Piracy

[oomocks]

Hey everyone. I know I don't post here very often but I am a daily lurker going back many years.

As many of you work in the software industry I wondered if there was a recommended go-to site for reporting piracy? I've been Google Alerted a few times recently to sites hosting ebook versions of my novels and I think tonight I finally spat the dummy. Rather than relate again, I'll paste my Facebook status, that has so far failed to gain any worthwhile comment.

"For fellow authors or anyone else who may know, is there a recommended site or organisation for reporting pirate sites that host our books? It pisses me right off when you make something you slaved over for 2 years available at a low price point of £1.99/$3.20 and some f***er thinks that's still too much to ask and post it up for free. If they're under the misconception that we're all millionaires then it's time for a reality check. Most upcoming writers would earn more on an hourly basis working on a supermarket checkout. We do it because we believe in what we do, that doesn't mean we should f***ing starve!"

Yeah it's a bit heated, but I am pretty pissed off, and I have had a couple of drinks

[Misfit]

Sorry cant help on the question.

But when is your second book out???!

[oomocks]

Been out for a while now mate. I wasn't intending this as a promo post but here's the Amazon link.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Zombie-Room ... 184&sr=8-2

[Misfit]

You should have said! I seem to recall posts about the trailer?

How is it doing? Onto number 3?

Anyway. eBook bought as I couldn't find the download...
...

[oomocks]

Ha, thanks for the support

I passed the pirate site along to the publisher but who knows if it will make a difference. I posted a paragraph on the pirate site too explaining the difference it really does make to the industry. This is the first time I've had to deal with such blatant piracy. So far it's just been people asking for advance review copies and then sticking them straight on ebay

Yeah work on number three is going really well. Had inquiries from HBO on the second, so hopefully the third will take the next step and be up to the big - or little, screen.

[Dio]

Sadly, all you'll generally get for that sort of rant is a bunch of people telling you to stop whinging and be happy about the free publicity making it more likely you'll sell the film rights.

And if you get really noisy about it, some eejit who takes it personally and starts hacking or just generally doing twattish things to damage your reputation. Amazon reviews, whatever.

By all means report to your publisher, who one would hope would take it seriously, but I would be very wary about getting too angry and too public about things. It's not a course of action entirely without merit, but there are an awful lot of idiots out there and decisions made hastily in anger are rarely the best ones. I would recommend calming down and thinking it through first.

[oomocks]

Yeah that's fair comment. It was one of those 'straw that broke the camel's back' kind of days. I think what pissed me off the most was that the pirate site were actually making money from it and not even distributing freely. Complete some of these offers then you can download, type affairs.

And the movie comment was pretty tongue-in-cheek. There was interest at the London Book Fair for this one, but that was a one-in-a-million shot. Right now I'd settle for clearing the mortgage arrears, never mind a star on the Hollywood Boardwalk

[gilesgoat]

I think the sad reality is "you can't win piracy" in any way and after stuff I saw happening ( mistakes we all do ) around I think Dio suggestion about "be very careful what you are going to say around the internet" is a very safe advice.

How many times "you are perfectly in the right" but you can't say/do what really should ?

Let's put it this way "who does not want to pay for your thing never will", no matter what you do, all you can do is "focus you best" on people that want to.

About the "free publicity" and all the stuff .. I say "well yeah .. if only that would REALLY mean it helps me to sell A BIT more".

But does it ? Or just means you get pirated even more ?

Now - world is collapsing - I recently been studying "something" about marketing, pricings, etc. stuff, figures ..

It's not a nice study at all, quite worrying actually.

But the feeling you really get is "who does not want to pay it won't", but also I belive "you should never sell it yourself for too cheap", and this sentence I heard it so many times from so many different people I can tell you it's true.

Believe me "you won't get super sales" by putting your book at 1.99 and hope that "it's the low price that does", I think it's more likely "you just will get a few".

It's like Marcellus Wallace in Pulp Fiction ".. if you would have made it, you would have already done it. But you haven't made it .. Now when you'll fall down at the 5th round .. you'll feel a sting back here .. it's called pride .. "

Piracy is a curse but you can't fight it by yourself, it's much more than what you can do and unfortunately "it's in the human bad nature", it's a mental state ..

