I know of many authors, however, who have. Their reactions tend to be similar, and range from outrage to utter contempt of those individuals who stole their work. Many have taken valuable time away from their writing to stop websites from posting their books online.
Author Neil Gaiman, winner of 3 Hugos, 2 Nebulas, 1 World Fantasy Award, 4 Bram Stoker Awards, 6 Locus Awards, 2 British SF Awards, 1 British Fantasy Award, 3 Geffens, 1 International Horror Guild Award, and 1 Mythopoeic, (whew! what an amazing list) has also been pirated and he admits to being "grumpy" about it.
In the beginning, that is.
Now that he's had time to analyze the stats, he believes piracy has helped his book sales.
He points out that in countries where his books were pirated, sales of his next release soared. With this in mind, he encouraged his publisher to offer one of his books free on their website for one month. What they discovered was sales of his books skyrocked 300% at independent bookstores. Proof Gaiman believes that an author is not loosing sales by having their work "floating out there".
He points out that many readers find their favorite authors by borrowing a book from a friend. The same holds true, he says, for book piracy on the web. It's a high tech version of word of mouth advertising.
Watch the video. Then leave a comment. I'm very interested in what both readers and writers have to say on this subject.
I see his point, but I don't agree. Theft is theft. We can learn from his experience, though, by offering free books from time to time and/or by encouraging prospective readers to go to fReado and Smashwords where they can read sizable excerpts for free.
ReplyDeleteMalcolm
YES! Thank you and Neil Gaiman! I don't agree with people pirating whole works--books and movies--but I do believe calling someone's fanvid or using a book excerpt copyright infringement is ridiculous! These are usually fans who are excited about a work and want to share with others...and what better advertising is there? People trust "word of mouth" over corporate marketing. Thanks for posting! :)
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree that word of mouth is the very best advertising, but I still can't get behind "piracy." I think it falls under "why by the cow if you can get the milk for free?"
ReplyDeleteIt's not just on the web. My first novel was pirated by a so-called reputable publishing company in Romania. It was translated, they even put my name on the cover - they just never bothered to get in touch with me or pay me anything! And all attempts to contact them were ignored. Daring, eh?
ReplyDeleteFound you on the SheWrites hop but posting here for obvious reasons!
Reading all the post are scary. It is interesting that it did help sales but I have to agree theft is theft.
ReplyDeleteWhat do you do in response to something like that?
Found you on SheWrites hop