Comments on: On Piracy

By: Amber

Amber — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 13:16:18 +0000

My two cents…apologies. Lets start with that I consider myself an artist. I vary mediums from cake to paint to words, music and fabric…etc I found your article here while looking for piratey pictures to use as a screensaver during my son’s pirate birthday party this weekend… FYI, I totally “pirated” your piratey clip art! *GASP!* Ok, now that we are all over the shock lets get to the point. I am of the opinion, you must first understand, that a capitalist society is inherently sick. If you are already lost I suggest reviewing highschool social studies, or looking up altruism… I think that human kind could have a much healthier society if we were just a little less greedy. To me it seems like if one is to make art of any kind it should be for the sake of the art. In my experience art made for profit usually sucks. Art is something that causes emotion in others, I believe this should mean it comes from the heart, and soul, if you will. When someone is writing, drawing or creating in anyway to try and pay the bills, that’s not art to me. Articles like this make me feel sad, I start to think that the rest of the world will never see what is so plain to me. If we could all just share with each other openly, share our art, our food, our love and compassion…truly, that would be a world without “piracy”.

Be the change
Fight the system
Don’t worry, be happy
Smile!

By: Dave

Dave — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 02:09:08 +0000

Found this article through my wife, who’s an author. Well written article, but one assumption you make that is not accurate is that a pirated book = a lost sale.

Don’t misunderstand, I’m not condoning piracy…but it’s a part of any industry where the product is available digitally and there’s very little you or I can do about it.

I empathize with your point, but at the same time, it’s not a fair statement to say every time someone downloads your book, you’ve lost a sale.

In other digital industries (specifically the music industry) studies have shown that piracy can and has helped the originator of the content, though nothing like this has been looked at for books, and I imagine it’s probably a bit different due to the medium.

By: Guinnevere

Guinnevere — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 00:03:15 +0000

Marie-Claire, The third book didn’t come out until Jan. 3, 2011. So that’s why you couldn’t find it yet, I hope you can now

By: Guinnevere

Guinnevere — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 00:01:34 +0000

Is it true that once the books are bought by the bookstore that’s considered a sale for an author?

If that’s the case, we should just shoplift from the large chain bookstores, stick it to the man.

By: freebard

freebard — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 10:34:50 +0000

Because of your article I’ve subscribed to a book club and will take browsing in the local bookstores more for enjoyment and less to find the best “deals”.

As to marie-claire’s dilemma of not having the ability to buy the third book I believe her (and everyones) ability to consider this as a logical matter says more about their (our) willingness to cut corners than be a part of economic improvement and empowerment.

By: marie-claire

marie-claire — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 19:51:02 +0000

All good points but what about in a situation like mine where I happily bought the first 2 books (at over double the US price by the way, as I live in Middle East) and now can’t get my hands on the third as for some reason none of the bookstores stock it? And I don’t have a credit card to order a copy so than option is out too.

By: shaun darragh

shaun darragh — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 19:05:25 +0000

Nicole, thanks for the discussion, Missy. (That’s Mainiac talk, there) I attended a discussion by Jim Swain a few weeks ago on what he sees as the future of e-publishing, and decided to put my own novel on Amazon within the next few months. I began working on it in 1972, but the realities of both military and intelligence careers kept me from finalizing it until retirement. (Good thing it’s historical fiction, Eh?) Anyway, a mate down in Aussie has already fired me a shrill “you must be bloody barmy… there’s pirates out there” which did instill a bit of fear. My first reaction was; even piracy would get the story out. At 177K words, it stands little chance of paper publication. Swain recommends low pricing at the $2.99 to $3.99 level, arguing that even if people are disappointed, they won’t feel taken to the cleaners. My brother, ever the CPA, argues that I should price it around $5.99, the cost of a Starbucks. Now I can add your experience to the equation; i.e., that even were it to become immensely popular as a pirated version, I would still lack the readership evidence needed to convince a publisher to print any follow-up novels that fell within the genre range.

Hmmm. Food for thought.

By: Krista D. Ball

Krista D. Ball — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 04:08:48 +0000

I meant to say: authors make more money *per unit*

By: Krista D. Ball

Krista D. Ball — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 04:07:46 +0000

re: royalties

I just wanted to point out that authors published with e-publishers often make 30-50% royalties, with the average seeming to be 35-40%.

Because of this, I try to purchase more books from small e-publishing houses whenever possible because the authors make more money and, frankly, the books are often a lot cheaper than the big presses.

By: Mike Massie

Mike Massie — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 12:58:43 +0000

Widespread file sharing and music piracy wrecked an industry and hurt a lot of the “little people” who made their money working in the music industry.

I saw this happen at the molecular level as my brother-in-law (an extremely talented musician – http://rexpaulmusic.com/) works as a session musician for Sony in Nashville. You’ve heard him on the radio, I guarantee it, but he doesn’t get huge royalties for his work.

Yet, when file sharing became a major issue that caused tremendous fallout in the music industry, he was directly affected by music piracy due to there being a lot less work because studios weren’t gambling on smaller projects and less “bankable” musicians anymore.

And that’s how the music industry parallels the publishing industry; when publishers begin to lose major market share to new media, AND they lose revenues to piracy at the same time, it’s going to be the less known, new, and undiscovered artists who suffer.

Folks, the writer only sees about 10% to 15% of every book sold – a pittance when you think about it. When you pirate their work, you aren’t helping them at all. Instead, you’re just further diluting and diminishing the already meager sum they receive for their work.

Bottom line is, don’t pirate an author’s work. They deserve better than that from their readers.