Thoughtful Thursday-Pirates...and not the fun kind

Photo courtesy of MorgueFile and chelle

Book piracy. It's something authors rage against. Recently, I was alerted to the fact that one of my books was listed on a piracy site and available free to download.
I don't know whether to be flattered or pissed off. I'll settle for pissed off.

Do you know how long it takes to write a book? For me, it's about a year. Not a year of 8 hour work days either, but closer to 15 hour work days, 7 days a week. And for what? A book. A book that sells for a whopping $2.99.

When someone steals an ebook, it's blatant disregard for the author's work. Not to mention--it's ILLEGAL. And yes, there are people that download on these sites unaware that it's illegal. (I would say if a book is for sale on Amazon, you can guarantee it won't be free elsewhere). But there are readers that don't think it's a big deal to steal a digital copy of a book. To them I would ask: would you steal a hard copy of that book from your local bookstore? No? It kind of ranks up there with that. 

It's not about the money, it's the principal of the thing. Let's face it, unless they're famous, authors don't make massive amounts of money.
I am not famous. Yet. I work hard. I write because I love it. But I don't write free books. If I did that, I would call my writing a hobby. And it's not a hobby, it's my career and my life. 

What should you do if you find your book on one of these sites? Send them a take-down notice, courtesy of DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act). You may have to keep on these sites and check back to make sure they remove your book, but be persistent.

You may cut and paste, by the way!

Dear Mr. XX,

Please remove the following Copyrighted material from your site.

Search Query: (Book Title)

Infringing Web Pages: (list all sites the email is going too)

Website to prove that this book is for sale and not public domain: (full link to your books buy page)

You may Contact me at: (your email address)

I have a good faith belief that use of the copyrighted materials described above as allegedly infringing is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.

I swear, under penalty of perjury, that the information in the notification is accurate and that I am the copyright owner or am authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.
Your Name/Signature

***

You can also send a notice to Google requesting that the pirate site be deleted from Google search engines. Here's the Google link to that.

To readers--please support authors and acquire books legally. It's through your purchase that they are able to do what they do. Happy reading!