14
Jan
*clamps a knife between her teeth and adjusts the eye patch*
"Drink up me 'earties, yo ho. Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me."
Or something like that.
So, is this your theme song? Or do you diligently pay for everything?
I'm sure all of us are guilty of downloading something we shouldn't, or using some shareware program beyond it's terms.
How many people downloaded Winzip and kept using it? (I think it expires now, but not sure. My copy doesn't, because it's… well… a legal one.)
Yes, I've done it. I don't anymore, because good software, or good music, or a good book, is worth supporting the author / artist. Let's face it, if we don't pay for the stuff we use, then how are the people creating it supposed to earn anything, so they can keep producing things we like?
The subject reared it's ugly head recently, when one of my fellow critique partners found her book pirated and uploaded on a site.
Now, I don't blame the site. They didn't go out there with the express purpose of pirating her book. In fact, they don't pirate anything — their users do.
I still hold them responsible, but not as responsible as the person who actually uploaded it and shared the link.
So, how does this affect my friend?
She makes a pittance off her books. She's not going to get rich off the royalties, but it pays for the odd cup of coffee.
The book has her soul, blood, sweat and tears invested in it — and some scumbag gave it away free.
First it was software, then it was music, now it's books.
Yes, we've all given used paperbacks to other people. I'm sure you were given one by someone too.
It still means that there is one copy in circulation and someone had to pay for it in the first place. And you can't give someone more than that one copy.
That's not the case with an ebook. That link will deprive her of a bunch of sales, and in this market, even a few lost sales hurt.
Sometimes, for instance a book that's out of print, there is a genuine reason to obtain it second hand. Sometimes a book isn't available in your country.
You can't get it any other way, so you do what you can.
Ebooks don't really go out of print, nor do they have real boundaries. You can get the book inside of five minutes, legally, from pretty much anywhere. It's not even down to price. At $5 it's not exactly expensive or unaffordable for people.
So if you're one of those who download the books — please think about what you're doing. Think about the author you are hurting. They get precious little in royalties, and many of those books took years to write, query and finally sell.
The publishers do what they can to have copies taken down, so do the authors, but they keep reappearing.
The same goes for music.
Yeah, when I was a kid, I used to tape tracks straight off the radio. We didn't think of it as stealing, but really… it was. It's the same thing as downloading an mp3 which you didn't pay for.
I'd rather buy the album and so make sure the band I like can make another one.
I have no doubt they'd keep making music even if they didn't see a dime — but the record company won't.
The same goes for the publishers. The author is going to keep writing, but if the publisher can't sell the books because everyone downloads a pirated copy… then eventually they are going to stop publishing that author.
Images are another thing. Just because it's on the web, doesn't mean it's free to take. (And I'm guilty of that too, but I tend to make my own graphics a lot of the time — and I tend to go for royalty free stock images instead, now.)
What if we end up with ads in books to cover costs?
No one wants THAT, now do we?
Not to mention, how do you know the copy you're downloading… isn't a malicious virus?
Do you really want your computer infected with something that will cost you precious digital family photographs, which you forgot to back up?
Support the authors and buy the books. And if you want to give a copy away, then buy a second copy for the person you want to give it to.
It'll keep our heartbroken author in a few cups of coffee — and she'll need those, while she's working on the next book.
Think before you click.
