There's a better way to beat the ebook pirates

[GreenMonkey]

Originally Posted by Worldwalker

As for your book sales funding your retirement, I'd like to direct you to some comments by Eric Flint. Aside from the sales of his own books, note what he says regarding books in general: The average paperback sells 15,000 copies, of which 80% are in the first three months.

Look at that number again: 15,000 books. That is for books that are in bookstores, sitting on the "new books" display, etc., that someone can find out about just by walking into the store. And that's paper books, books that anyone can read, not just the people with the knowledge and equipment to search them out and read them. If we assume that your ebook sells 10% as many copies as the average paper book -- all else aside, the market penetration of ebook readers and the visibility of pbooks in large chain bookstores are both major factors -- we're talking 1,500 books. If you make a profit of $2.00 per book, that's $3,000. You're not going to fund much of a retirement out of three grand.

And I'm being generous in my estimates there. Very, very generous. There probably aren't 1,500 people who have even noticed that your book exists, let alone who thought it was something they wanted to read. The economics of ebooks are not in your favor. Writing is not, except for a rare few, a lucrative profession. Unless you are one of a small handful of writers, you can't make a living (or even a good retirement nest egg) from writing. For every famous Dan Brown there are thousands of eternal unknowns.

I'll say again: J.K. Rowling's problem may be piracy (if a multi-billionaire has problems). Your problem is not being J.K. Rowling.

I have some more bad news for you regarding pirate sites, torrents, etc., that have your book listed: They have your book because either a) someone (probably someone who bought it) gave it to them, or b) because they sucked it off some other website. People who download it from those sites do so because it was packed in with a bunch of other books, and the one they really wanted "Twilight", but they had to take the whole zip of 1,000 books to get it. They're not going to read it; it's just clutter. It's baggage. They're not costing you sales because they're not reading your book. They're reading the three books in that torrent that they wanted, and maybe one or two others whose authors they recognize, but you're not any of them. Even the pirates aren't reading your book.

That's what you have to fix.

Yup. I've heard the same from a few other sci-fi and fantasy writers I like - that most people can't make an income on writing full time.

It's been argued by a few that as a writing virtual nobody, you are actually BETTER OFF for being torrented - because that gets your name and your work out there... which, as a not-Stephen-King writer, you need much more than anything else - to be known. If even a couple of people buy one of your books later because they read your book as the result of someone else giving it to them or something, you're doing better than you would have otherwise.

I don't know for sure if this is really true - but it has the ring of truth to me.

[Freeshadow]

I can second both arguments:

a) darknet container contents:
I often search there myself, because having an already scanned copy of ones pbook spares me the scanning and leaves only (sometimes reformatting) and yet another proofread.
It's indeed so, that most of this packages are made by hoarders. If it says "Sci-fi Collection" it goes from Anderson to Zelazny.
What matters to them is to have it all - they neither check, correct nor update.
That's one of the reasons I avoid 'em like hell (apart from the fact that I don't want to d/l 1463 books I don't have in paper equal to 1 something GB of data or more just to get the 6 I actually looked for)

Want to have fun? make a torrent of your books yourself - replacing the equivalent of every 3rd prime number of a standard page with lorem ipsum I bet it will get leeched and reseeded completely cause the hoarders don't care.

b) writing and money
As 't has been said before I also think, that authors actually having even a sort of semi-income from their work are big exceptions. Landing that a big hit is indeed equal to winning the lottery. This can be even better observed in another niche - Role playing games - I could point you to authors having written masterpieces of rulebooks and being recognized worldwide for, yet not living of it.

[GreenMonkey]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

...
Or they are to the digital publishing industry as used bookstores and rummage sales are to the physical one... not directly financially beneficial, and sometimes detrimental because someone who buys a $1 book at a yard sale probably won't be buying the new version, but they promote an interest in books, and they introduce many readers to new authors they might not have been willing to take a full-price risk on.

YES!

