Maggie Stiefvater writes of her experience with piracy

[meeera]

I've had a bit of a poke around, and found a full copy (presumably) that was posted online right on release day. I'm not at all convinced by the claim that the bogus PDFs sent a stampede of folks off to order a paper book.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by darryl

The fact that an industry continues to exist and prosper is a very strong indication that "most readers don't pirate". It certainly indicates that enough readers don't pirate for a profitable industry to continue to exist. And, of course, locating a good pirate copy, downloading and transferring it to a device for reading if necessary may not be that onerous, but is nowhere near as easy as one click at Amazon or purchasing on ITunes. Human nature being what it is this convenience, combined with a reasonable price and the advantages of obtaining the book from a legitimate source are things most people value. This is why I believe we still have a viable industry. Of course, when pirate copies are available and legitimate ones are not, some proportion of people choose not to wait. It is unlikely that they will then buy a legitimate copy when it does come out. Likewise, the higher the price, the more sales will be lost, including to piracy.

It's not rocket science.

This.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

Dozens? That doesn't sound like many to me.
In all honesty, this whole blog post sounds like nothing more than a marketing scheme to draw attention to herself.
How many would have sold without her stunt? We have no clue because she pulled a stunt.
It wouldn't surprise me if she told her readers to go to the pirate sites.
Wouldn't be the first time.

I think that is a ludicrous assumption to make.

Most readers don't pirate. So she either has dishonest readers or did it herself.

I suspect it has to do with it being YA fiction. I do think they are the most likely demographic when it comes to piracy.

By putting up that fake copy, she potentially took money away from the publisher.
Note: I sincerely hope the publisher has the rights to the main character.

That just feels beyond the pale to me. You don't like her actions. Fine. You don't like her. Fine. But now you are hoping that not only does her publisher drop her, but that she loses all rights to the character.

Show some empathy, dude.

There are multiple problems with the assumptions she makes, But we shouldn't be hoping she is utterly destroyed as an author.

[haertig]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

Book 4 came out at $9.99 (tracking began 25 Feb 2015). It's price has changed 50 times in the past 987 days. Current price is $11.99 and the lowest it's ever been priced is $4.75, the highest it's ever been is $13.99

They change the prices that frequently? With a swing from lowest to highest of almost 3-to-1? This would be another factor in sales of the eBook. You never know what it's going to cost from day to day. One day it's $4.75 and the next it's $13.99? Obviously they are playing with prices to see how much they can get. They'll jack the price up until nobody buys it anymore, then lower it to regain sales, then jack it up again, then lower it. With this frequent pricing change experiment going on, that's going to interfere with "normal eBook purchasing trends" as well.

With all this going on - (1) natural decline of a series readership, (2) lowered production run size, (3) large amount of intentional bogus books dumped on the internet, (4) piracy, (5) prices fluctuating all over the place - how can anyone conclude what caused what? My guess is that ALL played a part. And at different times, each factor played more or less of a part.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by haertig

With all this going on - (1) natural decline of a series readership, (2) lowered production run size, (3) large amount of intentional bogus books dumped on the internet, (4) piracy, (5) prices fluctuating all over the place - how can anyone conclude what caused what? My guess is that ALL played a part. And at different times, each factor played more or less of a part.

That seems to be the general consensus.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I think that is a ludicrous assumption to make.



I suspect it has to do with it being YA fiction. I do think they are the most likely demographic when it comes to piracy.




That just feels beyond the pale to me. You don't like her actions. Fine. You don't like her. Fine. But now you are hoping that not only does her publisher drop her, but that she loses all rights to the character.

Show some empathy, dude.

There are multiple problems with the assumptions she makes, But we shouldn't be hoping she is utterly destroyed as an author.

I have no doubt she won't be destroyed. Oh wait, that author name might be destroyed. But not the author herself.

As to the empathy, dude. Well I kind of have a problem with that. I can't do dude empathy.

[rixte]

And don't get me wrong - I absolutely believe she had some books pirated, I pretty much assume any mass market publication probably has SOME piracy.

I just don't think that her experiment provided any proof in that direction whatsoever - and I also don't think that her premise that piracy almost caused her to lose her book deal is born out. That's her ultimate premise, after all - that "The Ronan trilogy nearly didn't exist because of piracy".

Her attempt to prove piracy had any impact on her actual sales just doesn't do that.

[DiapDealer]

Regardless of facts, statistics, or experiments, I've yet to see ANY author do themselves any favors by taking a vocal anti-piracy tack. It's a no-win situation where railing against it will only exacerbate the problem. Your paying fans don't want to hear you whinge about it, and your pirate fans don't care in the slightest.

You talk to readers about your books. You talk to industry insiders privately about your piracy concerns/woes. Because telling readers not to pirate your ebooks will only ever get you one of two responses: "I don't", or "Bite me." And then the world keeps going as it always did.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

It's a no-win situation where railing against it will only exacerbate the problem.

Streisand Effect

[graycyn]

Originally Posted by SteveEisenberg

Some authors feel that way. But libraries buy a lot of books. And when it comes to eBooks, libraries pay a lot more for each copy (compensated for by paying less for rent, utilities, staff, etc.).

The library is a way that many people 'try out' authors. Then when they find authors they like, but also find the library doesn't have every book the author wrote, often go on to buy.

And it's true libraries buy a lot of books. Recently, I had a notice that an ebook I'd put a hold on was not available and that it wouldn't be available until another copy was purchased. Checked yesterday, and apparently another copy *has* been purchased.


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[MikeB1972]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Regardless of facts, statistics, or experiments, I've yet to see ANY author do themselves any favors by taking a vocal anti-piracy tack. It's a no-win situation where railing against it will only exacerbate the problem. Your paying fans don't want to hear you whinge about it, and your pirate fans don't care in the slightest.

I dunno, it's a tricky one, you may put off some people from pirating by being vocal about it, some by fear of being caught, others by not knowing they were doing any harm.

It's like saying a shop doesn't do itself any favours by having security guards and cameras, it just annoys your paying customers.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by MikeB1972

It's like saying a shop doesn't do itself any favours by having security guards and cameras, it just annoys your paying customers.

No, it's not like saying that at all. A better analogy would be: despite already having security guards and cameras, the shopkeeper insisted on shouting "don't steal my stuff!" at customers whenever they came into his store.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

No, it's not like saying that at all. A better analogy would be: despite already having security guards and cameras, the shopkeeper insisted on shouting "don't steal my stuff!" at customers whenever they came into his store.

That is how I read it too.

[Byrdie]

Heh, anyone who reads one of Flynn Eire's books is first treated to an absolutely god-awful screed ordering them to "Buy a Damn Copy" and calling them the worse kind of thief ever if they don't. Which is a joke/challenge to pirates everywhere and also pretty damn rude to people who got theirs by way of libraries and other legit borrowing methods. Dunno how effective it is in stopping illicit downloads -- probably not very as a few minutes on a search engine can probably find plenty of links -- but in my case it's proven quite the deterrent. From ever buying her books, that is. Really, I should pay to be insulted? No, thanks, Ms. Flynn. Plenty of other books for me to spend my money on, yours I'll just leave by the wayside.

[Philippe D.]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Eliminating all music piracy won't make people go back to forking over $17 for an album when they only want two or three songs. That ship has sailed.

Well, I still buy my music on CDs (and my movies on DVDs). I feel old...