Maggie Stiefvater writes of her experience with piracy

[tahastudio]

Maggie Stiefvater is the author of the popular YA series, the Raven Cycle. I thought he post on piracy was incredibly interesting, because I always assumed piracy had no real effect on ebook sales. Of course, this is all her anecdotal evidence :

maggie-stiefvater.tumblr.com/post/166952028861/ive-decided-to-tell-you-guys-a-story-about/

Sent from my D6633 using Tapatalk

[MikeB1972]

Cheers for sharing tahastudio.

Interesting take on it, with a reasonable attempt and a decent methodology to show that piracy was actually hurting her sales.

[ZodWallop]

My only argument is that I would guess that pirate copies of the first two books in the series were also available. So I don't see why it's the third book where sales plummeted.

But then, I'm not expert. I guarantee she knows more about publishing and her numbers than I do.

[tahastudio]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

My only argument is that I would guess that pirate copies of the first two books in the series were also available. So I don't see why it's the third book where sales plummeted.

But then, I'm not expert. I guarantee she knows more about publishing and her numbers than I do.

I'm not an expert, either, but having read the first three books in the series, I have to wonder if it's because the series went downhill at the third book, and not many may have been willing to buy it after reading the pirated version.

The first book was great, the second book was alright, and the third took a nosedive. The third book is when I quit the series, though I didn't pirate it. In my case, I just never picked up the fourth.

Sent from my D6633 using Tapatalk

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by tahastudio

I'm not an expert, either, but having read the first three books in the series, I have to wonder if it's because the series went downhill at the third book, and not many may have been willing to buy it after reading the pirated version.

The first book was great, the second book was alright, and the third took a nosedive. The third book is when I quit the series, though I didn't pirate it. In my case, I just never picked up the fourth.

Sent from my D6633 using Tapatalk

One problem with your theory. Pirates typically don't buy. Now I am off to read the article.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

One problem with your theory. Pirates typically don't buy. Now I am off to read the article.

Cin, the point was that the author was implying that the pirated copies of the third book caused her sales to drop.

That's why I mentioned that there were likely pirate copies of the first two books. The author never mentions that.

[Cinisajoy]

Hey. I just read through the article.
This got my attention.
" My brother put it on every pirate site." Pirates didn't steal her books. She did it herself to prove a point.

That proves a point all right. If you put something out there free, people will take it.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Cin, the point was that the author was implying that the pirated copies of the third book caused her sales to drop.

That's why I mentioned that there were likely pirate copies of the first two books. The author never mentions that.

She didn't imply it. She flat out said there were many uploads of her third book.

She never said she found her first two books on pirate sites. I am assuming her brother would have found them when he put her third book on them.
If I found my book on a pirate site, I would have mentioned it.

Everyone and their cats now know she put the third book on a pirate site. People will wait and see if she does it on the fourth book.

[Cinisajoy]

Now, what I can tell you is that in some cases, free (not necessarily pirated) books can cost sales.
Amazon offered a big name self-published author a 30 day deal to be in KU. Just a few of her books.
Oh Amazon got a ton of free trial subscribers. The author got a ton of borrows. She got maybe 3 sales. Needless to say: her and Amazon took a 6 figure bath on that one.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

Hey. I just read through the article.
This got my attention.
" My brother put it on every pirate site." Pirates didn't steal her books. She did it herself to prove a point.

That proves a point all right. If you put something out there free, people will take it.

I think you need to read her article much more closely. You seem to have missed a lot.

A quick summary:

• She found book 3 uploaded to pirate sites before it was originally listed for sale (appears some users took the e-ARCs and uploaded them to pirate sites)
  
• Sales of book 3 remained steady in p-book, but plummeted in e-book
  
• As an experiment, her brother made a fake copy of book 4. It was actually just the first four chapters, repeated a few times. That is what he uploaded to pirate sites
  
• Feedback on said sites consisted of 'WTF!? Guess I have to buy the real book to get the story.'

[Deskisamess]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

She didn't imply it. She flat out said there were many uploads of her third book.

She never said she found her first two books on pirate sites. I am assuming her brother would have found them when he put her third book on them.
If I found my book on a pirate site, I would have mentioned it.

Everyone and their cats now know she put the third book on a pirate site. People will wait and see if she does it on the fourth book.

You missed some details. The copy her brother uploaded wasn’t the full book, it was the same 4 chapters over and over.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I think you need to read her article much more closely. You seem to have missed a lot.

