Paul Coelho on Piracy and Publishing

[Sil_liS]

Originally Posted by AlexGrama

I was referring to the idea of downloading the book and after that buying it because of its awesomeness. IMO, this is just a scam. If we would come up with an experiment which would consist in not buying any of his books for one or two months, you will rapidly notice a change in his mind. Why? Because with no profit, the idea of illegal downloading it's not so appealing.

Of course, this is my opinion. Maybe and certainly I'm talking nonsense.

It sounds like nonsense. Are you proposing that that those who don't pirate books should not buy books from the authors like Coehlo to show them that illegal downloading is bad?

[BillSmithBooks]

Originally Posted by Giggleton

It is easier to read than pay. All you have to do is make paying and reading equally easy.

Very nicely stated.

[AlexGrama]

Originally Posted by Sil_liS

It sounds like nonsense. Are you proposing that that those who don't pirate books should not buy books from the authors like Coehlo to show them that illegal downloading is bad?

Not quite. It seems that I failed in presenting my opinion. On the whole, I am reluctant with his statement and of course, I will not stop buying his books.

[scrapking]

Originally Posted by BillSmithBooks

Very nicely stated.

I'm not sure I understand. How is it easier to read than pay? I find both insanely easy. I own an e-reader. It's tied to a store with millions of books. With a couple of clicks I have paid and am beginning to read.

I understand there's a big world out there of DRM-removing, side-loading, and the like. I've never investigated it simply because I've never wanted or needed to. I'm happy to pay for the content I want, my platform of choice has piles of content, and it's all seemless and easy.

[Sil_liS]

Originally Posted by AlexGrama

Not quite. It seems that I failed in presenting my opinion. On the whole, I am reluctant with his statement and of course, I will not stop buying his books.

If we take it step by step:

I was referring to the idea of downloading the book and after that buying it because of its awesomeness. IMO, this is just a scam.

You don't think that people who download a book illegally and like it will also buy the book.

If we would come up with an experiment which would consist in not buying any of his books for one or two months, you will rapidly notice a change in his mind.

This doesn't make sense. Buying books from one author is not a continuous activity. Coelho writes one or two books per year, so buying his books is not even a monthly activity. Since even in the complete absence of pirating for any individual there would naturally be periods longer than a couple of months of not buying. To make an impact on the author the experiment would require people synchronizing their non-buying periods, but as long as they buy the books later, the bottom line for the author doesn't change.

Why? Because with no profit, the idea of illegal downloading it's not so appealing.

Do you mean no profit for the one or two months that you mentioned?

Coelho's experience shows that a book that is pirated sells better.

Originally Posted by Steven Lyle Jordan

It hasn't helped me any... people just fall back on the "he's unknown, so he must suck" argument and ignore my work anyway.

If we extrapolate from Coelho's experience you would have sold less books if you weren't pirated, and the people who say "he's unknown, so he must suck" wouldn't buy the books of an unknown author anyway.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by scrapking

I'm not sure I understand. How is it easier to read than pay? I find both insanely easy. I own an e-reader. It's tied to a store with millions of books. With a couple of clicks I have paid and am beginning to read.

I understand there's a big world out there of DRM-removing, side-loading, and the like. I've never investigated it simply because I've never wanted or needed to. I'm happy to pay for the content I want, my platform of choice has piles of content, and it's all seemless and easy.

That paying part works very well if a book is available for your e-reader. If you have to get out of your way to get the book in the first place, through pirating (if that is the only thing available) then getting to pay for it is going out of your way again to find a place to pay for it.

Paul Coelho now claims that shortage of paper is the reason his book got pirated in the first place. And subsequent made him so popular that everybody wanted to pay for his book afterwards once it became available for sale. It is a supply and demand thing. And who is to say that each and every pirated copy ended up into a later sale of the book, because to him good content always gets paid for. He probably thinks that the pirating helped his book sales and is the only reason for it. Did he ever consider that the demand for his book was there to begin with, and that shortage of supply (paper) created a shortage for his book? That same demand probably caused interest in pirating the book in the first place, because it was in high demand. You cannot seriously expect every pirate copy to create extra income, even the ones that do get read and that the reader did enjoy.

If there was an e-book also available, then some of his normal paper sales might have ended up going to the ones that later got the paper anyway when it became available. According to Coelho's logic, if the e-book was for sale it would not have gotten pirated. If now it (surprise, surprise) it would have gotten pirated even with a e-book available then one might argue that the reason the e-book did not sell, because reading e-books is not as good as paper. At least that is what attitude I get out of Coelho when he talks about how technology is not there yet, but it is going to get there soon.