For example, on a whim based on Amazon's recommendation engine, I picked up Elizabeth Haydon's Rhapsody: Child of Blood used at a bookstore for like $2 or something. I really enjoyed it so I picked up the rest of her books. Since the e-books were not available at all, and then later only with DRM from Kobo - I picked up the remaining books from a used bookstore in hardcover for about $11 each (I grabbed one more from the Amazon marketplace for cheap). When she FINALLY writes the next book in the series, I'll probably buy the hardcover ASAP.

Same thing for me for George RR Martin - I've got A Dance With Dragons preordered because it's now my second favorite series.

In the video game world, used game sales promote people to take risk and buy new games (they can sell if they don't like - and they trade in old games towards new ones). It has been shown that the used market does actually trickle up and help the new market, there.

Books have an even better advantage there. Get someone interested in a series and they might become a fan and start buying the books new.

I just had something similiar occur with C.S. Friedman's Magister trilogy. Read the first two not through new-purchasing channels (DRM epub or Kindle is $8...pfft) and I'll surely be picking up the hardcover when book 3 comes out. In fact, I started reading Friedman the same way - I picked up Black Sun Rising used for a couple of bucks.

[hidari]

Writing for a living is a luxury not a right. And people expecting to make a semi-living or living off of it are delusional....That said. I like that Indie authors like Steven and their ilk on MR and about are trying to self-publish sans DRM. Have bought a book of Steven's and would recommend him.

[boxcorner]

Originally Posted by stonetools

... I agree that there can be legit personal reasons for breaking DRM ...

So, now we have an elastic law?

Originally Posted by stonetools

Whatever, dude. You really did give the impression that you thought publishers were focused on piracy to the exclusion of anything else. You aren't persuaded by my arguments, fine- all I was arguing was that publishers had the right and the duty to take action against pirates, along with marketing and all the other things they do. Sorry if it bored you to tedium.
If you want to join with WW and Kenny C in their joint delusion that I'm working for the publishers, feel free-my guess is its not the only delusion rattling around in your head

"dude" - you should choose your words more carefully.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by boxcorner

So, now we have an elastic law?


"dude" - you should choose your words more carefully.

The Law is putty in the hands of corporations.

[HansTWN]

Yes, what would the US do with all those lawyers if the law wasn't elastic?

[boxcorner]

Apparently DRM is as effective in combating piracy as knicker elastic is as a contraceptive.

[Cyberman tM]

Originally Posted by mr ploppy

Just for clarity, no artists get any of the money from that tax, it all goes to large corporations.

Apparently it depends (once again) one the region - because there is a separate collecting company for each country (if not multiple. Also, interestingly, the german word is much better: "Verwertungsgesellschaft" - roughtly translated it would mean "(re)processing/recycling company"...).

From what little I know, hereabouts the artists have to actually go to the companies and tell them "You collected money for my music, can I please have my share?".
(I've read - on the internet - of a curious case where an artist performing his own songs had to pay the collecting company because he played protected music...)

Originally Posted by Pablo

AFAIK, the tax is not to compensate for piracy, just for personal backup copies of the original media.

Right, but that is usually treated the same. After all, if you have to circumvent use-protection, I mean copy-protection, you probably already broke the law and pirate the content...
(Don't forget - you BUY the medium, but LICENSE the content. Being able to use it isn't defined anywhere, is it?)

Originally Posted by Steven Lyle Jordan

I never said, or even implied, that "everyone is a pirate." I did say, or probably implied, that the web's lack of security makes it easy for anyone to be a pirate, and that needs to be fixed.

But the message that comes across - at least how I see it - is basically "You all are pirates and condone mass pirating of all books and everything! It's YOUR fault I don't earn any money!"

I think I can understand your POV, but I also think you need to differentiate more.
Personally I see two types of pirates:
*) Individuals who copy for friends
*) Organisations that exist only for that and make money off it

IMO, the latter is the problem, not the former. But DRM and similar is ONLY targetted at the individual.
DRM punishes the customer for buying and using the product.
It at best annoys the pirate when he removes it.

