SayNoToPiracy

 

 

As some of you may have heard by now, there’s been an active round of pirating going on via a certain blog out there. The blog’s FB page has been taken down, but it does not lessen what has been done. The folks running the blog page have been gifting unlicensed copies of authors’ works straight to the Kindle email addresses of those who have won their giveaways. What they’ve been doing is clearly pirating, lovelies.

Teresa Mummert was a recent victim of this, where the folks of this blog were to send a pirated copy of her book to a certain winner. The winner got in contact with Teresa in regards to the prize, and it was how we came to know about the ongoing piracy. How these people got a copy of the book, it is hard to say, but it doesn’t change the fact that they’ve done something atrocious. We have no idea how many authors have been a victim of what they’ve done, but we do know quite a few have had their work forwarded to others illegally.

Oftentimes, via blog tours and what not, we authors share our books expressly with the company in question. Each and every company I’ve worked with in regards to blog tours clearly state that any and all materials shared with their hosts are not to be shared with others. If someone wants to read a certain book that a person is reading, they should contact the blog tour coordinator and hop on board the tour to legally receive a copy of the book, or they should contact the author directly in order to obtain a review copy.

Pirating is always going to be out there, yes, but to so blatantly forward copies of books you do not have permission to send is and always will be pirating. It saddens me to see these women take these authors’ works and share them without permission like this. Authors work painstakingly hard to create their books for readers’ consumptions.

Most blog tour companies will not ask for Kindle email address without having the author’s permission first in order to do so. In fact, the companies I’ve worked with in the past don’t even ask for anyone’s Kindle address. With our permissions, they’ve distributed the review copies for a blog tour with the aforementioned ‘do not share materials’ clause. If a website/blog tour company (most especially one that is not quite known out there) asks you for a Kindle address, ask yourself if it’s been done so with the author’s permission. Chances are, it’s not, therefore you should be weary of such practices.

When I do giveaways here on my page, unless it’s my own giveaways, I do not, and never will, openly forward another author’s book to someone for a subsequent giveaway won. I always email the author with the person’s name, email address/info, and the prize won. It is then up to the author to forward the person their prize.

Myself, when someone on this page wins a prize, I state the directions of contact clearly, and have the person get in contact with me. I will then deal with them directly in regards to their winning a prize. Every book of mine someone has won here is sent directly to them from me. Print copies arrive in the mail, and ebook copies are sent via email in the person’s expressed ebook format.

You will always know when you’re dealing with me directly in regards to prizes won. If you’ve received a copy of my book from someone other than me and/or the book tour company I may be working with for tours and such, then you’ve received a pirated copy from someone who does not have permission to share my work with others.

Pirating is something we deal with each and every day–be it via books, music, movies, and the like. People doing this don’t care about the fact that they’re impacting people’s livelihoods. It’s honestly a shame that people resort to such practices, and share things without getting permission first. As authors we do our best to work with everyone to get our work out there, just like musicians, actors, and others do. To know that people are blatantly taking our work and doing as they please is honestly disheartening. Folks doing so need to take into consideration their actions when it comes to openly sharing unlicensed/pirated works. In the end, it’s going to come back and bite them, and not in a good way.

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