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[YAPS] duckplajatin1959

apgambrell

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I wasn't sure where to put this so feel free (moderator type person) to move it where it belongs...

So angry. Someone stole my book and had it up for free download on some website. Almost 700 copies were downloaded. 700! That was money I could have used towards my bills and helping to pay for the work we had done on the well. Ugh. I already reported the site but I'm posting the link here so you all can check and see if your books were hijacked too because it looks like they've done it to a lot of people.

http://duckplajatin1959produnspickann.wordpress.com/
 

shaldna

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I wasn't sure where to put this so feel free (moderator type person) to move it where it belongs...

So angry. Someone stole my book and had it up for free download on some website. Almost 700 copies were downloaded. 700! That was money I could have used towards my bills and helping to pay for the work we had done on the well. Ugh. I already reported the site but I'm posting the link here so you all can check and see if your books were hijacked too because it looks like they've done it to a lot of people.

http://duckplajatin1959produnspickann.wordpress.com/

Eugh. That's pretty crappy. :(

But, in all honesty, those 700 downloads were most likely because it was for free and those people probably wouldn't have downloaded it if they had to pay. Or at least that's my experience.

Still pretty sucky though.
 

AnneGlynn

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Sorry to hear this, Annabeth. If it's any consolation, I think shaldna is right. People willing to download from a pirate site aren't (usually) paying customers -- although, if you grab 'em with your story, they may return and buy the sequel.
 

Chasing the Horizon

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It's generally estimated that less than 1% of people who pirate a work would've paid for it if it weren't available to pirate, so you can relax about lost sales. If anything, being pirated might generate you more sales of other/future works than you lose by the actual piracy itself.
 

Pisco Sour

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I feel for you and yes, it's not easy to see this. But I agree with the others. My debut was pirated over 5k times. I stopped looking after that, so maybe more. I'm not going to get myself into a frenzy of anger about it bc I've learned that pirate sites pop up all over the place. My book was free, and these people wouldn't have read the book otherwise, and never would have paid for it anyway.

I save my anger for the pirate sites that charge people for my, and other's books. Unfortunately, they've profited from my work by charging for it. That boils my blood.
 

Weirdmage

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It's generally estimated that less than 1% of people who pirate a work would've paid for it if it weren't available to pirate, so you can relax about lost sales. If anything, being pirated might generate you more sales of other/future works than you lose by the actual piracy itself.

Where does that estimation come from? Sounds like the usual BS peddled by the piracy advocates to me.
There's quite a few people online who say they pirate because they think the e-book is too expensive, or because it's not available in their preferred format at the moment.
I have yet to see any evidence that piracy helps sales, although people keep saying it like it was the undisputed truth. I did see a list of research on piracy at one point a few years ago, but it was very inconclusive. And almost all of it was done by voluntary surveys...and to be honest I don't think trusting people who think stealing books are OK is any basis for a policy.
 

Amadan

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Where does that estimation come from? Sounds like the usual BS peddled by the piracy advocates to me.

I don't know if anyone has managed to quantify losses from piracy, but 1% sounds reasonable to me.

I actually rather doubt that 700 downloads from a pirate site represents even 7 people who otherwise would have paid for it.
 

jennontheisland

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I wasn't sure where to put this so feel free (moderator type person) to move it where it belongs...

So angry. Someone stole my book and had it up for free download on some website. Almost 700 copies were downloaded. 700! That was money I could have used towards my bills and helping to pay for the work we had done on the well. Ugh. I already reported the site but I'm posting the link here so you all can check and see if your books were hijacked too because it looks like they've done it to a lot of people.

http://duckplajatin1959produnspickann.wordpress.com/
If the bolded part was your intent, a more appropriate title for the thread might help.
 

stephenf

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I do understand how horrible scammer and thieves are . It can be very disturbing. But it is done , and you may have 700 adoring fans.
 
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c.m.n.

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I've Google'd my pen name, found tons of torrent and pirate sites that list my books. Haven't done a darn thing about it either. Why?

What everyone has mentioned here. Most pirates see it for free so they download it. Many pirates wouldn't have bought it anyway. But consider it possible that one (or more) of those 700 downloaders might check your name out later on a legitimate book site and purchase your next title.
 

