Pirated books are everywhere. I’ve seen piracy sites stock pirated versions of my novels and those of fellow authors. My publisher in fact has a reporting mechanism–I google my books from time to time, and post the links on my publisher’s report form. The next time I check the links, they are taken down.
As an author, I’m understandably upset by pirated books. I once was part of a book club, where the the book club leader distributed a link to pirated copies of the books we’d decided to read. These were all readers capable of buying a book (paperbacks, hardcovers, audio books) without affecting their household budgets.
While I protested and was later eased out of this club, I can’t say I don’t understand the plight of those readers born in places without access to libraries. I was born in such a place. I was eighteen the first time I stepped into a library, and I now know that some of the books I bought off Indian footpaths were pirated print versions of the actual book. I was naive enough not to understand that I was participating in theft.
So when readers tell me they can’t afford certain books but want to read them, and have logged on to piracy sites, I’m not devoid of empathy. I’ve been in situations where my budget would allow me food or books, but not both.
I understand someone who says they pirated a book because they were desperate to read it, and later in life began buying books when they could afford those. A poor student pirating college books because they can’t afford the course material, or these are not available in their library is also understandable. That’s not the majority of students, though.
What I cannot empathize with are those readers who claim that all books should be free. That authors should either give away years of hard work for free because everyone should have free access to books. That if trad authors lose sales, they should complain to publishers who pay very little in royalties, or that Indie authors shouldn’t worry about pirated books, because those readers wouldn’t have paid for books anyway.
To such readers, I have a few things to say:
1. If you are someone without access to libraries, consider other sources of free books:
Netgalley, Author Giveaways on Reader Groups on Facebook, or on Instagram,
Goodreads Giveaways, Stuff Your Kindle days (in case you can afford a device with a kindle app–which you can, since you can’t be reading pirated books without such a device.)
Many authors give away free copies of their books in exchange for genuine reviews–getting on an ARC team in your preferred genre is a good way to get free books.
Subscribe to newsletters from Bookbub or Fussy Librarian, which tell you about free and heavily discounted books, right in your inbox.
2. I understand that all of the above involve some effort, and are not a guaranteed method to get a book you want to read. They’re not as easy or fast as clicking on a pirate site, but if you do at least a few of them once in a while, you support the literary community.
Authors must survive in order to keep creating, and should not be punished for their creative drive. Just like books should have more access, authors should have more support.
3. With rising prices of books, being able to purchase them or borrow them from a library is indeed a privilege but consider also that the author slaving over writing a book needs to be compensated.
Not all authors are subsidized by spouses/ families or win grants. Many work two jobs, take care of their families and then work to write or market a book. Do you recognize that you wanting to read a fiction author’s work to entertain yourself while not compensating them in any way at all is also entitlement? You’re literally stealing the bread off someone’s table so you can be entertained.
4. Many shops sell second-hand books, and that’s a legal way of buying them. The cost is much lower–I see readers pick up entire piles of books for as low as 10 USD on the Facebook reader groups I’m part of.
Piracy might be one of the easiest ways to find books free of cost, but it isn’t necessarily the most ethical. Ethical ways may not be as easy, but in getting books through legal avenues, you ensure the survival of the book industry. Pirated books can be an option when there are no others, but advocating piracy isn’t great for the book world as a whole.
What about you? As an author, do you care if your books are pirated? As a reader, have you ever read pirated books?
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Hi Damyanti – never knowingly read or bought … but might have come across one in the last 15 years or so – but wouldn’t look for them – thankfully we have a library in the town, and I buy books – so have plenty here (yours too) … cheers Hilary
Hello š, what’s up
I either buy or borrow all the books I read, but every one of my published works is on some pirated site.
As a self-published author of ten books to date, with three more in the works, I find piracy appalling. I have also seen my books for sale in places I didn’t even know existed, or on eBay without my knowledge. I also do cover work, so between writing and cover design, I work full-time. Am I compensated for what I do? Far from it! But I don’t write for the monetary value. I also don’t want my work stolen or sold by others. I love that you mentioned all the places that have books available for very reasonable prices. I always donate my books to libraries and encourage people to read them from there. And yes, writers deserve to be paid for a job well-done the same as any other work. The topic of whether it’s ‘well-done’ or not is another issue! š Great post!
