Argh! Is Piracy a Problem for Novelists?

This discussion comes up periodically on different online discussion sites and it rose up again recently on one I belong to. Everyone can cite one or two instances where an author decided to aggressively go after someone who had, they perceived, stolen their work.

Personally, I wouldn’t judge the author’s reaction as an indication that it’s a problem. What you should do it figure out what the effect on the author is. The bottom line is income, right? Does a pirated book hurt their sales?

(This is assuming that the book IS pirated. Usually, when you see a copy of your book for sale somewhere that you didn’t authorize, especially if it’s offered free or for a very low price, the site doesn’t have your book. They’ve merely copied the cover and anyone who tries to download it will be infected with a computer virus. You don’t have to worry about those sites one little bit.)

How does the rare actual pirated copy hurt you? If it does. Think about it. People who download from the sites that are giving your book away, just want free books. They’re not going to buy your book anyway. So you haven’t lost a sale. The sites that are selling your book deeply discounted may be taking away a sale, but you are gaining a reader.

What’s the biggest challenge for a published writer? Selling your books, right? In order to sell them, you have to attempt to tell people about them. If no one knows you or your books, has never heard of you, no one will buy your stuff.

As many (including Joanna Penn below) will point out, you should be more concerned about obscurity than piracy. The more people that read your works, the more chances you have of creating fans, some of whom will spread the word. And spreading the word is what you want.

Read what Joanna Penn says about Cory Doctorow’s experiences.

https://www.thecreativepenn.com/2017/02/23/piracy/

This site gives the same advice, let it go. But it goes on to detail steps to take if you’re determined to get justice for your title.

https://kindlepreneur.com/ebook-piracy/

This article also has a link to creating a strong, effective copyright page.

https://kindlepreneur.com/book-copyright-page-examples-ebook/

Having a proper copyright page is enough to take legal action, should you decide to pursue that.

However, if you’re taking legal action, this site has details on registering your copyright with the US Copyright Office.

https://self-publishingschool.com/how-to-copyright-a-book/

This site also has useful information on using quotes, lyrics, real people, etc.

The final step, getting the book offer off the online site, is the hardest. You can hire a service for this if you’re serious about not having copies of your book in random places.  Details at the end of this site, mentioned above: https://kindlepreneur.com/ebook-piracy/

I do not choose to spend my time and money going after pirates. Rather, I consider it flattery when someone else thinks they can make tons of money stealing my books. Good luck to them! It doesn’t work all that well for me, as you well know if you’re also a writer who hasn’t made it to the New York Times bestseller list yet.

pirate flag from Photobucket.com

pirate from Morguefile.com

N 

Getting the Word out on the Eclipse

I notice lots of publicity, more and more, as the date of the total solar eclipse approaches. Not to be left out, here are some promotional/publicity activities we’re planning for our anthology, DAY OF THE DARK: Stories of Eclipse, coming this month from Wildside Press to celebrate the August 21st total solar eclipse in the US.

Some of our dates are indefinite, but I wanted to get these out there.

Look for our ad in Kings River Life with a preorder link!

http://kingsriverlife.com/

I was interviewed for Criminal Element by Katherine Tomlinson. The interview will appear soon.

https://www.criminalelement.com/

An interview of all 24 of us, short ones, will appear on Writers Who Kill. Questions from E. B. Davis.

http://writerswhokill.blogspot.com/

B. K. Stevens is featuring a few of the authors on her wonderful First Two Pages blog in July, so check in there a few times on Tuesdays.

http://www.bkstevensmysteries.com/category/the-first-two-pages/

A number of the authors are approaching local observatories to see if they’re interested in a partnership.

I need to mention my previous blog posts with tidbits about each story:

GUESS WHAT’S COMING

MORE ECLIPSE GLIMPSES

MORE ECLIPSE GLIMPSES (I didn’t notice I’d already used this one)

THIRD ELCIPSE GLIMPSE (really the 4th, that duplicate title confused me)

MORE ECLIPSE GLIMPSES (at least it’s a different title)

MY LAST ECLIPSE TEASERS (try typing the words “eclipse” and “glimpse” this many times!)

And last, but definitely not least, Vickie Turner Goodwin is giving us a live launch on Mystery Thriller Week.

https://www.facebook.com/mysterythrillerweek/

One of the story authors, Laura Oles, put together a press release that I’ll share here, too, soon.

(I’m so pumped that we’ll have totality in my own town! http://www.eclipse2017.org/2017/communities/states/TN/Farragut_1728.htm)

Press Releases

Everyone should send out press releases when they have a book to be published, right?

OK, but what should it say? And who should it go to? And when should it go out?

