Thread: Publisher pirates their own books
View Single Post
Old 07-25-2011, 06:33 PM   #28
anamardoll
Chasing Butterflies
anamardoll ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.anamardoll ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.anamardoll ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.anamardoll ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.anamardoll ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.anamardoll ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.anamardoll ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.anamardoll ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.anamardoll ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.anamardoll ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.anamardoll ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
anamardoll's Avatar
 
Posts: 3,132
Karma: 5074169
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: American Southwest
Device: Uses batteries.
Quote:
Originally Posted by susan_cassidy View Post
I fail to see how marketing your book to people that don't pay for things will benefit the author in the long run.
I'm seriously thinking about "pirating" my own book, once I finish writing the darn thing, so I'll answer your question seriously.

Torrent users, in general, are collectors who like to grab buckets of free things. Books are downloaded willy-nilly and goodness knows if even 5% of the downloaders are going to READ your book. Probably not even that many -- for many users it's about the collection, and random sampling, of the goods.

Those who download your book are almost guaranteed to never, EVER buy your book sight-unseen. Why should they? They've got buckets of reading material already. So it's not a lost sale by any means.

BUT! Say your book is downloaded 1,000 times. 100 of those users actually read the book. 25 of them LIKE the book. Of those 25,

* 5 of them buy a "legit" copy of the book because they like having it wirelessly delivered to their Kindle/Nook/Kobo/Sony on vacation and freeing up their SD card for the rest of their library.

* 5 more of them buy a copy of the book (or recommend it as a buy) to a close friend/relative who may not know/want-to-know about their torrent habit.

* 5 more of them mention the book favorably online and in forums, driving "word-of-mouth" recommendations to the author. Bonus points if they fill out your TV Tropes page for you.

* 5 more of them keep an eye out for your next title -- legit or otherwise -- and may even buy on "publishing day" instead of waiting for the torrent version to come available.

* The last 5 of them comment-bomb anyone who trolls your book reviews with witty, incisive comments that demonstrate that you have a pleasantly rabid customer base.

Seriously, saying "what does the author get out of pirating their own book" is like saying "what does the author get out of donating their book to libraries". The biggest part about being an author ISN'T rolling in the monies (), it's convincing people to READ THIS BOOK I WROTE, DANGIT.
anamardoll is offline   Reply With Quote