I know, I already talked about this on Monday, but since then, another issue has come to my attention. Several friends* discovered that their books had been stolen in their entirety and listed as being published by a scam publisher - under their name with their copyrighted cover art and everything, but with none of the monies coming to the author. As far as I know it's only on iBooks, and Apple is being cooperative, but the loss for some authors is totaling in the thousands.
These shitheads take the books, list them for a dollar less than the authors are selling them anywhere else, and rake in the bucks.
Short answer: If you see a book for free or for cheaper than it ought to be - even on a reputable website - check to make sure you're getting a legal and legitimate copy. Otherwise, it's stealing. All of my books say Sold by Amazon, with no actual publisher data, except for paperbacks which list Createspace. I am the publisher, so if you see anything otherwise, it's a scam and I'm not getting a penny. Hell, I only sell through Amazon right now, so if you see my books listed ANYWHERE else, it's a scam. They're thieves and they're part of the reason I have to scrape and scrounge to publish books.
Having said that, though, not all writers publish exclusively to Amazon, so keep your wits about you when you're shopping. Cheaper may seem like better, but it's not. It's screwing your favorite authors and putting money in some heinous asshole's pocket instead.
Better more powerful people than me are on this one, but as soon as they nix one, another crops up. Like publishing books wasn't hard enough. Sheesh.
And if you're a writer facing all this bullshit, keep your head up. Fight the good fight when you can and cover your ass when you can't. :hugs:
*As far as I can tell, none of my books are listed on iBooks. Yet.
Every now and then, I find one of my books as a free download on Google docs. It's a pain to report the problem to Google, but they do take them down.
ReplyDeleteIt's even worse to find out someone's making money on your work!
Mine disappeared from iBooks yesterday so they are working on the problem. It took some big guns to get them to move faster than the snail's pace they normally travel. It is frustrating and disheartening. I'll keep writing, and keep up the vigilance but doing so takes time away from writing and editing so I CAN published new works.
ReplyDeleteAnd because of all the BS this week, I'm even further behind and now I have to get ready for my trip next week. Fun times! I should just drop everything and go fishing with you, B.E. ;)