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The following is a re-post from my previous blog, which I still feel strongly about.
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Piracy sucks — I agree.
Y’all know about what happened to my friend Jenna Rose Ellis. She’s angry and frustrated, and worse — discouraged. She’s thinking about not writing anymore (after finishing her current story, the 2nd book in the Regency Triad series, out soon.), since she’s not getting just compensation for it.
Yes, we writers write because there’s a story in us that yearns to be let out, and we care enough about the reading experience to have the story professionally edited and commission a nice book cover, but we also expect to earn from it. Else, why slave over the story on weeknights and weekends instead of going to the park with our kids and cooking nice dinners for our families? Or, damnit, rest our tired bodies already ravaged from our demanding day jobs?
We also decided to go with a small publisher instead of submitting to the bigger houses because we want to keep prices low for the readers. If you look at the prices being charged for our books, they’re quite reasonable. We know, because we’ve compared word count and prices with other digital publishers out there.
But piracy not only steals from the authors, they also break down the inherent trust between authors and readers.
I’ve always known about piracy, but it’s an objective idea. But now that it has touched my circles, it has become very subjective and personal.
As an author, after learning what happened to my friend, this causes me to think twice about my future releases.
Here were the thoughts running through my head:
How do I protect my future releases? I’m now working on the 3rd book in the Threesome series. What if I release the third book only to be ripped off a day after its release? (happens to another friend) How do I prevent that from happening?
And the clincher:
Maybe I should sell to a bigger publisher who’ll charge a hefty price for the book, but who cares, at least I get decent royalties!!
I didn’t have these thoughts before, naïve that I was. I just happily wrote and submitted my book for publication, believing I would earn my fair (if low) share.
Decent royalties, that’s all any author is after. We don’t ask for more, but only what’s due to us–Fair and just compensation for our work.
If you want authors to continue writing, please support them by buying their books. Thank you!
After this experience, my view of the world is now not so rosy, for I’ve been touched by “evil”. Okay, that’s too dramatic. Maybe “touched by villainy” would be more appropriate. I’ve been rethinking my goals, and maybe it’s time to work harder and try for the brass ring.
Sienna Matthews 