Kindle e-Book piracy accelerates - from CNET

[Enkidu of Abydos]

Quote from the OP's linked page :
"the number of people pirating books is growing along with the number of titles that are available for download"
So, two pieces of good news in one sentence...

[Richey79]

Originally Posted by Catlady

I don't think it's about any tech-savviness, necessarily. I think there's a resistance to signing up because of privacy concerns, especially when it comes to signing up to do something that's illegal.

Perhaps you're right about the general perception.

In reality, it's not necessary to use your real data to sign up with any of these sites. The chances of a site like Demonoid.Me opening up users' logs to law enforcement if they go down are practically nil, anyway.

If you use the same password for more than one of your online 'presences', you're opening yourself up to a much more real security risk. Particularly if that password is a word or name in a particular language with no numbers, random characters or punctuation marks inserted into it. Or '1234', LOL.

[darknessangel]

ebook Piracy accelerates? Ludicrous speed go!

The more the information is out circulating the faster the development of mandkind (of course I speak about science/history books... not science fiction and fantasy...) this shouldn't be the dark ages II.

[paulpod]

seems to me that the only books safe from piracy are pop-up books.
that is until we have 3D eReaders...

[marvin_2]

Amazon.com search for David Carnoy:
Knife Music: A Novel by David Carnoy
Paperback 1 new from $74.93 (for Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,093,963 in Books!!!)
Kindle: This title is not available for customers from your location [...]

Sure that piracy the real problem here?

[mr ploppy]

Originally Posted by Richey79

Perhaps you're right about the general perception.

In reality, it's not necessary to use your real data to sign up with any of these sites. The chances of a site like Demonoid.Me opening up users' logs to law enforcement if they go down are practically nil, anyway.

I don't think they would have any choice in the matter if there was a court order to hand them over. The real danger would be in donating through Paypal though.

[Valentino]

I hope more people start pirating.
Publishers are beginning to think that it's cool to get in the spotlight and are making complete asses of themselves.
If the artists suffer, get a real publisher that isn't an asshat.

[mr ploppy]

Originally Posted by Valentino

I hope more people start pirating.
Publishers are beginning to think that it's cool to get in the spotlight and are making complete asses of themselves.
If the artists suffer, get a real publisher that isn't an asshat.

Considering that publishers take 80% or more of your income forever in return for a loan and a few one-off jobs, I don't think piracy is a writer's main problem right now.

[MrPLD]

Oh gawd :face palm: I see this thread is going rampant on MR too... (just escaped the horrible intergallactic pull of it on KB).

[Lemurion]

Originally Posted by mr ploppy

Considering that publishers take 80% or more of your income forever in return for a loan and a few one-off jobs, I don't think piracy is a writer's main problem right now.

The reason publishers get their share is because they take all the financial risk.

They pay the advance (which is non-returnable).
They pay for the physical design and printing of the book.
They pay for marketing (to the book trade).
They pay for editing.

They front the money for all these things and they do it before a single sale has been made. This is all cash up front from the publisher's pocket.

Then, once the book has been produced, and they sell to the trade it's 100% returnable. Every copy the stores don't sell gets returned to the publisher and they have to eat that cost.

Publishers don't make a lot of money.

[mr ploppy]

Originally Posted by Lemurion

They pay the advance (which is non-returnable).
They pay for the physical design and printing of the book.
They pay for marketing (to the book trade).
They pay for editing.

All one-off costs that could easily be paid for from the profits from your previous book. The advance would be useful, but I somehow doubt they would give one to an unknown writer on the off-chance that they will write a decent book. Small press publishers don't pay any advances at all.

Most, if not all, writers will write their first book part time while they support themselves some other way. If they find enough of an audience for that to interest a big publisher they could easily live off that long enough to write their second book.

Originally Posted by Lemurion

Then, once the book has been produced, and they sell to the trade it's 100% returnable. Every copy the stores don't sell gets returned to the publisher and they have to eat that cost.

Not relevant to ebooks/POD books, and I think that is just in America anyway. Probably not relevant to any books 5 years from now.

[Namekuseijin]

Originally Posted by mr ploppy

Considering that publishers take 80% or more of your income forever in return for a loan and a few one-off jobs, I don't think piracy is a writer's main problem right now.

publishing an ebook on Amazon does not take you 80% away. On the other hand, it also usually does not generate huge sales either.

and you may still end up in a torrent anyway...

[Lemurion]

Originally Posted by mr ploppy

All one-off costs that could easily be paid for from the profits from your previous book. The advance would be useful, but I somehow doubt they would give one to an unknown writer on the off-chance that they will write a decent book. Small press publishers don't pay any advances at all.

Most, if not all, writers will write their first book part time while they support themselves some other way. If they find enough of an audience for that to interest a big publisher they could easily live off that long enough to write their second book.



Not relevant to ebooks/POD books, and I think that is just in America anyway. Probably not relevant to any books 5 years from now.

However, it does explain why publishers take the share they do in the market as currently constituted - and yes, the authors of first novels do get advances too.

I don't think you fully understand the commercial publishing process.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by Namekuseijin

Might be a good time to increase the price of ebooks, huh? I mean, if selling ebooks for $1.99 makes no difference at all to a pirating culture, I'm sure soon enough they'll be sharpening that up, regardless of true costs and all, to at least try to capitalize on the last remaining good samaritans out there funding all the free ride for scumbag crackheads...

[mr ploppy]

Originally Posted by Lemurion

However, it does explain why publishers take the share they do in the market as currently constituted - and yes, the authors of first novels do get advances too.

I don't think you fully understand the commercial publishing process.

Where can I sign up to get an advance to write a book?