I was going to write a post about dealing with book piracy today, but this article by author Stephanie Lawton says it all, so I’ve reblogged it.
If anyone else has any tips or additional info, or if you’ve ever been pirated, or if you use pirate sites, please feel free to comment.
When my debut novel was released just over two weeks ago, book piracy was the last thing on my mind. In those two weeks, links to illegal downloads of Want spread like wildfire.
As fate would have it, I have a friend who is well-versed in book piracy, and I attended a writing workshop yesterday where one of the topics was dealing with the same thing. Serendipity? I think so.
Below are some of the things I learned, much of the info coming from author Candace Sams, who has been a victim of book piracy thousands of times over.
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First: Do a Google search of the following:
[author name, book title, epub]
My search looked like this: “Stephanie Lawton Want epub”
UPDATE: Thanks to author Lisa Burstein, who pointed out that searching for your name, title and “PDF shared” will often return additional results, ex: “Stephanie Lawton…
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Helena Fairfax 
Thanks for sharing this very informative blog. I know our publisher’s forum has been full of reports of piracy lately. The ugly side of publishing, isn’t it? Very timely information and I will use it to contact the sites to request they take down my books too. Very disheartening.
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Hi JQ, you’re right, it is disheartening to see all your hard work stolen (and theft is what it is). Some people are of the opinion that we should just resign ourselves to it – and it’s probably like trying to fix a leaky sieve – but I think we should show readers it’s important to make a stand. Victoria wrote a great post
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Wow! Thanks for sharing Stephanie’s blog, Helena. This is certainly the bitter side of the writing business. I haven’t sent my letter to the pirates who got most of us at MIU, but will. Actually, my lawyer (my husband) is going to with letterhead and all. I’m not much of a mind to play nice with the pirates. Much more likely to check with the FBI. These people are criminals, plain and simple, and the folks who purchase from them are also thieves! What was that Stephanie said? Oh yes. “Breathe.” Hah. I’ll be sharing this, Helena. Good stuff.
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Hi Marsha, I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised to find our books on pirate sites eventually, but it’s uspetting to see all our hard work stolen. Stephanie had some great ideas, and I agree – “Breathe” is one of her best tips! We’ll just have to deal with it as best we can. It’s good of your husband to help out. Thanks for sharing and spreading the word!
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My publisher has a link on the first page of it’s website for reporting piracy. As an author, my suggestion is to sign up for mention.net. It catches much more than Google ever did. That’s how I discovered both my books had been pirated.
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Thanks so much for that tip, Ella. I subscribe to Google Alerts, but it’s very hit and miss. I’ll definitely give mention.net a go – thanks! And thanks for taking the time to pass on the info. Much appreciated!
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