Piracy: a Phantom Menace?

Piracy: a Phantom Menace?:
 
 
 
 
 
 
Amidst much fanfare, Amazon last week unveiled its latest version of the.. http://tinyurl.com/pptqzl

I don’t understand. The more digital material the publishers give away the more books are sold? Surely giving away free content encourages piracy and decreases book sales. Or are you saying that readers want both the book and the digital version?

I think piracy is inevitable, however we might think it a menace. The question is: how are we going to make money out of free online books. Authors are not able to make money out of appearances like musicians, but like other artists they too need to eat..

Think of it this way.

With the traditional model customers need to be prepared to pay for a book before they become readers. You therefore exclude anyone from reading the book who isn’t prepared to stump up a fiver or a tenner or whatever it is. If you can’t pay the entrance fee then you can’t join our club.

When we give our eBooks away for free we are inviting anyone who wants to read the book to do so for nothing. If we genuinely believe the book to be a good one then it will be enjoyed by the majority of those readers.

Some of them then become advocates for the book, spreading the word of mouth which is so important to a book’s success. This word of mouth will lead to book sales.

Others will want to purchase a hard copy themselves. More book sales.

Some, clearly, will do neither. But would they have ever bought the book through the traditional model anyway?

At The Friday Project we firmly believe that the books we make available as free downloads sell more as a result. We have the evidence to prove it. It may seem counter-intuitive but it works.

We shouldn’t take piracy lightly but, let’s be honest, who is pirating Blood, Sweat & Tea? Why pirate a book that is already available for free?

The author, Tom Reynolds, is a vociferous supporter of Creative Commons and he has, I don’t think he will mind me saying, done reasonably well out of the book sales. The book has also been optioned by a TV company and it has been made into a BBC Radio 4 drama starring Martin Freeman. I’d call that a success.

The other point to make is that even by offering a free download you are still only really reaching a small portion of the reading public. Huge swathes of them are still wedded to the print edition and would know nothing about the freebie.

I have to agree with Cory.
I’ve given away free e-copies of my books away and have not seen a change in print sales. I’d rather my name got more widely known – then the next book in print will sell more.

I think this kind of talk is fascinating.

I read about Cory Doctorow in the New York Times, and I went right to his web site. I think it’s amazing that he gives away all of his stuff via free downloads.

I’ve experimented with giving free ebooks away and they always help my sales. I usually create a free give away for each new book I have and they always get a great response and downloaded quite a bit. You gotta love free.

As for piracy, you can’t ignore that some authors have had their copyright infringed upon. But, with the internet as big as it is, it is almost impossible to keep tabs on the whole thing.

Stephen King even made a comment regarding ebook piracy and said he couldn’t be bothered to track down the ebook pirates. If even Stephen King can’t be bothered, one wonders where ebook and ebook piracy are heading next…

Food for thought.

Fascinating article on book piracy by Scott Pack: http://bit.ly/albUo

I must admit I have downloaded books illegally only to turn around and buy the physical copy a few days/weeks later because I enjoy re-reading books and like having them in my bookshelf. Naturally, this hasn’t been the case with all books, but with about 90%. Thus not saying that all I do is download – I don’t own a reading device and read on my computer while at work, and still prefer the feel of a book in my hands, and I think that the majority of book lovers I come across feel the same way.

Piracy is something that’ll be hard to stop, and though I agree with Helena in that author’s don’t make money off appearances like musicians do, perhaps offering the first chapter free can be a way to push sales. Let’s face it, there’s a reason why people aren’t buying books, or only buying a select few, so authors/publishers need to give them a reason to.

I work for a content management provider and we’ve been helping magazine publishers get their content online for over 10 years.

Free content turning into actual print sales (or print subscriptions) is something that we see over and over again.

Magazine publishers often take a bit of persuading to put content up for free fearing that it will hit their magazine subscriptions. But this just isn’t reflected in our experience.

5th Estate · Piracy: a Phantom Menace? http://bit.ly/9bsTe

Piracy is a phantom menace for authors. Obscurity is the real danger
http://bit.ly/b6eEt

Maybe publishers could run a short period in which an e-publication was free, before it was issued either in paper form or as a purchaseable e-book. This is no different from the “taster” chapters of the next book often found at the back of paperbacks or the tiny paperbacks samplers sometimes included in the weekend papers.

‘Free content turning into actual print sales is something that we see over and over again.’ Piracy a Phantom Menace? http://bit.ly/b6eEt

5th estate’s view on the potential for ebook piracy http://bit.ly/12ssmg | For me its about price + readers will play for quality content.

Piracy is a phantom menace for authors. Obscurity is the real danger
http://bit.ly/b6eEt (via @Litblog)

Thank you Scott for the clarification.

I’m still sceptical though. In this interim phase between having less digital content out than printed matter, sales may well be increased by offering digital freebies. Those who read a lot (or in the industry) are opinion leaders and will have taken to the new technology. These individuals pass on the recommendation to the majority who are not yet digital.

But when 75% of us read books on a palmtop, what then? Haven’t record sales, newspaper and factual non-fiction title sales slumped since the increased use of internet downloads and sites like Wikipedia and Google?

More thoughts of ebook e-piracy: http://tinyurl.com/pptqzl

RT @Litblog:Piracy is a phantom menace for authors. Obscurity is the real danger http://bit.ly/b6eEt

@FifthEstate book piracy – a phantom menace? Join the debate at Fifthestate http://tinyurl.com/pptqzl

@FifthEstate book piracy – a phantom menace? Join the debate at Fifthestate http://tinyurl.com/pptqzl

[...] In the last few weeks the Catcher in the Rye sequel story that has been doing the rounds in the book news has got me thinking a lot about my dislike of the book that everyone else seems to love.  In the latest twist, last week a federal judge temporarily barred the US publication of the work by the Swedish novelist, who calls himself J.D. California, thus depriving US readers of the adventures of an elderly Holden and a drug addled Phoebe. Unless, of course, they turn to piracy to secure a digital copy of the book – a Holdenesque gesture perhaps?   [...]