[Steven Lake]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

And just how do the BPHs determine those sales figures?

The same way everyone else does, by gathering the reports released by the publishers, then collating them into viable sales figures. In the case of SP, POD, and some PTP houses, it's up to the author to provide those numbers. In some cases the numbers are actually pulled from the quarterly reports of the major book distributors like Ingram. There are a lot of independent groups too who collate this information and determine approximate sales figures. Nobody really knows exactly, save for the publishers (and authors where applicable) what the actual numbers are, but most get pretty close in determining the total sales. Where do you think the New York Times and others get their information to create their best seller lists?

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

Easy. Create a torrent file of your stuff, and upload it.

Meh. I did that and the pirates ran for the hills. They thought that since I posted it myself, I was trying to trap them. It's a reflex response they have from being hunted by the big studios. You wouldn't believe the number of traps the copyright mafia puts out there on P2P networks. I know this because, as a Linux advocate and FOSS evangelist, like many others such as myself, I keep close tabs on the P2P world, because it's both our friend and our enemy. Plus things that happen there tend to come back at a later time to haunt FOSS. So we're pretty up to date on stuff happening in the darknet.

So in the end, it's best to simply promote your book and make it popular enough that one of the release groups picks it up and posts it. That is *if* you want your stuff to get put on the P2P networks. Pirates trust release groups. They *do not* trust much of anyone else.

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

BPHs are are in the business of acquiring and marketing content. They are not printers, distributors, or warehouses.

Incorrect. There are quite a number of BPH's that actually have their own print facilities as it's cheaper for them to print their own stuff and run their own plant than to contract out. The only ones who don't usually run content that's cheaper to outsource than print internally.

Yes and no. For instance, a little poking around reveals torrents for stuff you can get through the Baen Free Library, but I haven't seen any thus far for the non-free titles Baen sells through Webscriptions.

The exception isn't exactly a rule, but more a commonly seen behavior. In some cases though, you *will* see torrents of stuff that's freely available elsewhere, because the torrents are being used as either A) an additional distribution method (for which BT is very useful), or B) as a promotional method for increasing sales. And before anyone says it, yes, pirates do buy content. Actually, they buy an incredible amount of it. Last I checked, the estimated conversion rates for pirate to purchaser is somewhere in the neighborhood of 70%. And so called "pirates" also tend to purchase 4x's as much as the average consumer, so in the end, if used properly, pirates can be your ally, not your enemy.