Pirating E-books is Not Okay. No, Really. It's Not.

Why Piracy is Not Okay

I've been getting a lot of search criteria hits that point to people looking for free illegal downloads of my books again, so I'm addressing it.

Here's what it boils down to:

If you are not me or my legal representative, uploading my e-books ANYWHERE is illegal. It's stealing and promoting e-book piracy.

Period.

My books are available at plenty of retailers for very reasonable prices and always have been.

You may be under the misconception that authors make a lot of money because the names with awareness in popular culture are successful (Steven King, J.K. Rowling, James Patterson, Danielle Steele, etc.). The truth is that the vast majority of us do not make much even with sales every day. It takes a lot of sales to match minimum wage in the United States (currently $8.00/hour in California), but even when we make that much in royalties for the year ($16,640), odds are that most authors have worked way more than 40 hours per week not just writing, but editing, creating marketing strategies, writing blog posts, doing promotion, etc., so our real hourly wage is still tiny. It is a small percentage of authors selling enough books to make a full-time living and live independently of a day job or spouse's income.

I am not one of those independent authors.

So when I get notifications of people looking to steal my work - yes, that's what is is, stealing - it hurts and it pisses me off. Buy my books or don't read them. It's that simple.