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bucsie · 02-09-2011, 04:54 AM

I accidentally stumbled on a writer's blog yesterday. She was talking about piracy and how it is such a bad, bad thing and that because she just made $180 or so the previous month (implying that pirates are to blame) she will probably have to retire from being a writer.

What writers don't seem to understand is that piracy is a phenomenon that applies to ALL writers (or singers or movie-creating-people). If a writer is not successful it's not because of piracy, but because s/he is just not that good a writer. I am sorry nobody wants to hurt their feelings, but that's just what the truth is. James Patterson is 100(0) times more pirated than other less popular writers and he does not go hungry.

If anyone should complain it's famous writers because they are the one that suffer more, but they already make millions...

I think it's a lot like movies. I have not heard of an individual movie that failed because it was pirated too much. Even if a movie with a low IMDB score has 100,000 downloads it doesn't mean 100,000 people would have bought the ticket to see it or the DVD. It just means they might watch it on an incredibly boring day. If it's that bad, they won't even watch it till the end. If they like it, they might go on IMDB and post their better rating - which, in the end, benefits the movie.

So don't tell me you (this is a generic "you", I am not addressing anyone in particular) failed at being a successful writer because of piracy. You're just not that good, or not that lucky to have been discovered. If anything, having bored people read your stuff for free is good for you because otherwise they wouldn't even pick up your book in a store.

On a related note, someone argued in that blog's comments what other posters here said - some would read the pirated ebook and if they like it, they'll go and buy the book, but they won't pay if they don't like it (and probably never finish reading it anyway). And to that, the proposed solution was to read the first chapter and the blurbs, or ask the author himself.
When was there ever a negative blurb? When would an author say "I write 'he said', 'she said' after every dialogue line, it might annoy you" ?
I no longer trust other people's tastes. I recently read "and falling, fly" which was supposed to be in top 10 2010 and I disliked it profoundly. But the first chapter was good. If I had browsed it in a store, I would have read a couple of pages in the middle and wouldn't have bought it.

02-09-2011, 04:54 AM	#522
bucsie Connoisseur Posts: 71 Karma: 674766 Join Date: Sep 2010 Device: Kindle	this may piss off some of you I accidentally stumbled on a writer's blog yesterday. She was talking about piracy and how it is such a bad, bad thing and that because she just made $180 or so the previous month (implying that pirates are to blame) she will probably have to retire from being a writer. What writers don't seem to understand is that piracy is a phenomenon that applies to ALL writers (or singers or movie-creating-people). If a writer is not successful it's not because of piracy, but because s/he is just not that good a writer. I am sorry nobody wants to hurt their feelings, but that's just what the truth is. James Patterson is 100(0) times more pirated than other less popular writers and he does not go hungry. If anyone should complain it's famous writers because they are the one that suffer more, but they already make millions... I think it's a lot like movies. I have not heard of an individual movie that failed because it was pirated too much. Even if a movie with a low IMDB score has 100,000 downloads it doesn't mean 100,000 people would have bought the ticket to see it or the DVD. It just means they might watch it on an incredibly boring day. If it's that bad, they won't even watch it till the end. If they like it, they might go on IMDB and post their better rating - which, in the end, benefits the movie. So don't tell me you (this is a generic "you", I am not addressing anyone in particular) failed at being a successful writer because of piracy. You're just not that good, or not that lucky to have been discovered. If anything, having bored people read your stuff for free is good for you because otherwise they wouldn't even pick up your book in a store. On a related note, someone argued in that blog's comments what other posters here said - some would read the pirated ebook and if they like it, they'll go and buy the book, but they won't pay if they don't like it (and probably never finish reading it anyway). And to that, the proposed solution was to read the first chapter and the blurbs, or ask the author himself. When was there ever a negative blurb? When would an author say "I write 'he said', 'she said' after every dialogue line, it might annoy you" ? I no longer trust other people's tastes. I recently read "and falling, fly" which was supposed to be in top 10 2010 and I disliked it profoundly. But the first chapter was good. If I had browsed it in a store, I would have read a couple of pages in the middle and wouldn't have bought it.