This week, we’re talking about why you should be excited when your writing gets ripped off.
What are the downsides of piracy?
Thomas: You know how we like to be controversial. This one might be a spicy episode, but we mean it. Piracy can be good for your writing.
To be fair, we should start with the negatives, because nobody likes getting ripped off.
Jim: I hate it. It’s like dandelion spores. I can type in my books, add the word “free,” and there are sites all over the place where you can get my novels for free, PDF, ebook, even audio versions read by me. It ticks me off.
Thomas: The temptation is to pull out the calculator, look up how many times people downloaded your book, multiply that by the price, and say, “Oh my gosh, they stole $30,000 from me.”
But that’s not how the math works. It violates our sense of right and wrong, but from a marketing perspective, piracy can be the best thing that happens to you.
Jim: The temptation is to send a cease-and-desist letter: “I’m sending my attorney after you.” I actually did that once. They took my books down, and a month later they put them back up.
I spent time and effort, and like I said, they’re like dandelions. They come back.
What kind of “piracy” are we actually talking about?
Thomas: When we say “pirated,” we mean someone takes your book and gives it away for free while you still get credit for it.
This does not apply to plagiarism, where someone takes your writing and puts their name on it. That’s different. There’s no real upside to plagiarism unless you truly don’t care who gets credit, as long as the ideas spread.
Most of you want to make money. Piracy can actually increase how much money you make.
How can piracy increase sales?
Thomas: There was a study in Europe that found music pirates buy more music than non-pirates. The reason is that piracy functions as discovery and enthusiasm. It helps music spread from person to person, which leads to more sales.
Even the pirates themselves are more likely to buy.
Jim: That’s a huge statistic. We tend to picture one person illegally downloading your book, but nobody lives in a vacuum.
Most people have a circle of influence, roughly 250 to 300 people. It’s the average number of people at a wedding or funeral. It’s also close to the average number of Facebook friends.
So if someone pirates your book and loves it, they can influence a lot of people.
What happens when book two comes out?
Thomas: Let’s fast-forward. Book two releases.
Imagine a million people pirated book one. You made no money from those downloads, but they talked about the book to each other and to others.
Will that help or hurt book two?
I submit it helps. It can make book two sell like crazy.
I’ve heard of this happening. An editor I know, at a legitimate publishing house, told me about an author who uploaded his own book to The Pirate Bay. He pirated his own book.
In the next few months, his sales went up, by a lot, tens of thousands of additional paid sales, driven by hundreds of thousands of pirated downloads.
Here’s why: piracy is a hassle. For many readers, it’s easier to click “Buy now” on Kindle than to download a PDF, convert it, email it, and deal with files.
For every person willing to pirate, there are others who think, “Too much effort,” and buy it legitimately. In his case, piracy drove legitimate sales.
Jim: Think of it this way. Your book is a really long brochure for your next book.
Donald Maass popularized this idea: the majority of novel sales come from word of mouth. If your “brochure” gets into more hands, more people talk about it, and more people buy the next book.
Is piracy really the enemy?
Thomas: Tim O’Reilly, who runs O’Reilly Media, has a famous line: “Your enemy is not piracy, but obscurity.”
For most of you listening, your biggest problem is not that people are stealing your book. Your biggest problem is that people don’t know who you are, don’t care, and won’t read your book even when you give it away for free.
The best thing that can happen is for pirates to become evangelists, so people actually read your work. When people read your work, that leads to sales.
We’ve also seen this with ebooks and audiobooks: digital consumption can drive print sales because some readers want a physical artifact of an experience they loved.
What’s the most pirated book in history?
Thomas: The Bible.
It’s everywhere. People hand it out on the street. You can get it free in apps. You can search verses instantly.
And yet it’s also the best-selling book every single year.
In some years, including the Bible breaks the sales charts because it sells so much compared to everything else. Many of you own more than one paper Bible. Even a lot of non-Christians own a copy.
The point is not theology. The point is that ubiquity is the opposite of obscurity. If you can become ubiquitous, sales follow.
I know it doesn’t help emotionally. You want those people to pay.
One more example: there’s a website called Take My Money, HBO, where people say, “Let me pay for this show.” HBO has had creators publicly acknowledge that piracy can help because it drives the cultural phenomenon.
Game of Thrones became a phenomenon in part because so many people were talking about it. A lot of that buzz came from people who didn’t pay directly. The buzz drove subscriptions, and HBO made money.
In closing, pirates can function as mavens. They curate and share.
Is it safe to encourage piracy?
Thomas: You could technically pirate your own book, but you could get in trouble with your publisher if you’re under contract.
Jim: If you’re traditionally published, yes, that could get you in trouble. But we have a lot of indie authors listening, and if you’re indie, you are the publisher, which gives you more leeway.
What about Creative Commons?
Thomas: There’s a more flexible approach than “all rights reserved” copyright: Creative Commons. You can learn more at creativecommons.org.
Creative Commons is essentially “some rights reserved.” You can tell people what they can and can’t do. In practice, you’re granting permission to share your work.
For example, you can allow sharing but prohibit commercial use. Or allow sharing but prohibit modifications. Or prohibit both commercial use and modifications.
It’s legally valid. In some ways, it can be more practical than traditional copyright because it clearly defines how others may use your work, including certain derivative uses.
I encourage you to consider whether a Creative Commons license might fit your goals better than a strict copyright.