Cyia

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Basically, if you have a book for sale, this will happen. There's no way to prevent it, and a take-down request (even an official one) isn't a guarantee that your book will be removed. Several of these sites operate outside the US and territories where the requests and notices carry any wait.

The best thing you can do is to stop thinking of the downloads as lost sales - they're not. People who frequent torrent sites aren't customers; they're looking for a handout.

Contact your publisher, if you have one that handles this sort of thing for you, and send them a link to where your specific book is being offered. (Not just a generic link to the site where they'll then have to search to find you.) Then forget about it.
 

jennontheisland

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I've Google'd my pen name, found tons of torrent and pirate sites that list my books. Haven't done a darn thing about it either. Why?

What everyone has mentioned here. Most pirates see it for free so they download it. Many pirates wouldn't have bought it anyway. But consider it possible that one (or more) of those 700 downloaders might check your name out later on a legitimate book site and purchase your next title.
The overwhelming majority will never even read the book anyway. It's a game of who has the most torrents going. The more they have the more they can seed, and ebooks are cheap (in terms of upload speed) and plentiful.

I'd be amazed if 1% of pirated ebooks were actually read from start to finish.
 

Beachgirl

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If I tried to keep track of and send take down notices to every site that has pirated my books, well... I'd never have time to get any writing done. I stopped even looking a year ago, since all it accomplished was raising my blood pressure.
 

JulesJones

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I *know* that some of the pirates are reading my books, and pirating the sequels, because I've found a couple of forum threads where they complain about the fact that I've never written a third Spindrift book. (Well, children, that would be because the second one didn't sell well enough to justify my time and my publisher's money on writing a third one...) I still don't bother chasing them down, other than telling my publisher about the ones who actually charge. Life's too short to play whack-a-mole with the pirate torrent sites.

(Publisher says that some of the "buy your ebooks cheap here" sites are phishing sites based in jurisdictions that don't care about foreigners being ripped off. So they won't be able to get them taken down, but buying from those sites will bring its own punishment.)
 

shaldna

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Where does that estimation come from? Sounds like the usual BS peddled by the piracy advocates to me.
There's quite a few people online who say they pirate because they think the e-book is too expensive, or because it's not available in their preferred format at the moment.

From personal experience I know that people pirate because they can. I used to download movies, books Tv shows etc simply because they were free. I *might* give them a go when I'm bored.

That said, some of those things I pirated back in the day I went and actually bought the next series/boxset/installment of because I liked it.

But in general I've found that if someone isn't inclined to pay for something, then they never will.
 

Graylorne

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I think Victoria is right and those figures are fake.
I checked and found my Nadril novelette on their site, with 95 downloads today and 1062 last week.
Well, it has been free to download for a year and on Smashwords it did barely 150.
At least they gave me a rating of 9.7 out of ten with 85 votes. Not bad at all...
 

veinglory

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It's generally estimated that less than 1% of people who pirate a work would've paid for it if it weren't available to pirate, so you can relax about lost sales.

I don't agree that is generally estimated. We have zero data so people just guess. I personally think some types of books have their profitability seriously damaged by piracy.

That said, piracy is routine and almost ubiquitous. every author has to decide what their strategy is. Mine is to intermittently use a DMCA service. Whether I am losing or even gaining money I believe is asserting my copyright.

When you do this, you learn many of these sites are pseudo-pirates and do not even have the book file.
 

MysticWolf12001

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It's been taken down

I clicked on the link provided by the OP, and the site's been "suspended" at least for violation of Terms of Service. I don't know if that means it's permanently taken down, or just suspended. Only time will tell.
 

robjvargas

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If I tried to keep track of and send take down notices to every site that has pirated my books, well... I'd never have time to get any writing done. I stopped even looking a year ago, since all it accomplished was raising my blood pressure.

There are services that do this for you. It's a cost. It's up to you, but one reason that (for example) Disney is so strident in taking down any likeness of Mickey Mouse is that the law says (in broad) that once you cease protecting, you lose that brand.

That's trademark law, not copyright, but that could be relevant to you someday, too. You have to decide for yourself if it merits the effort/cost.