Amid the dire predictions for publishing, the fumbling about with ebook pricing and the growing hysteria over book piracy, one thing has become perfectly clear: authors need to adapt.

What may not be so clear is that authors can get paid for their work without restricting either availability of it or readers’ convenience.

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Feral Intensity v2: Prologue -

A yelp of pain escaped when his fist smashed into my face. Knees hitting the ground, I caught a heavy blow to the temple and collapsed face down.

My arms were yanked back and wrists cuffed.

Man, Maureen’s going to be pissed in the morning. Fortunately, my hair hid the spreading grin.

Maureen’s my Girl Friday and best friend. She thinks I work too much and has made it a personal mission to regularly drag me out to clubs for fun. Her order is always the same: Leave work at the office and relax, Shady.

Tonight, I’d failed more spectacularly than usual, but the consolation prize was the shocked expression she’d worn, watching me leave with him. Maureen, or Reen as I call her, has an unhealthy interest in my sex life.

Okay, my lack of one.

My attacker began dragging me up the steps of an old farmhouse. His name was Charles Watson; Number Five on the FBI’s Most Wanted list, due to his hobby of rape and murder. The last count I’d seen put the number of victims at twenty-seven. He had stuck to his M.O., which was a club pick up and a drive out to a secluded location.

Too bad I was his choice for tonight’s menu.

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I don’t think there’s really any point to this post, so skip over if you like.

I was raised that if you wanted something, you worked to earn it.

The one time I faltered from that, at about age seven over a package of bubblegum, I was not only made to publicly humiliate myself, but got my ass busted for stealing, grounded and given extra chores so I’d have plenty of time to contemplate the sin that earned all of that.

It was a lesson I took to heart, and I seriously doubt that I’m the Lone Stranger in learning it.

Growing up, one of the most excruciating punishments for wrong doing my parents devised for me was to ground me from reading for enjoyment.

I was one of Them: a four-eyed little bookworm who preferred my nose buried in a book, imagination being sparked by what I read, to socializing or playing.

I’m still that four-eyed bookworm, just older and taller now. I have developed the ability to socialize, make friends and not stay stuck in my imagination all the time.

But I still believe that if you want something, you work to earn it.

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I’ll be the first to admit that I know little about publishing, building a readership, promotion and marketing. I’m like any other new author/self-publisher: stumbling along, trying to figure things out as I go.

But I have learned some things with that stumbling along in the past two years and when I see certain opinions or advice, I’m irked by how simplistic or off base it is.

Case in point: I’ve been participating in a discussion here.

One commentor said pirating isn’t stealing, it’s copying.

My reply:

Actually, it’s illegal distribution and copyright infringement, if my understanding is correct.

Whether it’s actual ’stealing’ or not, it’s considered by law to be illegal.

Loaning a physical book to a friend isn’t stealing – because of the First Sale doctrine on physical objects, once you purchase a print book, it’s yours to do whatever you want with.

But ebooks aren’t physical books, they’re digital files. You can’t ‘loan’ a digital file, you have to copy it to make it available to that friend.

A physical book is gone from your possession until your friend returns it. An ebook file is still in your possession and your friend has a full copy as well – which is distribution without permission of the copyright holder, thus illegal by law.

Authors/publishers have long accepted that a print book is out of their control once that first sale is made.

But ebooks are the proverbial horse of a different color. Both readers and many authors/publishers want to pretend they aren’t. That they’re just a more convenient form of books.

Which they are; but with that convenience of less cost to produce, collect and store also comes the convenience for those who decide to illegally distribute them for whatever reason they have.

It’s not surprising authors and publishers get so angry when they learn their books are being downloaded for free, and see each download as a financial loss.

DRM isn’t the solution. Consumers complain it implies they’re all criminals, and writers that do use it are trying to protect their work and ability to earn an income.

Scanning books or putting them on file sharing downloads also isn’t the solution.

Both are just causing a widening division between authors and readers.

I wish there was an easy solution, but there’s just not at this time.

Another said he’d stop downloading books when publishers stop shafting authors.

This was my reply to that:

As an independent author/publisher, I’ve been following the whole Ebook piracy saga with much interest.

I don’t considered a pirated copy to be a lost sale, because as was mentioned above, a lot of people who download books have no intention of paying for something they know where to get for free.

However, I also agree that the cover prices of books have been steadily increasing over the last couple of decades, and that has had a major effect on my ability to purchase books as a reader.

They’re just too damn expensive to buy many of in any given year any longer.

Even so, the remark made above in the comments about “I’ll stop downloading books when publishers stop shafting authors”?

Allow me to play Devil’s Advocate:

You’re contributing to the shafting of authors, because traditional publishers likely view pirated copies as a loss to their bottom line, and want to make that money up somewhere.

You’re contributing to higher prices, because again, they want to make that loss up somewhere.

The lack of availability in digital format mentioned as one reason people download books is a good point.

However, because book piracy IS growing and IS a hot topic, publishers AND authors are reluctant to put titles out in a format that makes it even easier for those books to be pirated.

So piracy basically contributes to lack of digital availability, higher Ebook cover prices and authors getting shafted over their share of Ebook profits.

/end Devil’s Advocate

I’m not too worried about Ebook piracy. I’m not a well-known author, I don’t depend solely on my writing to put food on the table, clothe my kids, pay my bills, etc.

I used to worry about it, because everyone was freaking out about it, but after some thought, I decided the worry was just getting in the way of writing, and if I kept worrying, I might end up quitting.

So I don’t worry about it. =)

A couple of other commentors seemed to feel I was complaining about sales and profit based on my input.

I am a bit: I think most distribution channels take too much of a cut for mostly automated listing of submissions. There are exceptions, and changes on the horizon, but really…demanding 50% or more of the cover price from people who are providing you content for your customers? Whose content you use as an advertising draw to sell highly priced ereaders to your customers?

Come on!

And it was suggested that ‘paying Amazon’ was a choice made for wider distribution. Well, duh…but not just that. The same commentor said to take out a loan to pay for editing/proofing/etc. and to stick a PayPal button on your own site, sell through it.

I’d hazard the guess that the influx of new authors are mostly people hoping to supplement their existing income a little with book sales. Going into debt doesn’t help that, now does it?

And your average reader isn’t going to spend hours hopping from author’s site to author’s site searching for something to read. They’re going to go where it’s convenient and easy to find/browse books: Amazon, B&N and such sites.

Not putting your books on those distribution channels is pretty much cutting off your nose to spite your face. Your website is highly unlikely to ever draw the traffic and potential buyers in a month that Amazon or the others do in a day.

I’m curious about pricing. Readers have been pretty vocal that $10 is as much as they’re willing to pay for an ebook. That’s the demand, and there’s literally thousands of authors willing to supply it.

But the growing division between readers and writers worries me. I think about the future possibilities.

Readers demanded $9.99 titles as advertised from Amazon. Now Amazon reportedly takes losses on sales from traditionally published ebooks to supply that demand, because traditional publishers sure as hell didn’t cave on their pricing.

What if ebook piracy continues to grow to the point that the majority of authors raise their ebook prices in order to make up those ‘lost sales’?

Will we see a battle of wills break out? Authors mimicking those Amazon protestors by setting higher prices, readers boycotting those authors, and piracy increasing even more? To the point that some authors just give up and quit? Find something to do that isn’t so damn stressful?

I don’t know. It’s going to be interesting.

What do you think?