combine them for a single author anthology.
Bottom line? Readers are getting fewerHunter books. It sucks-it sucks for me,
and it sucks for those who enjoy my books enough to
either buy them or check them out from the
library...through those legal channels. If it
sucks for the pirates, well, sorry, but I couldn't
care less. Those pirates are the main reason I
made that decision.
This is also the reason I don't have as many ebooks
releasing from my epubs. I'm focusing of my
efforts on where it has the most benefits for my
career, which is my mainstream publishers.
Adds up to fewer books, because I don't have
releases as often through my mainstream publishers.
Now please, don't had me any of the excuses pirates
just love to hand out. If you didn't realize it was wrong, at this point, you do.
With all do respect, I ask you, please, stop.
You're hurting authors, which ironically means
you're also shooting yourself in the foot. If
you have any respect at all for writers, don't
pirate. If you do pirate, whatever respect you
claim to have is empty.
Those who 'know' it's wrong but don't care...or
those who hand out the excuses? Don't want to
hear them, thanks. I've heard them.
#1 Excuse- But most of us who pirate turn around
and buy the book anyway.
If this was true, I would have hit the big bestseller
lists, I would have paid off all of my debts and I
would have already have my kids' college funds
nicely padded. Sorry. It's not true.
I keep track of how many times get downloaded and
like I mentioned before, some of them have been pirated more than they have sold, so
there's no way the majority of pirates turn around
and buy the book. I've seen the numbers-I know
how many books I sell and I've seen how many get
pirated. Pirates can claim that line all they
want, but I've seen the numbers. The numbers
trump those claims.
#2 Excuse- But I don't have the money to buy it
and I love to read.
I can sympathize with not having the money and
loving to read. More than you know. I
grew up dirt-poor. I got my books by riding 15
miles roundtrip every week to the local library on a
secondhand bike somebody gave me. I checked
out 10 books, loaded them into my backpack and then
went back home, read them and returned them. I
had a paper route that gave me a little bit of cash
so that one or twice a month, I could go buy one or
two new paperbacks. I understand not having
money. But as my responsibilities
aren't your problem, your lack of money isn't my
problem. There are libraries. There are
free, legal reads on the web. Baen has a number of free ebooks on their site. Samhain has some free reads. On a regular
basis, the Sony ebook store has free reads and you don't
need a Sony reader to read them. Plenty of
authors have free promo reads on their sites, like
the one I listed above. So you can find
free, legal reads, if you look.
#3 Excuse-But the books are in English and I
don't read English well. The only way I can
read them is if I download one of the pirated
translations.
You know what? I can understand that, too.
But you're still breaking the law. You're
breaking US law and if you're not a US citizen,
you're breaking the copyright laws of your
country-just about every country has laws in place
to protect copyright. As a non-English
speaker, you could possibly help bring about a
change that would make the books available in your language, in your country and in a
way that would benefit other readers and the author.
Find a publisher that publishes in your language.
Email them. Get your friends to do the same. Explain
you're looking for more books by certain authors.
Foreign publishers often contract with English
publishers to obtain foreign rights
translations-this would end up getting the book legally to your country and it's also in a way
that benefits the writer and the publisher, and
believe it or not, when the writer and the publisher
benefit, that's a good thing for readers, because
the publishers will want to expand and they'll
likely make more books available. Plus, those
translations will be professional
translations.
#4 Excuse-But everybody does it.
This is the weakest, lamest excuse. Doing
something because everybody else does it?
Weak. Doing the right thing takes
character. It takes strength. Doing
something just because all your friends do it?
That's weak...that's easy.
#5 Excuse-But the authors don't really care.
You're wrong. We do. You're taking
something you have no right to. If we
hadn't created the works, they wouldn't exist. That
gives us legal rights to those works and when
you trample on them, we care-every bit as much as
you would care if somebody trampled all over your
legal rights.
#6 Excuse-But the authors don't need the money.
This is yet another crock-
-
Point #1-I do need the money.
Frankly, if I didn't need the money, I wouldn't
bust my butt to put out books as often as I do-I
write a pace that has put so much stress on my
hands and wrists, as I mentioned, I'm facing yet
another surgery. I maintain this pace
because at this point, my career demands it and
I need my career to provide for my kids.
Since you aren't me, you can't make the decision
if I need the money or not.
-
Point #2-It doesn't matter if the authorneeds the money-they are legally entitled
to it. They created the work. They
are entitled to the compensation. But you are not legally entitled to take
whatever you want.
#7 Excuse-But piracy doesn't really hurt the
authors.
You're wrong. You know what determines whether
or not an author gets a contract renewed with the
publisher? Sales.
So every sale counts. (And if you're thinking
the bestsellers are pretty much guaranteed new
contracts...see excuse #6.) For newer authors
and or those of us who haven't yet made it big,
every single sale is crucial. Especially now.
Publishers are tightening their belts and authors
who don't sell enough don't get renewed contracts.
