This particular article and the study it mentions are kinda dubious in conclusion. They just didn’t generate enough data, imo.
But, that’s whatever.
Anyone want some anecdotal shit followed by an opinion? If so, read on. If not, well, don’t.
So, I’m a writer. Not a successful one in the usual sense, but I have a pretty good sized body of work, and I actually have a few fans.
So, I got published years ago, back in the oughts. Didn’t sell for shit. Couldn’t even talk family into buying copies. Total flop, but part of that was the small publisher and lack of support marketing.
So, fast forward to maybe ten years ago? Maybe fifteen, can’t really recall. Point being that I was reworking the old books, writing new stuff, etc. My homie, Spider, wanted to read my stuff, so I just passed him epub versions. Dude moves them into his books folder that grts shared via soulseek.
Now, it was at least a decade since the published books were out. But. A few weeks after he tells me he “fucked up”, I start getting emails from people that actually read my shit, and wanted to read more.
Some of those people actually bought a different book via amazon. I got more sales to pirates than I ever got through normal methods.
My opinion? The zone in which piracy is going to hurt an author is narrow. When you’re small enough, even a 1% conversion of pirates to paying fans is awesome. And, when you’re big enough, even 1% loss of paying customers is a drop in the bucket you’ll never notice.
But somewhere in the middle, there’s a range where the lack of sales that would otherwise happen can be the difference between writing for a living, and not making a living at it.
But I’d still rather piracy exist, because I hold the same philosophy as that game dev that said culture shouldn’t only be available to those who can pay for it. That’s a paraphrase, and I can’t remember the guy’s name. But it’s the same reason I gave copies of my print books to libraries in the area I live. I would rather people be reading, have access to material, than make a little extra.
Fwiw, I barely made enough off of any of the traditional published books, or Amazon sales, to equal about two weeks pay at my job as a CNA. Total, over years lol. I made some damn good money doing custom fiction, and research & reporting back in the day, though.
I feel this way about music too. Not just pirated tunes, but copyright takedowns on shorts and in yt vids
Finding new artists as a fan is hard enough. If someone has reposted your music video as their own, sure I get it.
But a minute clip or less? Fans or haters talking about it? Let that thing fly free baby! I’ve found so much new music that was background music. I use the family Spotify account or buy merch more than I buy music these days to support.
I’ve bought so many books from authors that became my favs after they did a free epub once that got my attention.
There’s always the “do this thing free for the exposure” problem - but people who say that are usually trying to exploit artists for their own gain. Fans are different, they are grass roots and not trying to exploit, but trying to recruit.
Most new books I find are books I check out from my local library. While the library did pay for a copy, so it’s not quite the same, as a reader I didn’t pay anything for it. The barrier to trying the new book is very small, and if I don’t like it I haven’t lost anything.
Readers finding your book online for free are having the same experience. Maybe not everyone who reads it will want to buy copies, but some will. Just like how some who find your book in a library would want to buy their own copy.
That’s a very astute observation and it made me wonder if piracy was partly to blame for the death of the B-tier game (at least on PC). In my younger pre-Steam days me and my friends would pirate 9/10 of the games we played (if not more). Games like CoD/Fifa/Sims would get enough sales from regular folks, but who the heck was going to take a chance on something like Will Rock or Scrapland? I would often check out games at my local store and then go home to torrent them, meaning they lost out on sales from the kinds of weirdos who the games were made for.
This particular article and the study it mentions are kinda dubious in conclusion. They just didn’t generate enough data, imo.
But, that’s whatever.
Anyone want some anecdotal shit followed by an opinion? If so, read on. If not, well, don’t.
So, I’m a writer. Not a successful one in the usual sense, but I have a pretty good sized body of work, and I actually have a few fans.
So, I got published years ago, back in the oughts. Didn’t sell for shit. Couldn’t even talk family into buying copies. Total flop, but part of that was the small publisher and lack of support marketing.
So, fast forward to maybe ten years ago? Maybe fifteen, can’t really recall. Point being that I was reworking the old books, writing new stuff, etc. My homie, Spider, wanted to read my stuff, so I just passed him epub versions. Dude moves them into his books folder that grts shared via soulseek.
Now, it was at least a decade since the published books were out. But. A few weeks after he tells me he “fucked up”, I start getting emails from people that actually read my shit, and wanted to read more.
Some of those people actually bought a different book via amazon. I got more sales to pirates than I ever got through normal methods.
My opinion? The zone in which piracy is going to hurt an author is narrow. When you’re small enough, even a 1% conversion of pirates to paying fans is awesome. And, when you’re big enough, even 1% loss of paying customers is a drop in the bucket you’ll never notice.
But somewhere in the middle, there’s a range where the lack of sales that would otherwise happen can be the difference between writing for a living, and not making a living at it.
But I’d still rather piracy exist, because I hold the same philosophy as that game dev that said culture shouldn’t only be available to those who can pay for it. That’s a paraphrase, and I can’t remember the guy’s name. But it’s the same reason I gave copies of my print books to libraries in the area I live. I would rather people be reading, have access to material, than make a little extra.
Fwiw, I barely made enough off of any of the traditional published books, or Amazon sales, to equal about two weeks pay at my job as a CNA. Total, over years lol. I made some damn good money doing custom fiction, and research & reporting back in the day, though.
I feel this way about music too. Not just pirated tunes, but copyright takedowns on shorts and in yt vids
Finding new artists as a fan is hard enough. If someone has reposted your music video as their own, sure I get it.
But a minute clip or less? Fans or haters talking about it? Let that thing fly free baby! I’ve found so much new music that was background music. I use the family Spotify account or buy merch more than I buy music these days to support.
I’ve bought so many books from authors that became my favs after they did a free epub once that got my attention.
There’s always the “do this thing free for the exposure” problem - but people who say that are usually trying to exploit artists for their own gain. Fans are different, they are grass roots and not trying to exploit, but trying to recruit.
Most new books I find are books I check out from my local library. While the library did pay for a copy, so it’s not quite the same, as a reader I didn’t pay anything for it. The barrier to trying the new book is very small, and if I don’t like it I haven’t lost anything.
Readers finding your book online for free are having the same experience. Maybe not everyone who reads it will want to buy copies, but some will. Just like how some who find your book in a library would want to buy their own copy.
That’s a very astute observation and it made me wonder if piracy was partly to blame for the death of the B-tier game (at least on PC). In my younger pre-Steam days me and my friends would pirate 9/10 of the games we played (if not more). Games like CoD/Fifa/Sims would get enough sales from regular folks, but who the heck was going to take a chance on something like Will Rock or Scrapland? I would often check out games at my local store and then go home to torrent them, meaning they lost out on sales from the kinds of weirdos who the games were made for.