I’m going to talk about a serious subject today. The one thing that is killing indie authors, and making it impossible to carry on with their writing dream. Book Piracy! Firstly, it’s not just piracy, it’s copyright theft!
It’s illegal to download an author's work without their permission. There are many free downloading sites that offer this service and they are all breaking the law. These criminals make money off thousands of authors by using their work to drive traffic to their sites so they can make money on ads. The authors get nothing! When I last checked my downloads for Wonderlust on one of these sites it was over 70,000 downloads! I’m like most of my author friends in this industry, I have a full time job. I write in my spare time in the hope that one day I’ll be able to write full time. Sadly, this dream will never happen if book piracy continues.
I’ve been absent from the book world for 4 years partly due to this. It’s not free for authors to publish a book. We have to pay for a cover design, pay for editing of the book and marketing doesn’t come cheap either. I only covered the costs of my last book, I made 0% in profit because two days after my book, Colourblind, was released it was on a piracy site with over 10,000 downloads. This is killing the indie publishing market and it needs to stop! People need to be made aware of what is happening!
People seem to be very naive and think the authors have agreed to put their books on these sites. We haven’t. We use many publishing platforms, but any that are offering up free PDF, EPUB and MOBI downloads are not condoned by us. PLEASE ONLY DOWNLOAD A BOOK FROM AN OFFICIAL SITE LIKE AMAZON OR IBOOKS (There are other sites authors use but these are the most popular).
Authors always have sales on their books!! Damn, I’ve given countless free books to my readers when they’ve messaged me. Talk to us! Don’t go and help these thieves steal our livelihood. If you ignore this blog post and continue to use these illegal sites, then I’m sorry, but you are part of the problem. You’re killing indie authors like me, and have no heart! I have to be that blunt.
Ebooks cost the price of a Starbucks coffee, and you get to read the books as many times as you want! Readers get a damn good deal in my opinion!
I'm joining the new movement against piracy/copyright theft! I’m not lying down and taking this anymore. I’m getting the word out and making people aware! I'll be doing this every month! Join us! Support the authors not these heartless thieves!
Authors
Here are some useful links on book piracy. Advice on how to get these sites taken down.
Take care, be safe, and buy/lend books from safe sources!
Much Love
B.L.Wilde