I’ve been pointed to a post on Reddit.com that asks whether pirating ebooks (i.e. downloading them FREE off the Internet using illegal file sharing sites) is OK so long as you buy the book should you enjoy it. The post can be found here.
Personally, my thoughts are NO! In 2013 this is a feeble excuse and I really, really don’t like the idea that you are encouraging pirates to put an author’s work on the Internet by downloading their releases. Most pirates work through ‘ego’, they don’t make money, success to them is the number of accumulated downloads… if something gets downloaded a lot (e.g. an ebook they’ve ripped) they will upload more of the same kind of thing (i.e. more ebooks). Downloading lots of books then means that they will be encouraged to pirate lots of books.
The reason I call the ‘I am not sure if I will like it’ excuse ‘feeble’ is because almost every author writing today has a website that has some kind of extract/example of their writing and, even if they don’t, Amazon has free previews of nearly every book currently available on its store. For the time it takes to access an illegal torrent/file sharing site, download the torrent / file and load it onto your device you could have visited one of the above sites (Amazon or the author’s / publisher’s site) and assessed their content legally and without tempting any pirates to steal the earnings of a genre writer you (hopefully) will end up admiring and respecting. Remember, guys and girls, it doesn’t matter how honest your intentions are, there are plenty of people out there who thrive on ‘free’ stuff and, to be fair, many that don’t even realise how much of an effect it can have on a genre authors (quite often rather moderate) income.
My request to readers would be PLEASE do not hurt our genre and the industry by being tempted into downloading books for free. Every sale an author makes pushes them up the best sellers list (getting them further noticed), gives a signal to a publisher that sequels should be forthcoming and helps an author pay to feed him/herself and his/her family. Don’t take any of that away from them… or us, their fans.
