Well, three of my books have turned up on pirate and bootleg sites again, and those are just the ones we know about. here I thought the big drop in sales this month was just the February slump.
I won't burden you with an accounting of how much this hurts our already-suffering finances, with all these unexpected medical and dental bills and now the transmission out on our car. Walking and bicycling is better for our health anyway, right.?
So I'll just tell you that I sat here weeping this morning when I found out. It's not a victimless crime. It really isn't. I spent time researching and writing those books. Dave spent time researching and writing a lot of it too. My husband spent time helping edit and format the books, and making the covers. All of that between regular work and gardening and caring for grandchildren, etc. We put our hearts into these books.
We're not machines or corporations, and this is not a get-rich -quick scheme designed just to part people from a few dollars a book. We expected to earn some money for our work but we did keep the prices as low as we could. Amazon takes their chunk, and for the print books the publisher/printer takes another chuck. We get around $1. 44 to $2.00 per sale. It takes a lot to add up.
If you have gotten these books from any site other than amazon, you have gotten stolen books. NO ONE EXCEPT AMAZON IS AUTHORIZED TO SELL OR DISTRIBUTE DOWNLOADS OF THESE BOOKS!
No one except amazon is authorized to sell Print copies. The only time that might be legal is if someone is selling a used copy they legally bought. One site is selling new copies for full price, yet the only legal way they should be able to get it is buying them at full price. So how are they doing this and still making money? I haven't found out yet.
Please don't steal. Don't steal anyone's work and livelihood, whether it's books, music, movies, or a candy bar from the local store. It does hurt.
Most free downloads of published books are stolen. Amazon free downloads are legal and approved by the authors. All these other sites are offering stolen books, a lot of them written by people like you and I.
***UPDATE*** 3/09/14 -- Dave just sent me an email with more than 15 sites giving away my books for free. I'm sure you can imagine how I feel having my work stolen and distributed.
Please leave comments below or email them to povertprepping@yahoo.com
Susan
Sorry to hear this is happening to you again. It is heartbreaking. I hope this can be stopped.
ReplyDeleteSusan, Just wanted to tell you that I bought a couple of your books from Amazon this last week and I'm very pleased with them. I am going to order a few more and use them as a teaching aid for a couple young people that I'm teaching to can dehydrate and plan for hard times ahead. Your book is just what I was looking for. It is writen so they can understand it and not full of unessary information. Thanks so much for all you do and keep up the good work !
ReplyDeleteI'm very happy that you're pleased with my books! I hope they're helpful in teaching your friends. That's wonderful of you to be helping them!
DeleteSusan