Monday, April 13, 2009

Blowing off steam

Had a lovely Easter, a really enjoyable family day.
So with kidlets in bed last night, thought I'd do a bit of research for current WIP.
Before I started, I whizzed through my emails to clear my inbox and discovered a nasty snake curled up there...in the form of a Google Alert for my latest Harlequin Presents.

What's so bad about that?
'The Boss's Bedroom Agenda' was freely available on an illegal download site!
A reader had uploaded it last week and the book had been viewed 248 times already.
As you know from my posts here, a lot goes into writing a book. Loads of blood, sweat and tears. If you enjoy my books, I'd hope you'd shout it to the world: tell your friends/family/dentist/grocer/librarian/everyone to go out and buy copies of my books. Lend them to friends. Spread the word.
What I'd hope you wouldn't do after enjoying one of my books is upload to a site where hundreds of people can download it for free.
As Trish Wylie succinctly put it in her post here, it's stealing.
Our books are copyrighted.
When I lose out on sales, my sales figures go down.
My sales figures continue to go down, my publisher doesn't want to buy any more of my books and you don't get to read any.
That's the way it goes.
This blatant disregard for respecting authors' work makes me mad.
Yes, I spend a small fortune on books but I want to keep reading my favourite authors.
As for the steam coming out of my ears...every time I find one of my books being illegally downloaded from the Net, I have to report it to Harlequin.
It's a pain.
It's time-consuming.
And I'd much rather be writing.
Wish these darn download sites would disappear into cyberspace forever...

5 comments:

Mon Wood said...

It's terrible, isn't it? I hope the site gets shut down ASAP.

Liz Fielding said...

I'm so with you on that one, Nic.

Lacey Devlin said...

I'm pretty upset that this occurs at all but the idea that 248 people think it's okay to steal makes me furious. I'm getting my torches and pitchforks

LuAnn said...

Unfortunately, this isn't the first time ... nor the last ... this has happened. Others have been called on the carpet for doing this. Even if one stops, another steps up to take their place. There needs to be more clear cut laws on what infringes on copyrights and what constitutes plagiarism when it come to the Internet.

Unknown said...

I can't believe it's allowed to happen. Like you, I spend a fortune on books, give books away on my blog, in raffle baskets for conferences, However, the books some authors send me to review are without obligation and are sent because they know I love romance and I can't imagine anyone taking advantage!

As a non-author, I'm angry that someone would do this and yes it is theft! As one of your fans who appreciates your books and the time and love you put into your stories I can only say thanks for the pleasure you bring to us and hopefully this matter will be resolved!