Unsolicited Free Epubs: Has Anyone Else SDealt With This?

Your book has been pirated. If you search AW there are a few threads about how to deal wtih this. Good luck.

There are steps you can take if it really is a pirated version of your book, but be aware that much more commonly websites claim to have a copy of your book but are just fishing for credit card numbers (they'll require a user to create an account.) You can follow the same steps to combat that kind of listing, and you probably should deal with them all the same, but it made me feel a lot better when I found that the 'copies' of my book weren't actually copies of my book.

Even if they do have a copy of the book, a lot of pirate sites aren't going to remove your book when you ask them. Constantly monitoring and contacting pirates tends to mean a lot of stress and wasted time for no gain. They already know it's illegal, they don't care, and they will be back under another name even if their site is taken down. It's like playing whack-a-mole. The one ray of light is they weren't going to buy your book anyway, so these downloads aren't lost sales.

It's different if it's on a site that would usually care. Amazon will care if someone puts up a stolen copy of your book, for example.

I find pirate sites almost always respond to a correctly filed DMCA takedown notice. I issue them sporadically when I have the time.

I wish I hadn't read this post. My book is two days live and now I'm going to worry about this. LOL. Don't get me wrong, I've heard about this before...but I'd allowed myself to not think about it. I need to figure out a way to not think about it again.

Keep in mind that many of the listings do not even have the book. They list pretty much every book on Amazon as a tactic to either get credit card numbers or get people to download their malware.

Dhewco said:

I wish I hadn't read this post. My book is two days live and now I'm going to worry about this. LOL. Don't get me wrong, I've heard about this before...but I'd allowed myself to not think about it. I need to figure out a way to not think about it again.

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You just have to ignore it. In fact, there'd probably be something wrong if it didn't happen.

As others said, most such sites are phishing scams. As for the few "genuine" pirate sites, people who use them aren't likely to ever buy a book, anyway.

I come from Video Game Development, our studio's belief was that people only really pirate either because they have little money to spend on games yet enjoy them immensely or they want to try it out before putting hard earned money down.

A trick we found that really helps is to include a popup window thanking people for buying it and go into a little blurb of how their purchase has truly helped and changed our lives for the better (this will get included into the pirate copy) it makes the buyers feel proud of themselves and the pirates ashamed.

Another trick we used to play was to upload a copy of our game to the various sites and state clearly in the description, we ARE the developers/publishers and there's no catch, here is the game free of charge and then we'd include various links to the online stores where it could be purchased and ask if they enjoy'd it to please think about helping us pay our bills and continue to develop great games.

This may work well for Book Publishing as well.. just my 2 scents..

OliverSmith, I think the problem with that analogy may be that a video game more easily offers multiple-use potential. There are not only explicit levels to explore, but also easter eggs, hidden levels, cheat codes, etc.--all ways the experience is extended. That doesn't really happen with most books--you read it, and you're done. So if you give that away, there isn't a strong motivation to pay because the user has gotten everything they need from it already.

At least that's the way I use books. Also, every time you boot up a videogame, you'll see the screen--so I can see how that's a great idea. But short of putting a reminder on every 6th page, you can't replicate that for the book, and again, most people may not reread it in the first place, giving you only one chance at a guilt trip.

But I suppose, like most things, the world is based on the fact that the majority of people/buyers are honest and believe that the artist deserves payment. The actions of a few should not be able to upset that, as long as pricing appears reasonable and you're not asking a thousand bucks for your masterpiece.

veinglory said:

I find pirate sites almost always respond to a correctly filed DMCA takedown notice. I issue them sporadically when I have the time.

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Yes, and in my experience they'll almost immediately put it right back up. And create a thread about what a bitch you are, where people post how they'll now never purchase a legit copy of your book. The sheer nastiness was one of the things that induced me to walk away from writing for a few years.

Another idea I had as well is why not put it up on a pirate site but ask people if they don't want to pay for it, fine but at least review it?

A different user of the site sometimes puts it back up. Although an increasing number of file-share sites will now perma-block by title and/or pen name. Once they learn I will just DMCA them again, they don't want to be bothered with it either.

That said I haven't had time for a good DMCAing for over a year now. But when I do my listings will go down to single figure levels for a while. And I can get the remaining ones booted off Google so no one can find them.

I have no idea how it affects (or doesn't affect sales) I just enjoy making life difficult for them.

OliverSmith said:

Another idea I had as well is why not put it up on a pirate site but ask people if they don't want to pay for it, fine but at least review it?

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Because by doing so you're setting a legal precedent which allows your work to be given away for free. It will not go well for you if you subsequently have problems getting payment from anyone. And it will irk all the people who work hard to sell your books for money: why should they make the effort when there are other publishers out there who don't undercut them?

OliverSmith said:

Another idea I had as well is why not put it up on a pirate site but ask people if they don't want to pay for it, fine but at least review it?

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Baaaaaad idea. There's a good subset of troll culture that'll take that as a sign of weakness.

Plus, yeah, what Oldhack said. Some distributors require you to affirm that the content you're selling isn't public domain, and releasing your stuff in the manner you suggest would make it public domain.

OliverSmith said:

I come from Video Game Development, our studio's belief was that people only really pirate either because they have little money to spend on games yet enjoy them immensely or they want to try it out before putting hard earned money down.

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The majority of book pirates are not well-meaning people who'll go buy the book and future works if they like it. Sure, some people pirate because they're poor or can't get those books in their region, but the core of that community are not those people. Unless you like abuse, it's better to stay away from that community and not say anything to them. If you really must do the pirate thing, you can seed a torrent without having to interact with anyone.

There are other ways to give books away for free. They're small files, so they're easy to offer on your website. You can permafree a title on the major stores. You could put a copy somewhere like Wattpad.

Putting a note in the back of the book saying reviews are appreciated is something that some authors do. Does it increase reviews? I don't know. But it will do nothing about pirates. They're not going to feel guilty. Focus your time on stuff for the people who bought it, rather than stuff for the people who stole it.

ASeiple said:

Some distributors require you to affirm that the content you're selling isn't public domain, and releasing your stuff in the manner you suggest would make it public domain.

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That isn't what public domain means. I could put one of my stories on every pirate site I wanted, and it's still copyrighted to me. That won't change unless I state that I'm placing it into the public domain. It's about whether a work belongs to the public, not whether it's free on the internet.