“but it isnāt necessarily the most ethical.”
It isn’t ethical – AT ALL. And it feels like you’re rationalizing these thefts – because that’s what they are, thefts. Plenty of options out there, especially via web-based reading platforms that can reach wider audiences. There’s no excuse for stealing. None. Sometimes you have to do without until you don’t have to anymore.
This is one time I part ways with your point of view. (I, too, have been pirated…but mostly as a teaser for people to open scammer websites.)
My work gets pirated on a daily basis, and I hear you–all piracy is theft. I do, however understand that some people pirate books when in desperate straits–a lot of lower-income students don’t have access to textbooks for example and will download / photocopy textbooks. It is stealing, but it is the kind of stealing I can understand. I’ve seen such students go on to do well and turn avid book buyers. My issue is with some people saying that ALL books need to free, and they don’t care what happens to authors. That is appalling.
We’re from different parts of the world, and that is probably a factor. Far more poverty and lack of access on your side of the globe š.
I would NEVER read a pirated book. In fact, I’ve reported sites that have pirated books, and even some Ebay accounts that were trying to sell pirate copies of books. By the way, many libraries have eBooks to lend, and even if you don’t live close enough to the library, you can pay a small annual fee to get those eBooks. I have a library card to a library that is half a globe away from me, and I’ve been able to get books from them (okay, so their head librarian went to school with me and she got it for me. Didn’t cost me anything, either)!
Thanks for your comment, Davida. Some readers do not want to put in the effort to legally get free or discounted books. I hope they eventually realize that there’ a limit to free, and one day this would lead to books not being written by humans but by machines.
Considering how hard we all work to write the books, it does bug me that there are those out there who pirate them, esp. when you can get a pretty cheap version of it on kindle.
Yeah. Readers have increasingly come to think that all books should be free, which is a dangerous idea.
Always buy from a reputable source
Agreed!
As far as I know, I’ve never read a pirated book, although I have borrowed some from Internet Archive, which I believe it borderline. The Authors Guild is actively advocating for authors against their works being pirated. https://authorsguild.org/advocacy/piracy/
Yes, it’s a relief to see authors actively speaking up against it and being so adamant as to the importance of preventing, or at least minimizing piracy.
To my knowledge I have never bought a pirated book and would never attempt to if I knew it was pirated. The argument that books should be free is pretty silly, especially when their are librairies. Nonbody wants to work for free, and how about the printing cost?
Exactly, there’s so much effort and expense which goes into producing a book, not to mention the amount of time authors, editors, publishers, proofreaders, reviewers, and other parties dedicate to sending it out into the world. It wouldn’t be fair to negate those efforts by providing completely free access to the resulting book. Which is why libraries, as you mentioned, are so useful to those who may not want or be able to pay to read.
No. People even steal Bibles… go figure!
Yes, piracy is present in so many aspects of life.
No, but there are quite a lot of pirate Kindle books available.
Yes, I’ve come across quite a few pirated Kindle books, too.
I have no sympathy for the it helps the author rationale of owners of pirate sites or the readers who use them. Theft is a crime.
It does feel quite discouraging to see one’s books being shared for free on illegal websites or circulated amongst readers.
I don’t, or pirated music. Aside from the huge amoral reasons, the risk of spam and viruses from those types of websites is too great
Good point about the risk of spam or viruses on pirate sites, Jacqui.
I completely agree.
No, I would never knowingly read a pirate copy of a book, any more than I would have bought pirated videos, cassettes, etc. I can imagine how upsetting it must be for you when you see people selling pirated copies of your books Damyanti. So much work goes into producing a book – particularly from the author. Piracy is a crime.
It doesn’t upset me any more…it happens so often. I wish that people would draw the line at advocating for piracy, but…nope. The good part is that honest, supportive readers like you are in the majority.