Pirates have stolen my career!
Ashlyn Chase
I’m sick at heart as I write these words. But honestly, how do you think you would feel?
Say you dug ditches for a living… You spent hours toiling in the hot sun, day after day, making your ditches the right depth and width, not moving on to the next until you had completed the ditch you were working on.
At the end of a long week, you stand in line to collect your pay, only someone cuts in front of you grabs a handful of money that’s supposed to go to you and runs off with it!
You’d probably sink to the curb and cry, wouldn’t you? Well, that’s how I feel when my royalty checks reflect what certain unscrupulous members of society are doing to me. Writing novels is hard work. I’d like to see the e-pirates try to make a publishable book. Pirates, be warned. The law of Karma is out to get you!
Ebook authors get paid only after the books are sold and they receive royalties, a percentage of what buyers pay to their publisher or to an approved third party such as Fictionwise. We don’t receive advances!
But why are my sales dropping while my fan base is increasing? I receive more fan mail than ever before, my e-mailing list is swelling in numbers and I have been sought out to guest blog because “you’re one of my favorite authors” or “our readers are asking for you.” I’d still be scratching my head if I didn’t have a good idea of what was happening.
Believe me it’s not as simple as one all-encompassing answer, but e-pirates are becoming a significant part of the problem.
I’m fortunate to have collected some very wonderful, helpful friends over the years and one of my oldest friends happens to be a computer expert and a lawyer. When I turned to him for help, I had hoped for a strongly worded cease and desist letter, mentioning the fact that epiracy is a copyright violation and is punishable by a $250,000 fine and five years in jail.
He asked me for a specific pirate site so he could address the letter to the offender, personally. I sent him one of the worst. They have pages and pages of books belonging to my publisher that are being downloaded every day!
And just like someone who receives stolen goods who tries to claim, “But officer, I didn’t know it was hot,” the downloader is just as guilty and can be just as busted. The copyright violation is the same and so is the punishment.
So, why aren’t more of these bastards going to jail? Why are these websites taken down only to spring up somewhere else? Here’s the discouraging part. This is where my knees give out from beneath me and I sink to the floor, feeling ill. E-pirates manage to hide their identities so well, they’re almost impossible to find. I don’t understand it, but this is what my friend told me he did in the space of an hour.
“Just tried to ping them (shows the route of connections) it bounced off servers in Palestine, Iran, Russia, and the Netherlands…so their true identity is well hidden. I am guessing maybe Portugal because of the large number of messages written in Portuguese….” He eventually found the source in Brazil.
Most people aren’t foolish enough to think that ebooks are supposed to be any freer than paperbacks in Barnes and Nobles, but we’re all human and experience temptation from time to time. That’s why I include a gentle warning on my website’s book page. I’d be honored if all authors would “pirate” that warning with my permission and blessing and post it on their sites. It even comes with the FBI address where people can report offenders. I feel like I need to do something in order to feel less impotent.
And I’m writing this article hoping that the pen is, indeed, mightier than the sword—hoping beyond hope that somebody, somewhere will read this and know what to do…before I fall on my pen!
And as for my career… Is there some kind of alternative for me? Some way to make my living doing what I have been doing successfully since 2004—yet collect a full paycheck? That’s not clear yet. I hate to think I simply have to look at my job as a “hobby” or more accurately, volunteer work!
It seems as if the alternatives are either joining the masses of “unknown” authors beating on the doors of the New York publishers who pay advances or take my chances with the honest readers who have always paid for their books and wouldn’t dream of walking into a store and pocketing one off the shelves without paying for it–or downloading frop a pirate site!
My friend thinks the FBI isn’t doing much to stop this because the perpetrators don’t have enough assets to seize. Well, I say, so what? They’re breaking the law and should be pursued because they’re criminals—not because it’s profitable. So, did I report them to the FBI? You betcha!
Ash
P.S. See my Wednesday 9/17 release from www.ellorascave.com It’s called Love Cuffs and it’s honestly one of my very favorites! I’ll be posting excerpts at my chat on the Ellora’s Cave yahoo group Wednesday afternoon and Fallen Angels yahoo group Thurday afternoon. Oh! and check out my “cocktail hour” at www.romancejunkies.com/cocktailhour.html It’s where writers socialize with readers and talk about anything important to them, but not their books!
I wrote about Positive Thinking. Ironic, no?Love Cuffs trailer
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Due to be released September 16, 2008 from Loose Id