A quick summary:

• She found book 3 uploaded to pirate sites before it was originally listed for sale (appears some users took the e-ARCs and uploaded them to pirate sites)
  
• Sales of book 3 remained steady in p-book, but plummeted in e-book
  
• As an experiment, her brother made a fake copy of book 4. It was actually just the first four chapters, repeated a few times. That is what he uploaded to pirate sites
  
• Feedback on said sites consisted of 'WTF!? Guess I have to buy the real book to get the story.'

Interesting her potential buyers are pirating. That strikes me as sort of fishy.
Hey question: if you were doing something wrong, would you announce it for the whole world to see?

Let's see. Hardback comes out first. Upset readers review. Ebook readers don't buy.

Here is what I read. I asked the publisher not to give out arcs. My brother uploaded to the pirate sites. She didn't have the rights to give her brother any part of the book.

Let's see, it took brother a very little time to do this. That tells me he has probably done it before.

I hope her publisher reads her blog. I don't care if it was just a part or all of it, she pirated it herself. So she stole from her publisher. She knew it was illegal and still did it.

Hey, here is the thing. I know it was just to prove a point.
Let's see. She doesn't have to publish herself. She had her brother pirate it for her.
The first one is bad enough, the second one is conspiracy to commit a crime.

Not saying piracy doesn't hurt sales. It does to a small point. Even just legally free can kill sales. See my post above.
Something about that article just sets off my alarm bells. It reads almost like she chummed the waters.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

Interesting her potential buyers are pirating. That strikes me as sort of fishy.
Hey question: if you were doing something wrong, would you announce it for the whole world to see?

Let's see. Hardback comes out first. Upset readers review. Ebook readers don't buy.

Here is what I read. I asked the publisher not to give out arcs. My brother uploaded to the pirate sites. She didn't have the rights to give her brother any part of the book.

Let's see, it took brother a very little time to do this. That tells me he has probably done it before.

I hope her publisher reads her blog. I don't care if it was just a part or all of it, she pirated it herself. So she stole from her publisher. She knew it was illegal and still did it.

Hey, here is the thing. I know it was just to prove a point.
Let's see. She doesn't have to publish herself. She had her brother pirate it for her.
The first one is bad enough, the second one is conspiracy to commit a crime.

Not saying piracy doesn't hurt sales. It does to a small point. Even just legally free can kill sales. See my post above.
Something about that article just sets off my alarm bells. It reads almost like she chummed the waters.

I don't think you are getting from the article what we are getting from the article.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

Interesting her potential buyers are pirating. That strikes me as sort of fishy.
Hey question: if you were doing something wrong, would you announce it for the whole world to see?

I don't think anyone announced anything. She went to the pirate sites and read the comments.

Let's see. Hardback comes out first. Upset readers review. Ebook readers don't buy.

These were e-ARCs uploaded before the book was available as hardback or paperback

Here is what I read. I asked the publisher not to give out arcs.

She asked the publisher not to give out e-ARCs of book 4 because she found e-ARCS of book 3 on the pirate sites.

My brother uploaded to the pirate sites. She didn't have the rights to give her brother any part of the book.

They made a phony e-ARC of book 4 that was just the sample, repeated to mimic the length of a real book.

Let's see, it took brother a very little time to do this. That tells me he has probably done it before.

Based on what? Do you think every pirate has to take a master's class to learn how to do it? It's not much more difficult than responding to this thread.

I hope her publisher reads her blog. I don't care if it was just a part or all of it, she pirated it herself. So she stole from her publisher. She knew it was illegal and still did it.

You have very little to nothing to base this on. How do you know her publisher wasn't well aware? If she went through that much trouble to prove her point, do you think she didn't tell someone at her publishing company?

Hey, here is the thing. I know it was just to prove a point.
Let's see. She doesn't have to publish herself. She had her brother pirate it for her.
The first one is bad enough, the second one is conspiracy to commit a crime.

I got lost in there. What's the first one? What's the second?

Having said all that, I do have issues with the conclusions she reached. It's just if you are going to argue with it, at least represent her points fairly.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I don't think you are getting from the article what we are getting from the article.

I get piracy hurts sales. That I agree with.
As to the third book being the pirated one: maybe it was pirated because e-readers had read the hardback reviews and didn't think the story was worth paying for.

I just don't like her methods for trying to prove it.

She did something she knew was illegal to prove a point. That just makes her a thief too. Whether it was 4 chapters or the entire book does not matter. Even worse, she got her brother to do her dirty work.

Like I said, it set off my alarm bells for some reason.

Glad I am not her publisher because I would be going over the fine print in her contract.