So, here I am, cruising around teh interwebz and I find this lovely site called “booksweeks“, which has apparently made The Changed available for download or online review to it’s subscribers. Obviously, this is some shady business because the only place legally authorized to sell the digital version of that book is Amazon. I’ve given Amazon exclusivity so that my book can be shared by readers with the Kindle lending program. Since Amazon has the market cornered as far as eReaders go, it seemed like the best deal for people who wanted to read the story.
Needless to say, the guys running this site are assholes. I didn’t bother trying to create an account to see if one really can get the book or if it’s just phishing, and I really don’t recommend you try, either. A friend asked me if I was mad that people are getting the book for free. Funny thing is, I’m not. Not at all.
The way I look at it, if you bought a hard copy of the book and then handed it off to a friend after you were done, that’s basically the same thing as you making a digital copy and giving it to a friend. Sure, there might be a legal grey area there, but as far as I’m concerned it means that you liked the book and you want your friend to read it. To me, that’s actually a huge compliment.
What puts a bee in my bonnet is that these mugs are taking what isn’t theirs to begin with and then attempting to make money off of it. That’s just straight up theft. It’s no longer giving a book to a friend. That’s stealing a book from a stranger, making photocopies, and hawking them on a street corner.
Trust me, I have no illusions that this practice will discontinue anytime soon. And the money? I’m not losing sleep over the few dollars in royalties I’m getting cheated out of. I’ve just always viewed books and reading culture as a sort of sacred experience. Predatory people like those who run this site are taking advantage of both readers and writers, which is kind of like smearing a big turd on something I hold dear.
TL;DR If you’re an author, your work might be somewhere on that site, too. If you’re a reader, please, for the love of all that you consider holy, don’t give these guys a shred of your personal information.
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