It’s Friday folk! Seemed to take long enough to get here, but hope you enjoy the day!
On the heels of yesterday’s post, I’m going to talk about another scary subject, Piracy! One of the comments yesterday mentioned that and it’s a real threat to authors in today’s world of the internet, but what can we do?
Sadly, there’s not a lot you can do. Always make sure that you have a copyright page inside the first few pages of your book. Some authors, although it can get costly, actually get a legal copyright for their work. But, most of us can’t afford to do this type of thing.
One of the things I do is to do a search every week on my name, and my book name. This will pull up some of these sites. I’ve had trouble with this since just after I published my first book. You’ll know the sites that shouldn’t have your book because most of the time they have weird names and they’re offering your book as a free download.
Once you locate them, I suggest you do a little research on them, then email them and see how they received your book. That will be entertaining in itself. Then demand they take it down immediately or you will take legal action. Of course, they will probably take that site down and move on to another one, but at least you have them hopping.
A big time author told me once that if your book is being pirated, then don’t worry about it. She said that at least that means that it’s making headlines. She said most pirate sites only look for books they know will make them money. I’m not sure if people have to subscribe to these sites, but somehow they’re making money off our work. She said that yes, it’s a horrible thing, but to hold my chin up. Some days that’s hard to do knowing that your work has been stolen and you won’t make that royalty.
So, search yourself at least once a week, and write down a list of suspect sites. You’ll be glad you did. At least you’ll be proactive on the situation.
Let me know how you’ve combated piracy…
As always, good writing and May God Bless You…
Stephanie Hurt - Romance Author 