The Disease Known as "Piracy" and its Impact on Independent Authors
What is a pirate, you might ask. No, not one of those scruffy looking guys who sails boats across the sea (unfortunately, because that would at least make it kind of cool, right?). These pirates deal more on their laptops than they do on a boat in the sea. A pirate is a person who illegally posts content online without the approval—or in some cases without their knowledge—of the original creator. There are many forms of pirates, of course, but in this article I will be focusing on the types of pirates who impact independent authors.
There is no doubt that piracy will impact an independent authors career—in fact, even traditionally published authors face just as much of a risk of being impacted by pirates when putting out a work. Unfortunately, there is no magical barrier that protects any specific author from facing these issues, and even more so, there is no real challenge for these people to carry out their work. Whether it is by photocopying, typing out each page hand by hand, or even just copy and pasting the entire manuscript into a new document, pirating a book can be simple—which poses a huge challenge for authors as this not only impacts their sales, but it also impacts their privacy and their image as a whole, even more it is a direct infringement on their copyright.
According to nerdslikeme.co.uk, an unsettling 17% of ebooks are read illegally. The article goes on to predict that this percentage translates to over 4 million ebook sales. Yikes! For an independent author like myself, this is certainly a scary thought—especially in a predomonantly online world gaining access to pirated content is easier than it ever has been, and I cannot see this issue going away anytime soon…which is quite unfortunate to think about.
All of this to say, when you’re looking to purchase your next best read, make sure to double check that the one who is selling the book has the rights to do so. Support independent authors and understand that even though that free ebook may appear appealing, it is taking away from the already small amount of profits that an author might receive from that sale.
https://nerdslikeme.co.uk/2019/05/10/blog-how-book-piracy-impacts-authors/