Piracy comes with costs to readers. Whether you pirate or not. Those who don’t pirate may not realize the costs. The costs may include higher book costs which sucks because books aren’t cheap anyway. Who wants to pay higher than we have to? But when publishers lose money, they are going to try to make it elsewhere. That’s how business works.
There are even costs to those who do pirate. So are you curious about those costs? In a word…BOOKS.
Quite a few of us take time out to deal with it on a regular basis. And what are we not doing what we’re dealing with it? Writing. Instead of writing books, we are dealing with pirates. This adds up to less time spent writing. Less time spent writing means fewer books.
When a writer has to make business choices, it can also mean the end of the series. If it’s a time-consuming series that doesn’t sell as well as others, the author may decide not to finish the series.
In the tough economic times we are facing now, publishers are tightening their belts. Authors that don’t sell as well may not get renewed contracts. Series may be dropped in the middle. How does a pirate contribute to that? When you don’t buy the book, it’s a lost sale. Whether you would’ve bought it or not, with or without the pirated copy, when you don’t buy it, it’s a lost sale and those lost sales often add up. If sales numbers are too low, the author isn’t likely to receive another contract offer. Which means you don’t get the books. (and FYI, to the pirates…don’t bother bringing up libraries. Libraries have legal legit copies. Torrent sites and filesharing sites do not. They take one copy and make it into 1000, or 10,000. Copyright laws protect against unauthorized copying and those who pirate trample all over an author’s rights.)
Authors can’t write for free. Despite what many people think, signing one contract doesn’t make us a millionaire. Signing 20 contracts doesn’t make us a millionaire. It takes years to get established and even then nothing is guaranteed.
People have this idea that writers sign contracts for hundreds of thousands (or more). I’ve yet to see that contract.
If you enjoy reading…
If you respect authors…
If you want to continue to get books…
Then you are affected by piracy.
Sadly, there are too many who either don’t care or don’t understand. Some of those who don’t care just don’t realize it affects them. They are wrong.
Some of those who don’t care are just out to get something for nothing — but it’s not for nothing. Authors and legit readers bear the cost.
There are plenty who just don’t understand. They don’t realize what copyright infringement is. They don’t realize that when they pirate they infringe upon an author’s rights and they break the law. They don’t realize how much an author’s career depends on every last sale.
These are the people we need to reach-those who don’t understand and those who don’t realize how much it affects them.
How can you help?
Educate them. Plenty of authors have blogged about piracy and how it affects them. Direct them to those posts.
If you’re a parent of teenagers, see if your teens understand about copyright-do they understand that just because they can find something on the web doesn’t mean it’s yours for the taking? Many many pirates these days are teenagers who do not understand anything about copyright infringemen. Many of them believe that if it’s found on a torrent site that means it’s up for grabs. Make sure they understand those books on torrent sites are by and large unauthorized copies and that when they download them or upload them, they are breaking the law.
Readers love to read. I’m a reader. I know that.
Writers love to write. I’m a writer. I know that.
But writers can’t work for nothing…we’ve got our own responsibilities to meet, kids to care for, bills to pay. You would have a harder time making a living if somebody was skimming money from your paycheck. That is what writers face. Our writing is our job. Just like anybody else, were entitled to receive payment for a job done.
BTW, I’m closing this post to comments. Frankly, as far as piracy goes, I don’t see it as something up for discussion. It is theft, you are making unauthorized copies or you are downloading unauthorized copies, that is copyright infringement. Both the FBI and United States Copyright Office makes this clear. So, if you do pirate, what you have aren’t reasons–they are excuses and I’m not inclined to to listen to them anymore.
You do not live my life, so you do not understand how this impacts me. I’m facing another surgery on my hands. I ended one series. I had to take one series from one publisher from three publishers and focus on it, with just one publisher, reducing the number of books I can write for that series. And I’m having to retrain how I write — and trust me. It’s not easy to go from keyboarding a story to talking out story. But if I want to continue to write, I’m gonna have to learn.
I do this because it’s my job. You have no right to steal my work. If you’ve enjoyed my work and have pirated my books and wonder why I don’t write as much, you’re part of the reason. And that isn’t up for discussion.