[oomocks]

Yeah I noticed the same thing with regard to the £1.99 pricing. Previously the ebook for my first was £3.79 and the second £6.99. The first book consistently outsold the second so I argued with both publishers to reduce each to £1.99. Sales are now pretty even, not much of an increase from the £3.79 mark price point. I'll wait till no-ones looking and jack them up again in the summer.

[Little stoned kiwi]

Dropping the price doesn't seem to achieve much. The turds stealing your work say they would buy media if it was at a price more reasonable to them, but they are lying to themselves to justify their overbearing sense of entitlement.
Sales work when the process is easy, such as existing customers on Steam making an impulse purchase.

[gilesgoat]

I think that dropping the price and/or how they technically say use a "penetration price" can work only IF :

- you really generate so much awareness about your product that you get really SUFFICIENTLY BIG numbers or people wanting to buy it

- that number is big enough that selling at that price still allows you to make the kind of profit you may need.

I think the biggest problem is "sell once at X and then quite some will expect it to be always at X".

It should be done only once "to get the big buzz" but then ideally allow you to return to "a more normal price" and get let's a "a certain % of that buzz" willing to pay you at that price.

But practice seems to show that "put it at X and then X is more or less always expected".

If still you don't get enough awareness and/or you still don't get enough people wanting to get it for a full price, it's just pointless and I am not sure that "trying a second time" makes any sense.

I think it's also clear that "a penetration price alone is pointless" you have to "back it up" A LOT with something else, because otherwise it becomes almost a "the only reason this is good is because is cheap".

So what happens then you'll have people only waiting "until is cheap" and waiting and waiting until you drop.

[gilesgoat]

Dropping the price doesn't seem to achieve much. The turds stealing your work say they would buy media if it was at a price more reasonable to them, but they are lying to themselves to justify their overbearing sense of entitlement.
Sales work when the process is easy, such as existing customers on Steam making an impulse purchase.

In my experience what I've seen working quite well on Steam are BUNDLES but under those circumstances :

- NOT TOO MANY things in the bundle
- still price "not too stupidly low"
- LIMITED AMOUNT OF TIME OFFER (i.e. offer ends after a certain time)
- Good stuff in the bundle

That seems to work, you may get in a bundle sale "lot more than expected" but it also has to be done "by the right people at the right time in the right place with the right means".

I mean Steam can do it and some things happen, other can try but the same kind of things won't happen.

That way you can catch some "impulse buy" but also again it's not a thing that you can repeat too many times, not with the same things of course.

[OX mkII]

Have you tried sending a request to the site admin demanding the removal of the download with some proof of copyright? Doubt the site would want any continuous legal hassle and would just remove it, the problem being of course that another one would just pop up in it's place and just ends up like a game of whacking gofers.

[Darkflame]

Some authors now just "give up" and post their work on torrent sites themselves, together with a "support me!" style message and a link to their paypal or website.

http://markwaid.com/digital/marketing-through-piracy/

Of course, its relatively easy for that guy as he has contract work for big firms as well as his own privately published stuff. But its still some quite good points he makes.

In my experience what I've seen working quite well on Steam are BUNDLES but under those circumstances :

- NOT TOO MANY things in the bundle
- still price "not too stupidly low"
- LIMITED AMOUNT OF TIME OFFER (i.e. offer ends after a certain time)
- Good stuff in the bundle

The key with bundles is mitigated risk for buyer: They aren't taking a risk nearly so much with their money, as something they are bound to like.

Often I have purchased a Bundle for one thing, but ended up enjoying something else in it far more. I would have never have bought that thing otherwise, no matter how cheap, as I would never have known I wanted it.

I think this is why a lot of piracy happens too; Its not that people wont value it for X price or that they want everything for free - its that they dont know if they want it to start with.
No amount of cheapness and price-discounts will fix that I think.

[Little stoned kiwi]

I think this is why a lot of piracy happens too; Its not that people wont value it for X price or that they want everything for free - its that they dont know if they want it to start with.
No amount of y and price-discounts will fix that I think.

Gee, that makes it all right then.
Does it really matter what self-justification they use? It doesn't excuse their behaviour.