So once upon a time I thought I published a vlog but it turned out I didn't. Oops! Anyway, here's formerly-last week's vlog (now this week's vlog). Sorry!
Today's topic: pirates like Edward Kenway are awesome but book pirates are not. And this is why.
Happy viewing!
Twitter-sized bites:
Ever feel tempted to pirate a book? @Ava_Jae vlogs about why it's not the victimless crime it appears to be. (Click to tweet)
Why pirating books = telling the author "I don't think your years of hard work are worth anything." (Click to tweet)
Thank you for saying this!
ReplyDeleteYou're very welcome!
ReplyDeleteI approve that internet piracy is actually immoral today.
ReplyDeleteBut it does raise a few questions.
For the least, both anti-pirates and the media portrays pirated commodities as lost sales, despite more than half of the so-called pirates declaring that they would not buy them, even if they weren't up to download.
This leads us to another alley, the closed-box theory. Walk into a bookstore, and you can read half a chapter without being frowned upon. You buy a book through internet based on reviews, short descriptions, and low-resolution covers (Don't judge a book by its cover!). Same with video games. One wouldn't buy a piece of furniture without measuring it first.
In a normal situation, the bought book parallels to its description and reviews.
In a worse case, you abandon it becauee the reviews were overstatements, an the description was a hook.
In the worst case, you get an unidentified or corrupt file.
But let's row back to the topic, some authors/developers consider piracy a chance for passive marketing, because a well-pirated book brings lots of new fans that eventually buy the real thing (the story of minecraft, for example).
And then comes the DRM, which should be called LCP (Legit Customers' Punishment), something that makes pirates spend seven minutes more, but annoys most legal buyers, scaring tons od them away (spore, by EA).
I myself am neutral when it comes to piracy, I seldom download/buy ebooks because I prefer the smell of freshly printed paper. But I do think the publishing industry should learn from the mistakes made in both video games and movies. You can't stop piracy, as you can't abolish any other "crimes" like bullying. But you can make use of it when it comes to marketing, even as an author.
For me, the perfect solution would be displaying the first ten-twenty pages of a book beside the description. Not the "best scene evurr" or the "real aktsunn
Well...you actually CAN access the first several pages (sometimes up to two chapters even) of a book before buying online. Both Amazon and B&N have a feature that allow you to read a free sample, either online or downloaded onto your e-reader. So that's already a solution that's been implemented. :)
ReplyDelete