There's a better way to beat the ebook pirates

[boxcorner]

Originally Posted by Hellmark

You mean, like Maya Angelou?

Made her fortune selling poems, or books?

[Hellmark]

Originally Posted by NVash

Where? I just checked your Profile, I figured you might have your own website or even links to your books. Nothing. Your avatar isnt even a book that you made. Simple things like that could up your sales, IMHO.

Click on his name and there will be a link for his homepage in the dropdown. What is strange is that his profile page doesn't show that link. Seems weird.

Still, having a signature with a link and info I think will help a lot.

Originally Posted by NVash

Thats one out of how many people? And how many years did she spend broke before she made it big?

Oh, I know she's the exception. I was just being obstinate.

Originally Posted by boxcorner

Made her fortune selling poems, or books?

Books of Poems!

[MrsJoseph]

Originally Posted by boxcorner

Made her fortune selling poems, or books?

I think her first published book was an autobiography: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

[ApK]

Originally Posted by carld

Millionaires no, writing and making a living, yes, a few.

Right. Becoming rich is one thing. Be able to eat and keep a roof over your head, and maybe also drive a reliable car and send your kid to college, while spending your time writing rather than having to spend it doing something else, is another.

Even back when artists were supported by wealthy patrons, I think they were enabled to live comfortably enough to work at their art, not made independently wealthy so they could STOP working....

And "paying one's dues" generally means getting experience, honing your craft, putting in the effort, finding a voice and an audience...not sitting idly by while people steal from you and tell you what a good thing they are doing for you while they do it.

[MrsJoseph]

Originally Posted by ApK

Right. Becoming rich is one thing. Be able to eat and keep a roof over your head, and maybe also drive a reliable car and send your kid to college, while spending your time writing rather than having to spend it doing something else, is another.

Even back when artists were supported by wealthy patrons, I think they were enabled to live comfortably enough to work at their art, not made independently wealthy so they could STOP working....

And "paying one's dues" generally means getting experience, honing your craft, putting in the effort, finding a voice and an audience...not sitting idly by while people steal from you and tell you what a good thing they are doing for you while they do it.

I agree.

But it does not follow that quiting is the answer, either.

[boxcorner]

According to Wikipedia, Maya Angelou is "... an American author and poet ... best known for her series of six autobiographical volumes ...", so I presumed - perhaps incorrectly - that she made her money mostly from her books.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by boxcorner

According to Wikipedia, Maya Angelou is "... an American author and poet ... best known for her series of six autobiographical volumes ...", so I presumed - perhaps incorrectly - that she made her money mostly from her books.

http://gateway102-angela.blogspot.co...ya-angelo.html

[mr ploppy]

Originally Posted by queentess

Go for it. I won't respond to "buy my book or I'll stop writing" threats.

Buy my book or I'll write another one.

[NVash]

Originally Posted by queentess

Go for it. I won't respond to "buy my book or I'll stop writing" threats.

Theres always this reaction which isnt a very good one. Thats JMHO. Some people dont take too kindly to such a threat and instead of gaining sales you lose them. Thats not good.

Originally Posted by ApK

Right. Becoming rich is one thing. Be able to eat and keep a roof over your head, and maybe also drive a reliable car and send your kid to college, while spending your time writing rather than having to spend it doing something else, is another.

Even back when artists were supported by wealthy patrons, I think they were enabled to live comfortably enough to work at their art, not made independently wealthy so they could STOP working....

And "paying one's dues" generally means getting experience, honing your craft, putting in the effort, finding a voice and an audience...not sitting idly by while people steal from you and tell you what a good thing they are doing for you while they do it.

This isnt back then. There are no wealthy patrons, at least around here. Maybe where you are, Im not sure. Id say there are none at all but hey, Tyler Perry got his start from Oprah. There were no pirates back then either. And seriously, to think youre going to support yourself and family off of only five years writing is a bit much, dont you think? Especially with little to no advertising done. If there was some advertising and people knew of you, maybe, but youd be one success story out of millions of failures.

Reminds me of what my grandfather once told me. I wanted to go to California and be an actor. He asked me how many waiters and waitresses went there for that very reason. It made me think then and moreso now. How many did go there for just that? How many are trying? How many failed and are just going to waitress or do some other job forever because they didnt want to keep trying?

This stuff isnt easy, you might luck out but chances are you wont. So somebody pirated your book. Its a shame but, since your name isnt well known, take it in stride and keep on moving. You arent making money and that has nothing to do with the pirates, you just want to make that connection. You want to quit writing over it, fine. Youre doing yourself and your fans a disservice but hey, thats your prerogative. You, ultimately, have to live with your decision whether bad or good. All I and anyone else can do is add our own thoughts and opinions.

[boxcorner]

Originally Posted by ApK

... Even back when artists were supported by wealthy patrons, I think they were enabled to live comfortably enough to work at their art ...

I wonder what kind of books authors such as George Orwell and Ernest Hemingway would have written.

[Quexos]

If I may disagree I think you are not looking at the big picture here. The point of view you are defending is the one of corporations and the industry in general, in other words the "establishment". A model created by them and for their interest, a system where they decide what is right and what is wrong, a system where if they can milk us dry they will. In fact they have done that in the past as I've mentioned previously, when there was no downloading and if you did not agree to pay whatever price they decided you just had to sit on your ass and do without it. They still do that with other products that cannot be downloaded (For those who live in Europe and have a car and go to the gas station, I think you know what I mean). The industry will suck the life out of us if they can and those who can't afford it well, they are left behind without mercy.

So nowadays there seems to be a turn of the tide (at least for digital content) and the establishment will do all they can to scare us (legal actions), threaten us (possible jail time), shame us (point an accusing finger at us and say what a bunch of bad and evil thieves we are, depriving the poor and innocent industry of their rightfully hard-earned bucks) in other words, brainwash us into seeing ONLY their point of view, their side of the story.

You worry about the authors ? fair enough but do you ever worry for them when you know how badly some are ripped-off by their publishers that barely throw crumbs at them off the sales of their books with whatever excuse (they are liabilities, new authors and the poor publisher must take the chance on them and so on ...) In these cases the publisher takes from them the money that customers paid for the author's work and just throws crumbs at them, so to speak.

So you see the problem is not one of the malevolent and evil pirate vs the good and altruistic corporation because that would be over simplistic and simply wrong IMHO.

Originally Posted by carld

Because not buying a book is a choice, downloading someone else's work off the internet is stealing, two very different and completely unrelated things.

[kennyc]

Or Dickens or Twain. They did not have wealthy patrons, wrote for money, yet produced some of the most classic literature of all time....

[mr ploppy]

Originally Posted by carld

One video game company said that 80% - 90% of the games signing on to their servers were pirated. I don't imagine the numbers for ebooks are anywhere near that high, but I'd still bet there's a significant percentage.

Entertainment industry figures say that 10% of the population downloads unauthorised digital content. A survey on unauthorised downloader habits carried out by the Dutch governent a few weeks ago said that only 5% of downloaders were interested in ebooks.

[carld]

Originally Posted by Quexos

So you see the problem is not one of the malevolent and evil pirate vs the good and altruistic corporation because that would be over simplistic and simply wrong IMHO.

For all those words you're still rationalizing stealing an author's hard work and not paying for it.

[OtterBooks]

Originally Posted by Steven Lyle Jordan

You (and everyone else who reads this) have my explicit blessing... go steal my books.

I prefer to buy my books. However, I'm not entirely un-savvy as per where to look, and I could not find them. No doubt they could be found, but apparently it would take someone more resourceful.