The real problem are those who take money from potential customers.
If someone got a book "for free", they either wouldn't pay anyway, or might consider buying it "for real".
But those that already "paid" for it aren't likely to spend even more money for something they already "bought".

[cfrizz]

The plain fact of the matter is this. If you are a musician or actor or writer, you damn well better have a day job to keep you alive while you try to become the next Michael Jackson, Meryl Streep, or J.K. Rowling.

This has ALWAYS been the case/truth since the beginning of time & most certainly before the invention of computers, cd's, ebooks & piracy!

So Steven, I'm glad you finally acknowledge the fact that you aren't going to become the next big star of writing, but is has nothing to do with piracy, and everything to do with the vast majority of people who read books, don't know who the hell you are & aren't interested in finding out, because they aren't interested in reading the genre of book that you have put out.

You are simply using piracy as a cop out to ignore the real truth of what's been listed above.

[kennyc]

True.

[Frida Fantastic]

Originally Posted by Worldwalker

And that is your problem in a nutshell: no one's noticed until now.

Seconded.

@ Steven Lyle Jordan:
Whenever an author posts on a message board, these things should be clear per post (best done in a signature):
(1) They're an author
(2) They have books Y and X
(3) The books are in genres Y and X

There should be links to the books for the intrigued reader's easy clicking. Readers always have too many things to read, but their To Read list is flexible and moves around all the time. They can start reading something new by impulse if the mood hits them and it's easy enough. An online presence should make it easy for the reader.

I think the whole indie books scene can only get better in time, the promotions side of it is still fragmented and unrefined, but there's a community growing around it and there's more people getting into it. Heck, my mom went from reading James Patterson to reading indie mystery thrillers. She actually read several Amanda Hocking books without realizing she was indie. Everyone's getting all these fancy gadgets, they have to be doing something with it.

As a science fiction/fantasy genre fan, and someone generally pretty darn happy about the accessibility of all these works, not just ones published from New York, I put up a little of reviewers who primarily review SF/F and review indies. http://indiesfreviewers.wordpress.com/ It wouldn't hurt to send emails to some of these folks. Not everyone will respond, but the ones who do will likely take the time to write a review on Smashwords/Goodreads/Amazon/etc. and pass the review on through tweets/facebook/etc as bloggers like their blog posts read. There's also some links to bigger reviewer databases and most of them can be searched by genre. The Simon Royle list is best for reviewers who are prolific (like GraceKrispy in these forums) and are more likely to respond to a request sooner.

Also, giving away books for free for an exchange for a review is a good way to get attention. It's promotional advertising in the early stages. I've seen other mobileread authors do it in the Self-Promotions forum and get some reviews that way. Having more reviews on your book's page makes it more likely for people to buy it when they do come across it.

Publishing indie is a long-term game I think, but the community for it is only going to get better from here.

[boxcorner]

Steven Lyle Jordan: Guerrilla marketing and viral marketing are examples of useful low-cost methods for getting your message out. Link exchange is a simple way to increase traffic to your website. Mine contains an eclectic links section that focuses on books. Send me a PM and I'll be happy to exchange links with you.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by ardeegee

You're exaggerating a bit there, aren't you? I googled up the title of one of his books, searched for a torrent containing it, and the torrent containing a copy of "Kestral Voyages" has only 989 books in it, not your figure of 1,000!

Ha. It is to laugh.

[sabredog]

Steven

You most probably will not see my post as you whacked me on your ignore list.

So for what it is worth, I have just purchased $50 worth of Smashwords books and one of your books was included within that bundle (The Kestral Voyages: My Life, After Berserker).

I support vigorously any indie author whose books I enjoy. I had decided after that fracas that I would never buy one of your novels, however I believe in giving people a "fair go".