Thoughts on Book Piracy

Over the weekend, I discovered that Dying Embers has been pirated.  I spent a chunk of time on Saturday contacted sites to get it removed.  I searched again on Sunday and found more sites where you can now download the PDF of my book for free.  One place showed over 600 downloads - which is more copies than I've sold to date.  If those had been paid for, I would now have $1200+ and be able to fund another book's art and editing without having to dip into our retirement funds or cut back on the grocery bill. 

But let's forget that for a second.  Let's say, for instance, that those people would not have purchased my book anyway.  I mean, I had a free day back in March and way more people snagged a copy on that one day than bought the book in the first three months of its existence.  People like free stuff.  Hell, there've been times in my life when I wouldn't have read a new book if it hadn't been free.  You know, times when I was scraping by, hoarding my pennies so I could afford to pay editors and artists and... Never mind.

The thing about giving a book away for free is that there's a certain level of hope that those free copies will generate buzz, and book reviews, and boosts in the rankings to help sell books.  It's the reason we do it.  We give, you give, it's all good.

But then you take what was a free book for one day, you upload it to a site where it's free all the time.  And those readers don't even bother to give a little somethin-somethin in return.  No buzz.  No reviews. No boost.  How is that equitable?

Now, some people get their undies in a bunch over piracy.  Personally, it depresses me, but I look at it as part of doing business on the internet.  You put stuff out there without lock & key, and someone somewhere will steal it.  Others actually say it's good for business.  They claim they see an uptick in sales after a book's been pirated.  I don't have sufficient data to back up or deny that claim.

You know, folks, I ain't rich.  I don't do this writing thing for my health.  Sure, I want people to read my books and enjoy them.  The more the better.  But I deserve to get paid for the effort.  Just like you wouldn't want someone coming up to you and making you work endless hours for nothing, writers don't want that either.  If you're unable or unwilling to purchase books for whatever reason, at least leave a dime on the dresser by writing a review, chatting up the book to people with money, or whatever.

Don't worry.  I'm not quitting.  There are enough conscientious and honest readers out there who are willing to save their pennies and buy my stuff that those others are a blip.  Still, that $1200 would've gone a long way to putting more books out there for the world to enjoy.  No income = no new books.  I can't keep funding this cycle any other way.

Sidenote: Oddly enough, Accidental Death isn't pirated as far as I can tell, but I haven't offered that one for free.  As such, I probably won't offer another one of my books for free again.  If you were one of those honest people who would've liked to read my books, but couldn't afford it, thank the pirates for that decision.

I mean, it's three freakin' bucks, people.  If reading is important to you, find a way to buy a book rather than download it from some site where the author isn't getting paid.  And FYI, as of 8/1/15, no site other than Amazon has any of my ebooks - not with my permission anyway.

'Nuff said.

Make Money to Have Money to Spend Money to Make Money

By now, I'm probably boring the shit out of you, but since I have marketing on the brain - and very little will to do any of it - I thought I'd ramble here a little more about it.

A few days ago, I read a blog post asking what kinds of services indie authors might be interested in paying to receive.  Just a sort of informal survey, I guess.  This morning, I read the comments.  Pretty much most of the commenters seemed to be in the same boat I am.  I'd pay for services like tweaking my marketing plan, getting better keywords, targeting where to advertise and how to do it effectively, etc. - over and above paying for cover art and editing - but I don't have the funding to do it.  AND I can't afford to pay for something that I'm not reasonably certain will work. 

I know I have to spend money to make money.  That's sort of a 'Duh'.  I also know that advertising works.  It just brings me back around to how much money I have in the budget, and I'm much really wowser advertising costs.  Suggesting a marketing consultancy service - where you pay them and you pay for the ads, too - at around $500-$1000 makes my miserly heart weep.  I just can't see it happening in the near future. 

But I know I'm not cutting the mustard as it is now.  I'm terminally lazy.  I'm also dancing along the fine line of 'effective marketing' and 'annoying the shit out of customers' - totally in fear I've fallen on the bad side of the tightrope with every tweet I post.  My sales are suffering because of it.  I know. 

You have to spend money to make money.  But you have to have money to spend money to make money.  Which means you have to make money to have money to spend money to make money. 

Dizzy yet?  I know I am.

But here's another wrinkle.  You have no way of knowing if the money you're spending is actually making you money in the long term.  Sure, if you shell out money for an ad, you might see a spike in sales.  That's pretty obvious.  If you shell out money for a better marketing plan... Will there be a spike?  Will it dribble in over time (which wouldn't bother me either, frankly) and how will you know it has to do with the marketing plan?  It could be coincidental because one reader told all her friends about your book over coffee on the same morning a piece of the plan went into effect. 

