Author explains that book piracy isn't a victimless crime

[SerScot]

Here you go:

http://www.sarahmadisonfiction.com/2016/06/dear-broke-reader-your-sense-of-entitlement-is-killing-me/

From the blog:

Let’s put it into perspective. I couldn’t get the above sentence out of my head last night, so I went to one of the illegal torrents I’ve battled in the past. Yep, four of my stories were there. So, counting only the royalties I would have received, not full price, I calculated how much I lost due to the over 16 K downloads listed. It came to about 13.5 K. That’s thirteen thousand, five hundred dollars and change. From one site. One. I routinely come across dozens of these pirate sites and torrents. I report them to my publisher. I send out DCMA notices. I report them to Google to block their pages in searches. All of this is extremely time-consuming and frustrating. No sooner do I strike down one, four pop up in its place. It’s like battling a Hydra.
 
Those lost royalties from that one site would have paid outright for the new car I desperately needed and was forced to buy. Or covered the medical bills I’ve been chipping away over time. It would have paid for the new septic system, or here’s a thought, I might actually be able to take more than two to three consecutive days off for  a change. I might not have had to wait five years to save up for extensive dental work that I had to have done, or made do another two years with glasses when my prescription had changed. I’m not looking to be a millionaire, folks. I’d just like to break even. Maybe put a little aside for a future in which I am no longer physically capable of working as hard as I do.

16,000 downloads.  16,0000.  Let's support the writers we like.  Don't torrent their books.

[Mith]

What gets me is that ebooks are a thing, and are a heck of a lot cheaper than paper books.  If you are going the route of obtaining an electronic copy, the ~$10 that you pay.  I paid ~$16 for a newly released bestseller ebook with the hard copies selling for $40 (60% reduction in price) is really worth it.

[The Deposed King]

You with the exception that I literally wouldn't mind so much if the first book and only the first in each of my two series was pirated 16,000 and I got the free 8000 residual sales for each following book that tricked down into money on amazon for me, I'm there with you.

Indie authors are the epidomy of 'small' business.  Authors with big book companies only a little less so.  No one's getting rich here.  Pretty much what you have is a writer who gives part time work to a cover artist and an editor maybe 4? times a year if you're reasonably productive as an indie and what 2? if you're trad-published.  We're not some giant corporate monolith that can 'soak' up the losses or like the music industry that for years forced us to buy a CD with 1-2 good songs and 6-10 more of raging junk.  We're the little guy.

Oh well.  Its wrong to steal period.  But if your justification is you're sticking it to the man.  Then unless you mean the 'man' next door, your logic is all upside down.



The Deposed King