BEWARE OF
THE BOOK PIRATES

WRITERS’ WEDNESDAY

From the Ship’s Log

This week, I wanted to talk to you about book pirating. Recently, our own FK Marlowe experienced the gut wrenching situation of finding out that her intellectual property was stolen and put up on a website without her permission. This is a familiar story for many other indie authors, and for some, it ends in having our Kindle Direct Publishing accounts banned due to exclusivity agreements, even if we as the author were not the person to post the work on the offending website in the first place.

I’ve personally experienced this situation, and I felt incredibly anxious about whether or not Miss Marlowe’s issues would be dealt with swiftly or not, especially since the offender in my case took months to remove my work from their website. Luckily, the website that had Marlowe’s work had a twitter page, and being the savvy social media butterfly that she is, we saw the beginning of the DMCA saga:

Once the tweet was out there, we needed to wait. Oh, the agonizing wait to see if you can have your own work back where it belongs, where we as the author choose to distribute it. This book pirating thing has almost nothing to do about “free books” for other people. In my own personal opinion, if a reader asked nicely about receiving a free copy of my book because they couldn’t afford a copy, I would happily supply one to them. 

This book pirating situation has everything to do with control over one’s own intellectual property and our rights as the authors to distribute our products as we choose, which is to say that we want to know when and where they are being sold or downloaded for free. So having people on a website we did not choose for our stories is not only shocking but insulting. Somebody thought they knew what to do with our writing better than us. Frankly, it’s rude and presumptuous, and I’d love to see the practice stop entirely in favor of the above. Most of us authors want to connect with readers. It doesn’t hurt to reach out. The worst case scenario is the word, “no.”

Now, for my favorite part of the story. Resolution:

We all love a happy ending, and I’m pleased to say this part of the story ended well. Of course, there was more than one offender in this case, and I’m certain Miss Marlowe is working on reaching out to the other parties involved still. But all’s well that ends well for now.

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ABOUT M.W. McLEOD

Marie was forged in the fiery pits of Hell, but most people call it Phoenix, Arizona. An educator by occupation and nature, she’s always trying to learn and experience new things. No day is complete without learning or otherwise striving to improve herself. Marie believes anything can be achieved with hard work, willpower, and a positive attitude.

As a fantasy author who dabbles in different subgenres, she draws inspiration from many places, people, and hobbies. From knitting to painting, movies to podcasts, reading to dungeons and dragons, she will try anything and everything as long as it keeps her cup full of inspiration and coffee. So much coffee.

I am fascinated by classic folklore, fairy tales, and tall ships. With plans to make two of these happen in the future, I’m currently looking for an excuse to add a water-based world to my series of interconnected universes.

Marie is a self-professed simple person who enjoys fluffy animals, good food, and an epic movie marathon or television show binge. Her teachers used to say she was a pleasure to have in class, but they couldn’t hear all the thoughts and mischief that went on behind that sweet smile. Marie read her favorite books and wrote novels during math class, and people who made her angry got written into them.

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