Many authors are terrified that someone will steal their work. They don’t realize their true enemy is obscurity not piracy.
If a million people “steal” your book you win. As long as you get credit you win when people share your book with others. Books that sell well spread from person to person like a virus. The harder you make it to share your work the more obscure you will be.
Piracy is Viral
Image if church small group leaders started copying chapter 5 out of your book to study at meetings. Would that hurt? No. Because now people who had no idea who you were before are now reading what you have to say. They are way more likely to buy your book than before it was “stolen.”
Everyone Wins from “Piracy”
- You win because your platform grows, you can book more speaking engagements at higher prices.
- They win because they can use your work to minister to others.
- Your publisher wins free marketing. Your publisher spends a lot of time and money trying to get people to talk about your book. Books sell from word of mouth. Allowing people to share your works turns them into evangelists for free! More talk = more sales.
What do you think?
Do you agree that it is smart to allow people to share and even remix your work? Does the the idea scare you? How do you make it easy for people to share your work?
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8 Responses
Isn’t this why Kindle let’s you read the first chapter of anybook for free…to get you interested in buying the whole thing? Makes sense to me!
What you say makes sense for lesser known and unpublished authors. Unfortunately, they are not the writers who will suffer most from piracy. Best-selling authors will be the ones most pirated. And they will see a sharp loss of income as well-meaning fans along with unscrupulous marketers duplicate their work without paying for it. If marquee authors lose revenues, so do publishers. And when publishers go out of business, so will the hopes of many aspiring authors to ever reach best-seller status.
An author is not like a musical entertainer who can give away her work in exchange for appearance fees. How many people will pay $100 or more to watch an author read their book?
I realize you mean well, but following your advice could ruin an industry … and the careers of many writers who aspire to making a living in it.
Pirating an entire book, and putting up an excerpt are two totally different things.
Working writers don’t fear obscurity. We know we have an audience. We work hard to produce a product for that audience. What we fear is not getting a paycheck for our work to pay the mortgage because copies of the book didn’t get bought, or worse, not getting another contract to write more books because the publisher didn’t see the sales come in.
You do understand that if a publisher doesn’t see sales they might not continue to publish a writer and then the very thing you get enjoyment from might cease to be produced.
And I have to ask, would you seriously be ok with a million people each taking ten cents from your next paycheck because, hey, they’ll like you better?
I understand what you’re TRYING to say. Using the church analogy isn’t helping you, you know. Most churches have licensing agreements for things like song use and excerpting bible studies and what not. That means they’re not “stealing” or “pirating”.
And encouraging people to be “evangelists” by stealing a book? That *so* helps the world view of Christians. Thanks.
Then to reiterate what others say — you’re idea, while noble in thought is totally unrealistic to the reality of the publishing world. *IF* you mean excerpting – using a chapter – then there are arguments that you may have a point. If you’re talking full on “piracy” then you’re way off base.
Publishers see only one kind of “publicity” as helpful. Money. If an author SELLS BOOKS, they’re more likely to get that next contract. If someone STEALS their books and spreads ‘em around for free – outside the author or publisher control – the publisher think the author isn’t selling books and dumps said author. Also, the lack of royalties? The not recovering the advance? Means the author can’t eat, pay the rent, or their internet.
At what point does “free publicity” equate into having the author live in your garage? Most of us are barely getting by as it is.
I'm a dummy about this, but tell me how I can get all those little sharing widgets you have on the bottom of your article?
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[...] faster. It lowers the friction for sharing that can help your book spread like a virus. Remember piracy is not your enemy. Obscurity is.Imagine if Bible study leaders around the country copied chapter 4 of your book and [...]