Quote:
Originally Posted by Anke Wehner
Eh. "Pirates" aren't a hive mind, or monolithic, or whatever of the kind.
It's been said repeatedly already, but let me try another spin of the phrasing:
The people who pirate on principle, publishers and authors don't lose money on, because they would not buy the books in the first place.
Lost sales include cases of "I wanted to buy this, but wasn't allowed to due to georestrictions", or "I'd like to buy that book, but I don't buy anything with DRM on principle", or "I don't buy any ebook costing more than X". Some of those people may turn to piracy to read the book, rather than neither buying nor reading it.
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There is a third type, who look at free reads (whether authorised or not) as an ideal way to try out a writer they are not familiar with. Pre-internet they would have done the same thing at their local library or picked up a remaindered book, or a second hand one.
If they like what they read they will look for other things by that writer, and eventually they will start buying them new as soon as they are released because they don't want to have to wait.
I don't know what the percentages are, but those are the only type of downloader that really matters.