WHO:

Recently I saw some general guidelines online, I've put them below.

Lead Times:

Daily Newspapers, Radio and TV – seven to ten days. Weekly newspapers – four to six weeks. Magazines – four to six months

This means you have to know what your local newspapers (if you still have any) and radio stations are. I'm not sure what magazines I would send a press release to, but some of you may have some in mind.

WHEN:

The best days to send them are supposed to be Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. The term for sending a press release is, well, releasing. But I hate to say release a press release. Maybe the publicity people are less stressed in the middle of the week and will pay more attention to your news.

WHAT:

I've saved the hardest for last. Of course, you must tell them the name and author of your book, a bit about it, and what's happening where. You can announce an award, a signing, or a book launch. Here's what I've put together for the first signing of my novel coming out in October.

For Immediate Release

Contact: Ken Bartay

(254) 741-9499

Media Alert

Kaye George/Broke: An Imogene Duckworthy Mystery

Waco-Kaye George, author of the Imogene Duckworthy mysteries, will sign copies of the third in the series, Broke, at Barnes & Noble Waco on Saturday, November 3^th at 2:00 p.m. The store is located in Circuit City Plaza at 4909 West Waco Drive, Waco, TX 76710.

Immy, PI assistant, wants to be on her own. She finds a rental house where her four-year-old daughter, Nancy Drew Duckworthy, and Drew's pet pig, Marshmallow, are allowed. The rumors are that the house is haunted. But it's no rumor there's a dead man in the bathtub when she tours the house.

Kaye George is a novelist and short story writer whose has been nominated for an Agatha award twice. She reviews for Suspense Magazine and writes articles for newsletters and booklets. She lives near Waco.

All events are free and open to the public.

The Kindness of Strangers (and Friends)

I'm depending lately, on the kindness of so many people. And they're coming through!

Since publishing my short story collection on a whim, as an ebook (A PATCHWORK OF STORIES), I decided to do some publicity on it. I'm sort of using my ebook as a test run for when my trade paperback novel, CHOKE, comes out in May from Mainly Murder Press. It might be good, I figured, to try out different marketing tools on the ebook and see if I have phenomenal success with any one thing. Or more than one.

I added my book to my signature line. For the first few weeks I put links to the purchase sites on Smashwords and Amazon. Then I thought that might be annoying and took those off. The links are front and center on my webpage, though.

Let me back up a sec, though. First, I had started publicizing my novel and put it in my signature line. Things I've done to get the word on on it (although it doesn't come out until May 2011):

*make sure I post on the lists I belong to so my signature line gets seen (not a problem, since I'm always posting anyway);

*get a new author photo and put together a preliminary press kit, and put it on my webpage;

*start consciously acquiring new Facebook and Twitter followers (20/day was recommended to me, but I haven't hit that yet);

*put up an author page on Facebook;

*start collecting emails of people I think might want to know about--and buy--the novel;

*register for a couple of big conferences next year, try to get onto panels, donate a silent auction basket at one, buy a group ad at another;

*and, lastly, get myself onto other people's blogs as a guest once a month until my pub date.

Here's where the friends and strangers came through, on that last one. And, in the midst of this, I put out the ebook and sort of switched my efforts over to it. So, the blogs are more about the short stories now, with just a mention of the coming novel.

I'm overwhelmed by people who have spontaneously blogged about me, and those who have offered me spots and interviews. Since August, I've averaged more than one every month.

Take a look at all the great publicity!

August:

Carole Morden at Dry Bones

My blogmates at Dialog For Murder

September:

A two-part in depth interview at Writers Who Kill, by E.B. Davis

Part One

Part Two

October:

A nice essay from KB Inglee

November:

A review of the short story book by Judy Alter

And an interview by David Wisehart, who promotes Kindle authors

I will have a guest blog at Lelia Taylor's Buried Under Books blog Saturday!

photo from http://i126.photobucket.com/albums/p86/rodgj/vivienmarlon.jpg

December and January are mapped out with one each so far, and several are lined up for May. I can NOT thank these folks enough for all of this!

Since putting the ebook on Amazon, I also created an Author Page for them. I guess I can add the new book in May to that. I have no idea who looks at those.

What works? What doesn't? That's what I'll try to decide as I go through the process for both books. Maybe some things work better for ebooks and some work better for print books. So far, with the only one for sale, A PATCHWORK OF STORIES, there's been a steady trickle of one or two sold every day or every other day. I'm kind of amazed at this. And anxious to see if anyone will buy the print version when it becomes available later this month (I hope). Right now it's at Smashwords and Kindle (hint, hint).