Ironically enough, a couple of authors I've seen
mentioned by pirates... "When is her next book
coming out..." I can tell you a couple of them
didn't get their contracts renewed. And those
who pirated instead of buying? You contributed
to that.
Also-sales are lost to piracy. Plain
and simple. When sales are lost, money is lost.
One thing that publishers do when money is lost?
Jack up prices. Now I don't if any publisher has
raised prices just because of piracy, but prices do
go up. Since money is lost to piracy, it's entirely possible that piracy is one
of the deciding factors. So other readers are
paying for your pirating. Not very nice on your
part.
#8 Excuse-But writers write to get read. They
should just be grateful people read them.
You know what? When you legally
buy/checkout/etc my books-whether you love them or
hate them-I am grateful. My career
wouldn't be where it is if it wasn't for those
readers. But if you're illegally downloading
my work, you didn't contribute to my career, and I'm
not in the least bit grateful to you. I'm
grateful to those who buy me in stores, those who
request me in libraries. I'm not grateful to
pirates.
If you're on the ones buying to 'share' them on
filesharing/torrent sites-sorry, not grateful to
you, either. Maybe you bought, but you're
contributing to the problem. Writers don't
write just to get read. If we did that, we
wouldn't go through the hard-work of haggling
contracts, dealing with edits, paying for promo,
maintaining websites, maintaining a web presence,
buying bookmarks, paying for research material, or
writing ourselves in nerve damage that results in
surgery.
We write because it is our job.
I'm a writer and I love it when people love my work,
but my end reward isn't having people love my
work-my end reward is knowing that I'm able to use
this talent in a way that provides for my family. That is my reward, and when you pirate, I
don't get it, so spare me...I shouldn't be grateful
for those who pirate my work. I'm grateful to
those who have the decency and the respect to pay
for my work, or request it from libraries, etc, etc.
#9 Ebooks cost less to produce, so they shouldn't
cost so much, and if they were cheaper, I'd buy.
Ebooks cost less in some ways. Yes. But
there are still costs. The editors have to be
paid. The writers have to be paid. The
cover artists have to paid. The websites must
be maintained. There are formatting
costs. There are costs associated with getting books
to legit e-tailers like the Sony store and Amazon's
Kindle store.
Plus, the publisher has to make a profit.
If writers, editors, cover artists, publishers,
don't make money...why should they continue to do
it? Writing might be an art, but getting your
work published requires a writer to think about it
like a business. If that line of thinking
bothers you, then by all means, go find websites
where people put their work up for free. They
can just write for the sake of art. But if I
wrote for the sake of art alone, I wouldn't be able
to provide for my family. Sorry, they are more
important than writing for the sake of 'art'.
#10 Writers are all rich. Readers are
broke. We're just trying to help them out.
I'd like to know what Utopia you live in, where are
all writers are rich. Are some? Yes.
But you know what? They busted the butts off
to get that way and they earned it.
Now, I hate to burst your bubble, but not all
writers are rich. Matter of fact, I can count
on one hand how many I know (as in having met them)
who could be called rich. Most of us?
We're just working stiffs. Yep...working
stiffs. Most of us don't drive new, pricy
sports cars or luxury SUVS. My car is five
years old and I bought it used. My husband?
His car is close to 10 years old, and he bought it
used. We don't live in some designer home with
thousands of square feet, we don't go shopping for
designer clothes on Rodeo Drive and we don't take
luxury vacations that cost more than some cars.
Most writers have the same bills you have, most
writers have to mess with mortgages and quite a few
of us have to shell out thousands a year for health
care, because we're self-employed.
We're not rich so if you've got some Robin-Hood
complex going, you're deluding yourself. More
likely, you're just using it as an excuse to do what
you want and screw those you hurt.
Piracy irritates me. It depresses me.
Contrary to what some people think, sad and
depressed isn't always all that conducive to
creativity. When I'm in that state of mind, I
don't write well. While I'm usually able to
compartmentalize, I don't always do it-suppressing
it just makes it worse so from time to time, I let
it out, and when I'm doing that? I'm not
writing. Which means...fewer books.
Piracy irritates me. I know the value of hard
work and I respect it. People are not entitled
to take just whatever they want, because other
people end up paying for it and I have too much
respect for others to take what I have no right to.
Some pirates seem to want authors to 'respect' them,
but respect is a two way street. You can't
expect it from us unless you're willing to give it,
and you can't respect us when you're trampling all
over a writer's legal rights.
Piracy irritates me. I spent hours dealing
with pirates. Hours. Those are hours
that could be spent writing.
And I'm not the only author who does this.
Many, many authors are vigilant about this and
unless they can afford to have an assistant deal
with it, the author is the one doing it. So
while the author is dealing with pirates, they
aren't writing.
When writers have to set time aside from writing to
deal with pirates, they aren't writing. When a
writer doesn't get contracts renewed because of flat
sales, she doesn't have a new book coming out.
If you pirated instead of buying, you contributed to
that.
In the long run, one
thing that piracy costs you?More
books.