It's the not knowing that kind of makes me crazypants, ya know? 

Anyway, I'll keep chugging along - marketing where and when I can.  I will force myself to get back into the swing of cheerleading.  I mean, I kinda have to since I have another book coming out in less than a month. 

Speaking of which, the newsletter is about 75% ready and there'll be some exclusive things, free stuff you can win, and something to read (a little WIOH appetizer, if you will).  If you aren't signed up yet, the linky-loo is up there under the header pic. 

Yeah, that's about the speed of my marketing today.  Didn't cost me a dime.

The Tiring Marketing Part

Now I know why some people pay other people to do their marketing.  It's a tiring process.  Tweet, post, chat, blog, respond, comment, submit, lather, rinse, repeat.

But it's necessary.  Because when you stop - even for a day - sales trail off.

I took the weekend off.  I just couldn't bring myself to say another word about anything related to my books.  (Yes, I still tweeted because it takes like 5 seconds - but my tweets were lame because my heart wasn't in it.)

And yes, I realize that if you're following me closely, you may have seen the same sort of tweet, nestled in between witty repartee and interesting information, several times.  Those repetitious tweets aren't for you.  They're for the people who may only read a tweet from me every once in a while.  And for new people.  Do me a favor and ignore them.  I promise not to tweet only about buying my books, but understand those sales tweets have to be sprinkled in there along the way.  Otherwise, B.E. don't sell no books, and no sales means I'll have a harder time publishing more books down the road.  (The well of fundage is not infinite.  It's finite.  Very very finite.)

I want to keep doing this.  I love doing this - even the tiring marketing part.  I have books already lined up and more books coming.  Basically, I want to still be writing and publishing my books when I drop over.  In order to do that, I have to sell books, and in order to sell books, I have to market them.  So, be patient with the commercials.  You never know when one of them is actually telling you something you want to know - like a new widget is out or there's a sale on your favorite widgets, or whatever.  And like I said, I'll try to sprinkle them in with things that are actually enjoyable, interesting, educating, or witty. 

Thanks again for your support.  You rock.

(And no, this post wasn't for my staunch supporters who know me well, but rather for those who don't and might choose to stop following me because they feel like all they're seeing are ads.)

A Meeting at Corporate Headquarters

The other day, the CFO (Hubs) and the CEO (Moi) of B.E. Sanderson Publications (again, not a real company name, nor the one I would pick for an LLC if I ever went that way) sat down for an impromptu meeting.  The CFO called the meeting at approximately 7am - as he is usually way more awake than the CEO.  Since the CEO hadn't had nearly enough coffee and the secretary (also Me) wasn't inclined to take notes, there will not be a blow by blow of the deets.

Sales were discussed. For a breakdown of that report, go here.  Marketing strategies were on the floor briefly.  A production schedule was outlined as follows:

Expectations are that we will put out four books this year - at or near the quarters (i.e. March, June, September and December).  Book one is already out - Dying Embers.  Book two is at the editor - Wrongful Termination.  Book three is in production.  Book four will be contingent on whether Wish in One Hand gets picked up by Baen.  If it does, then the fourth book will be another suspense.  If it doesn't, then book four will be the first in my urban fantasy series - with the second and third books in that series coming out next year.

Then we sidebarred and talked about the potential of losing readers because of the genre switch from suspense to urban fantasy.  It was decided in order to prevent that, we will leapfrog the genres - putting out the UF in December, and then another suspense in March, UF in June, etc. 

It was at that point the CFO pulled the COO (also me) aside to ponder how exactly new books would fit into the schedule when the production team (also me) would be busy with getting the already-written books ready for publication.  The COO provided assurances and talked about production schedules and pointed out ways to make the production floor more efficient.  The CFO was not convinced, but agreed to hold off naysaying until he could see how this year went. 

Then a discussion of finances ensued.  The budget for this year looks good.  The expectation is to have the first three books funding the next book at least by the time it's ready to go into production.  If that isn't feasible, the financing issue will be revisited at that time.

The meeting then adjourned, and the CEO made the CFO breakfast.  ;o)

I hope you enjoyed that peek into the business aspect of self-publishing.  I wrote it that way to be funny, but also to underscore the fact that this is a business.  At least, if I hope to be successful, I need to approach it that way.  Money going out, money coming in and customers I have to think about to keep that money coming in - so I can continue to provide the product they want. 

Any questions?