Seriously?

[Marc Joan]

Turns out that my ebook is being offered for free from a pirate site less than a week after publication. I'm not suggesting anyone clicks on it, it's probably stuffed full of viruses, just wondered if anyone knew what can I do about it if anything?

 

[Carol Rose]

Welcome to the exciting world of being published, my friend! You've won.... an illegal download!! But wait!! There's more!! You've won ten THOUSAND illegal downloads!!

There are literally thousands of pirate sites. Some respond to DMCA takedown notices, but most laugh in our faces because they know there's nothing we can do about it. Even the ones who take down your book have it right back up there again within hours or days, at most.

Wait until you run across one of the hundreds of groups on Facebook where people swap our books on their pirate sites!!! And when we complain, report the group, or go in there and blast them all for being pirates and scum, they report US to Facebook!! AND Facebook does NOTHING. NOTHING.

My advice... and I may get flamed for this... ignore it. Seriously. It's so common with romance ebooks that most of us would need a full time job simply to TRY to keep up. Anywhere from thousands to hundreds of thousands of illegal downloads a week for us, from multiple sites.

It sucks great big, sweaty, hairy donkey balls, but until someone in government gives a rat's enough to actually DO something about it, none of this will change. It will only get worse as more and more people realize they can easily get away with it.

I truly hope there's a very special place in hell for people who steal others' work. A dark, scary place, with things that hurt beyond imagination, and keep hurting until the perp is pushed past their limits and then some. And of course, because they'll be dead, they can just keep being tortured over and over and over and over and over again for all eternity.

Lastly, I am SO sorry this happened to you. I know exactly how you feel. (((HUGS))

 

[Marc Joan]

Thanks! At least...oh well, you know what I mean. Guess I'd better go and prepare for a diet of hairy donkey balls for a while

 

[Carol Rose]

Thanks! At least...oh well, you know what I mean. Guess I'd better go and prepare for a diet of hairy donkey balls for a while

They go down easier with tequila.

 

[Brian Clegg]

I absolutely agree with Carol Rose - just ignore them, however painful that seems.

I get at least a handful of alerts every day from Google Alerts for this kind of thing. Once upon a time I used to let my publishers know, but it turns out most of these sites are fake, attempting to pass on viruses etc. But even if they are genuine, the percentage of your real readers you will lose this way is trivial. Piracy only becomes a serious threat to revenue when it's difficult to get your hands on legitimate copies in a timely and relatively cheap way and/or when there are big sites like Napster was for music. This kind of thing is just noise. It feels wrong to ignore them - but it's definitely the right thing to do.

 

[Marc Joan]

Thank you very much, Brian and Carol -- great advice! Especially re tequila!

 

[AgentPete]

it turns out most of these sites are fake, attempting to pass on viruses etc.

That's my perception, too. I don't advise anyone to click through to most of these sites, but if you do, mostly you won't find a free download.