There will always be pirate copies in hands of people that never intent or cannot afford to pay. Some just might pirate because they believe information should be free in the first place. And those that don't plan on paying are probably the majority of pirates, no doubt. Plus include all the file-horders that only pirate to make the distribution easier.

Just my 2 cents why reading is easier than paying.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by Sil_liS

Coelho's experience shows that a book that is pirated sells better.

I still think that a book gets pirated mainly because it is selling (or in Coelho's case would sell) good in the first place.

But this is what you and me both think is Coelho's theory anyway, I believe you personally have a different opinion.

[Sil_liS]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

I still think that a book gets pirated mainly because it is selling (or in Coelho's case would sell) good in the first place.

I think that the point is not whether the book gets pirated or not, but if it still sells after it is pirated.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by Sil_liS

I think that the point is not whether the book gets pirated or not, but if it still sells after it is pirated.

That is the chicken and the egg. And it is not even that simple. There is a part of the pirates that will never have any part in paying. There is also people that do pay for pbooks and/or ebooks that will never even consider pirating a book. As a book grows in sales/pupularity both of those subsets will increase in number, maybe not percentage wise. Hard to judge how much actually gets pirated at any given time and how much of lost sales would not have been lost if there was no pirate version. And how much of pirating does lead to sales - and you cannot claim that pirating NEVER creates a sale.

If everybody that buys books would also pirate books then the equation would be a lot simpler to solve. Then you could analyze if pirating (w/o having anything to sell yet) would lead to more or less sales later on when it does become available for sale. But that is not the case, and IMHO will never be the case.

[Giggleton]

Originally Posted by scrapking

I'm not sure I understand. How is it easier to read than pay? I find both insanely easy. I own an e-reader. It's tied to a store with millions of books. With a couple of clicks I have paid and am beginning to read.

I understand there's a big world out there of DRM-removing, side-loading, and the like. I've never investigated it simply because I've never wanted or needed to. I'm happy to pay for the content I want, my platform of choice has piles of content, and it's all seemless and easy.

Not every book comes with an initial price tag, imagine a world where no book came with one.

[sbroome]

Originally Posted by Sil_liS

I think that the point is not whether the book gets pirated or not, but if it still sells after it is pirated.

The point is whether or not you paid to consume something that people are charging customers to access. If a movie theater has empty seats it doesn't mean people "deserve" to enter the theater without paying just because you weren't going to go if it wasn't free.

[HansTWN]

Originally Posted by Giggleton

Not every book comes with an initial price tag, imagine a world where no book came with one.

What a nightmare!

[karunaji]

Originally Posted by sbroome

The point is whether or not you paid to consume something that people are charging customers to access. If a movie theater has empty seats it doesn't mean people "deserve" to enter the theater without paying just because you weren't going to go if it wasn't free.

I think that movie theater visitors definitely should have "money back" option. Why is it that I can buy any other item online or in a regular shop, try it and then return it if I don't like it but not for movies? If I left the movie theater before the movie had ended because I didn't like it, I should be able to receive a full refund.

The same principle could apply to e-books bought online although I have no idea how to implement it practice.

[HansTWN]

Originally Posted by karunaji

I think that movie theater visitors definitely should have "money back" option. Why is it that I can buy any other item online or in a regular shop, try it and then return it if I don't like it but not for movies? If I left the movie theater before the movie had ended because I didn't like it, I should be able to receive a full refund.

The same principle could apply to e-books bought online although I have no idea how to implement it practice.

Maybe you think an employer should have the same option? You work for a few months and then when you haven't performed up to the company's standards then the company fires you and you have to pay all your salary/wages back. Makes just as much sense.

[Beryll Snyder]

Originally Posted by karunaji

I think that movie theater visitors definitely should have "money back" option. Why is it that I can buy any other item online or in a regular shop, try it and then return it if I don't like it but not for movies? If I left the movie theater before the movie had ended because I didn't like it, I should be able to receive a full refund.

The same principle could apply to e-books bought online although I have no idea how to implement it practice.

As most movies tend to get worse towards the end I could watch an endless amount of movies and leave 5 Minutes before the end without paying.

Returning ebooks is already implemented :

"Amazon kindle ebook return rate and policy
www.wetknee.com/.../Amazon_kindle_ebook_r... - Diese Seite übersetzen
25 Sep 2011 – Amazon allows customers to return ebooks within 7 days, and authors report return rates ranging from 0.5% to 6%, with more around ..."