Stop E-Piracy Blog Hop and a Guest Post by Cambria Hebert (Author)

 

Im Very proud to say that Book Addict doesn´t support piracy.

 

I´ve worked really hard to have the rep. I have and all the authors that have worked with me know that no matter what, I wont share an ebook  I wont send my ARC´s  to anyone else.

 

They even know that if I come across a pirate copy of a book, I´ll contact the author with the info.

 

I hate piracy, it hurts Authors and it hurt readers too. More Times than I can count people use the 3rd country excuse or the don´t have another way to get books. but guess what that is just a bunch of crap,if you have access to a computer you have access to books how do I know it? Well because I come from a third world country, we dont have bookstores, and we have one library and it sucks. the only way  I have to get a book is to go online and look for one. I dont even make 500 a month and I have to pay food,electricity, water, gas, my little boy school, meds and I also help my mother to support herself I end up having left about 5 dollars after doing all the monthly payments, and you know what i do? I save, so every once in a while I can buy a book; or if I have a bday or my anniversary or whatever, I don´t ask for clothes or perfumes no, I ask for another book. Amazon has a GIGANTIC list of free books, guess what? I grab those too and then im never out of books to read. 

 

Ok ok *takes a really really deep breath* sorry about that sore subject.

 

On a really happy note today I invited one of my favorite Authors ever Cambria Hebert to share her on this subject but first here is a little about Cambria.

 

Author. Blogger. Latte Sipper.

Cambria Hebert is an author who wrote her first book at the age of fifteen. It was terrible. But the passion for writing never went away so years later when she opened her laptop and started typing she worked until she wrote a book that she hopes everyone will be as excited about as she is.

Cambria is obsessed with werewolves and is terrified of chickens (they are creepy!)She is an animal lover that would choose coffee over food and her favorite TV show is the Vampire Diaries (Hell-O Damon!)

Please visit her blog and her author website:

http://www.cambriahebert.com

or

Twitter

 

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Hi Cambria

Hi!

 

Thank you for having me here today! Before we get to the down and dirty… the nitty gritty… let me tell you a bit about myself.

My name is Cambria Hebert and my second toe is longer than my big toe… you know what that means don’t you? *wags eyebrows* It means I am really smart. What were you thinking? He he he he he he.  I have no idea if that’s true but it sounds good, right? I am also addicted to coffee (particularly Starbucks) and I am scared of chickens (no, I am not kidding). I am also the author of the Heven and Hell series. It is a young adult paranormal series that does not have vampires or werewolves or fairies and it doesn’t have a love triangle either (even though it might seem like it would).

I have been invited here today to talk about something that isn’t as fun as any of the above.  But it is as scary as chickens… in fact I think it might be worse. 

Book Pirating.

Ebook Pirating, I think, has become a serious issue. I never really gave much thought about book pirating until it started happening to me. Over and over and over again…

I first got wind of the PDF reviewers copy of Before (my very first thing to be published which is a short story prequel to my first novel) being passed around without my consent. Then it started to pop up on a few pirating sites. Then Masquerade came out…

It popped up on several sites and thankfully I have some really good and loyal fans who emailed me and told me of some places. Some of the places my fans saw it they complained and sent emails about it to the site and it was taken down before I even got there. So thank you to all the fans who helped with this.

But the battle isn’t over. A few weeks later my husband googled my name (he does that sometimes to see what will come up, lol) and another pirating site popped up…

We went to the site and Masquerade had been on the site for one week and had a total of 20,000 downloads (in that ONE week)… it was number one is its category and even beat out and episode of the Vampire Diaries titled Masquerade (saw that episode and loved it, btw, LOL)

At first I was astonished that I got so many downloads and I was number 1… but then the reality sunk in and my (then) publisher was shocked (they sent a cease and desist letter to the site immediately).

The reality of that was that if I had gotten those 20,000 downloads legitimately in a week I could have made many best seller lists. And this was a site that you had to pay to be a member of… meaning those people who uploaded my book made money off it. I didn’t make anything off those 20,000 downloads.

If those had been downloads from Amazon and my book is priced at 2.99 the profits would have been a little less than 60,000$. (I wouldn’t have made that much bc my publisher and amazon take their cut but I still would have made a lot).

Since then, Charade and Between have been published and I recently found both of those books on several sites as well. It is hard to keep up with them all but we try to stay vigilant and have the stuff taken down when we find it. Some sites have my entire series up for people to download.

Many websites say they aren’t liable because while it IS on their site it is being uploaded on another site and then linked to their site so it isn’t there fault… no one wants to take responsibility because they all KNOW it’s wrong.

The way I feel about pirating is that it’s such a violation to the author. Authors work really hard and they work a long time on a single book – a book that is often priced less than a cup of that Starbucks coffee that I love. They get paid very little and what they do get paid a lot goes back into marketing materials, giveaways and the next book… I am not complaining in ANY way because we all choose to do it because we love it. I know I do but sometimes it hurts to know that someone can take your hard work and just give it away. It is so disrespectful to the author.

Here are a few of the pirating sites that I have found my book on:

      http://www.Ebookee.com

     http:// www.superiorz.org

     http://www.noeman.org 

   http://www.novshelf.com

   http://www.ebook3600.com

   http://www.freebookspot.es

   http://www.sharebookfree.com

  http://www.general-files.com/

The list goes on but that’s an example of some of the sites. If you are an author or even a devoted fan of a book and you want to know if it’s being pirated all you have to do is type in the title of the book into Google with the word Epub then just see what pops up.

If you are being pirated then you can contact the website (sometimes the contact tab is way at the bottom of the page in small font) you just email them this email:

Attn: Copyright Agent, [list illegal file share site here]

Pursuant to 17 USC 512(c) (3) (A), this communication serves as a statement that:

1. I am [your name] the duly authorized representative of the exclusive rights holder for [book title] as listed above;
2. These exclusive rights are being violated by material available upon your site at the following URL(s): [list URLs];
3. I have a good faith belief that the use of this material in such a fashion is not authorized by the copyright holder, the copyright holder’s agent, or the law;
4. Under penalty of perjury in a United States court of law, I state that the information contained in this notification is accurate, and that I am authorized to act on the behalf of the exclusive rights holder for the material in question;
5. I may be contacted by the following methods: [email address--many request physical addresses and phone numbers, too. I am leery of this].

I hereby demand that you remove or disable access to this material as it appears on your service in as expedient a fashion as possible.

Regards,

[Your name]

Note: I got this exact email from Stephanie Lawton’s website with her permission. Here is the address to her site: http://stephanielawton.com/2012/06/24/for-writers-steps-to-deal-with-book-piracy/

I have used this email. It works. They take the stuff down ASAP because they don’t want to get sued.

So that’s some of my ongoing battle with Ebook Pirating. What do you think about pirating?

 

Thanks for having me here today!!! ;-)

 

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 Ok guys what are your thoughts on this subject, let me know I do love to others opinion cause no matter what, I do know that my opinion isn´t the only one that counts, so let me hear ya.