Internet book piracy = No more books?
Wed Apr 9, 2008 11:57AM EDT
See Comments (13)
Panic alarms are ringing over in Britain, where the Society of Authors (a group representing 8,500 UK writers) has pronounced that Internet piracy will soon lead to nothing short of writers abandoning their craft and ceasing to write altogether.
Color me unconvinced.
It's easy to point to the drastic decline in CD sales as a signal that the same thing could happen to the book world, as advance copies of many books have been leaked online before they hit the presses. The author of the above linked story in the Times Online points to such "victims" as J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series, by way of example of those being hurt by piracy.
Unfortunately, the numbers just don't add up. While music sales are down, the most recent figures show that book sales continue to rise. In 2006 (the most recent year for which numbers are available), sales were up 3.2 percent over 2005. The forecast is that sales will continue to increase healthily through 2011 at least.
But won't pirates change the picture? I sincerely doubt it. For starters, there's a vast difference between the typical book "pirate" and the typical person who downloads music illegally. In the world of books, those itching to get their hands on the latest Potter fable are usually ultra-fans who just can't wait for the book to go on sale legitimately. They want to read the book first... but come on-sale day, what do they do? They buy a real copy of the book. People still collect books in ways that have long been abandoned for music.
Naturally, writers of less popular books might be worried that their stories don't have the same must-have appeal that someone like Rowling does. But even authors of niche works probably have little to worry about. As a point of fact, I recently re-published one of my own books on how to become a film critic as an e-book, after selling out of printed paperbacks. Though the e-book could, in theory, be stolen and re-distributed without pay, that hasn't happened. In fact, sales are up a little over the printed version of the book, even though the book is now a few years old. (Check it out here!)
But don't take my word for it. Just ask J.K. Rowling. How bad did those nasty pirates hurt her book sales? She sold 10.8 million copies of the final Potter book in its first 24 hours, shattering the previous record (which she also held).
Filthy pirates.
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2 Posted by growlnroar on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:13PM EDT Report Abuse
Distrubuting a few choice songs is fairly easy: Get CD, rip CD with favorite software, BitTorrent. Books are significantly harder in most cases unless you have a digital copy already on hand. Otherwise, someone has to purchase, then scan each page by hand, then combine it into a format that isn't tremendously huge. And I doubt real avid readers are going to enjoy straining their eyes at a screen for hours on end when they can have the satisfaction of holding a book.
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3 Posted by nolo_8 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:40PM EDT Report Abuse
There's so many seeds of popular books out there and I was surprised to see Popular Science and Mechanics in the form of scanned PDF files, available on download sites, and they can be downloaded in a minute. It will be interesting to see what the industry will do about this.
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4 Posted by pwdrskir on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:22PM EDT Report Abuse
They're pulling a mickey! They'll just start writing on-line books. Get with the times boys and girls and stop whining. We%
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5 Posted by m_knopp on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:32PM EDT Report Abuse
I absolutely hate these arguments. They are utter bull$#@%. How do I know? Easy. People have been telling stories long before there was writing. Then writing was invented and people wrote stories, there was no copyright at that time and yet, people wrote stories. Then the printing press was invented and books could be mass produced, and yet people STILL wrote stories. The same holds for plays/movies and music. It is a complete and utter lie that big media has told that people will not produce art (including music, movies, and stories) if they are not guaranteed money. Even in the modern day this is bunk. Yeah, big music is losing sales, but from several sources Indie music is booming. Want to see how absurd the thought that people will not write if they don't get paid go to http://www.fictionpress.com/ There are around a million original stories posted with the author not getting one red cent. The truth of the matter is that ALL big media companies could disappear tomorrow and there would still be millions of songs, movies, and stories written.
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6 Posted by agustin2489 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 2:47PM EDT Report Abuse
I find this to be a tad bit irrational but eh, the whole point seems to be a bit moot.
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7 Posted by alan_r_cam on Thu Sep 3, 2009 2:49PM EDT Report Abuse
Since it's a British Society of Authors, they may take you to task for your spelling:- colour, not color. A different spelling might have seemed rational to a distant country exerting its newborn freedom, but it has no place on a global scale.
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8 Posted by soltal_tw on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:32PM EDT Report Abuse
I myself prefer to actually have the book itself. It's nice when you just want to pick something up, snuggle up into a nice corner, and read. I doubt it'd be that easy with a computer, or even a laptop.
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9 Posted by robynanders on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:47PM EDT Report Abuse
I have to disagree with a lot of what's being said here. Sure J. K. Rowling is doing fine. But Rowling has bent over backward to fight technology of any sort. Her books aren't available in eBook format and they're still pirated. For less well-known authors, electronic books represent a wonderful way to get published because eBooks can stay on the 'shelf' while unknown authors have a hard time getting into a bookstore and a harder time not being stripped in a month or two. As for whether authors would still write, whether there was copyright or whatever, there has always been a business model of authors getting paid. Once, that model was rich princes (guess what got written). Recently the model has been royalties (authors get a percentage of sales). If authors get paid, they'll have to get jobs writing advertising content or something. I'm old enough to remember when writers swore they'd never give up their typewriters for these new-fangled word processors and computers. Yep, same thing with eBooks. Maybe you won't read fiction on your computer (many people do) but get a decent reading device (Sony Reader, Kindle, eBookWise, or even a PDA) read a book or two to get used to it, and you won't want to go back. Piracy is a problem--and while I'm glad Rowling is doing fine, pointing at one example doesn't make your argument any more valid. Rob Preece Publisher, www.BooksForABuck.com
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10 Posted by denniscadcox on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:41PM EDT Report Abuse
This whole arguement is rubish. Baen Publishing (baen.com) has been offering ebooks for years in completely unprotected format. They have also publically released all of their sales figures for several authors. Everytime an older book is released as an ebook not only does it sell well but the sales of hard copies goes up significantly. In numerous articles on their site they cover why it works and why it is a good idea. They have an entire library of free books. Go enjoy.
1 Posted by rogueist on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:49PM EDT Report Abuse
I wouldnt mind getting something like the Kindle as long as it was free and in color and as long as a good majority of the books I was interested in was made available for it. That has not happened yet, so solid hard books it is. Cant stand reading eBooks on a computer. Personally I dont know anyone that even reads eBooks anymore.