A few times a week, I go pirate-hunting.
It’s a dirty job, but someone’s got to do it!
I spend a few hours Googling my name, checking out links to free file-sharing sites, and sending out cease and desist notices.
Usually, the links are removed within 24 hours. Yay me!
Yeah, right.
The truth is, I probably only catch about 1/4 to 1/3 of the links that are actually out there available to download in the first place. (Probably less!)
And of course, they’re back up 48-72 hours after that. The pirates all say ARGH! (I mean, they say: “Would you please re-up?”) and the link goes back on RapidShare or MegaUpload or Plunder…
And the whole thing starts all over.
It’s like putting a band-aid on an artery.
Granted, I’ll admit, piracy kind of pisses me off. I have taken it pretty personally. I mean, WTH? You’re taking my book and you didn’t even ask me? Dude! Hence all the Googling and letter writing and craziness I obsessively undertake every week.
But frankly, I’m exhausted.
And J.A Konrath gave me a good reason recently to give myself a much-needed break.
Konrath decided to give a book away for free, as a piracy experiment, to see if it would impact his book sales. He’s not the first to think of this. Lots of people have done it before him. Baen did it ten years ago. It’s basically a marketing gimmick. A good one, but still, a gimmick. It’s the classic “If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em!” philosophy.
Me, I don’t have to give books away free. I’m one of the most-pirated (living) erotic authors on the Internet. My books are being pirated all over the place. Go ahead, Google “Selena Kitt” and “Torrent”. I’ll wait. See?
I stem the tide a few times a week, but it doesn’t stop the deluge for long. It’s like trying to kill cockroaches with a Barbie shoe.
So while everyone is giving books away free to “prove” or “disprove” that piracy is “good” or “bad” – and trying to up their sales by doing so (come on, guys, I’m pretty generous in that department – I already give away a bunch of good free reads)…
Me, I’m just giving up.
That’s right – the pirates “win.” I’m putting away my sword. No more pirate hunts for me!
So that’s MY piracy experiment. Let’s see if doing NOTHING AT ALL will impact my sales numbers.
Babysitting the Baumgartners is the #2 bestseller in Amazon Erotica this week. All you’ll need to do is watch the ranking. Up or down? Hm, I wonder…
I heard Jason Mraz encourages his audience to bootleg his live performances. I love him. Especially his live performances. And I own several of them. Bootlegged. It’s true, I’m a pirate.
Maybe this video’s got it right after all?