Rarely in my life do I actually encounter the reality of that old saw, "What goes around, comes around." Yesterday I discussed various pirate sites that offer illegal downloads of books, movies, and other creative properties. Later I discovered that one of them was a scam site. You pay $5 to join. Then you find out there are no books or movies to download. However, for your $5 you do receive endless porno spam.Ah, I can hear you asking, "What site is that? I sure don't want to try that one!" Well, here's where that old cliché kicks in. If you are one of the thieves that patronize such sites, you'll just have to take your chances. That's what I call justice.
However, if you're an author who needs the information, e-mail me privately and I'll give you the name of the site. annycook67@yahoo.com
Now as to the numbers quoted in yesterday's post. I still stand by them, even without that one site. After all, if you have 2500 downloads on ten different sites, that still equals 25,000 downloads. There are tons of sites, based both in the USA and overseas. I suspect that the actual losses to piracy are much higher, but some of the sites have no download numbers listed publicly.
For a long time now, I've been very puzzled by the stunning array of hits on my website from foreign countries. I know the Internet makes it a small world out there, but really--Bulgaria? Iran? Chile? I write erotic romance. And some of the countries represented are not exactly bastions for erotica or sexual freedom. Tonight I went back through my reports. I counted twenty-seven countries, including Morocco, United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Egypt, and Zambia.
I'm wondering if they first heard of Anny Cook on the piracy sites? All of the hits are coming in as searching for Anny Cook or Anny Cook (+ a book title). If the hits were generating from my publisher's website, why need to run a search? So, has any other writer noticed this trend? I'd like to hear what y'all think.
anny
you know what? I check Amarinda Jones out once a week and report what I find but I'm not stressing over it. I could find, if I chose to, so many other things so much more important that countign downloads and calculating costs...it's a trite saying but ture - life is too short for that shit
ReplyDeleteAnny, what a perfect cliché for this situation! You rock. As for the hits, I'm too new an author for hits from all over the world. But hopefully one day. :)
ReplyDeleteI have noticed the occassional strange country popping up. Maybe they're just bored and want to know what's going on in Midwest America?
ReplyDeleteAnd like Amber, I'm new at the e-pub thing and haven't noticed anyone hijacking my books.
Hi Anny,
ReplyDeleteThe reason readers from countries known for sexual oppression are downloading our books is because they haven't yet figured out a way to censor the Internet. At least that's what one of my readers from Vietnam told me. She didn't want print books, only ebooks. The government opened packages and anything with sexual content never reached her.
Ash
I actually thought about that, Ash. I have dozens of hits from Saudi Arabia, India, Viet Nam, China. They are people who have googled my name and yes, these hits have jumped over the past few months.
ReplyDeleteAll of this just amazes me....Except for the poor souls in countries who can't get Anny's books legally. Must be very tempting to get them anyway they can.
ReplyDeleteWhat goes around does indeed come around. I try not to worry too much about pirate sites. You can drive yourself crazy thinking about it. I do report them when I find them, though. You have too.
ReplyDeleteAs I've said before...I don't mind if someone gives a friend a book of mine to read. I do object to someone putting my book on a website and potentially giving away thousands of copies. I'm trying to make a living. I often wonder how those folks would feel if their boss told them they weren't getting paid for their work.
I found Elyssa stuff on a site just yesterday doing a search on google. It really is the principle of the matter.
ReplyDelete