Please don't steal my livelihood • Lynne Garner
Recently a fellow author found many of her books were available for free on a website, therefore infringing her copyright. The site in question was Oceanpdf. It allowed people to download any book on the website, without payment to the author. I decided to see if any of my books were available. To my joy I discovered the site is no longer available. However what I did find was a conversation on Reddit about the loss of this site. Some of the comments made me really, really mad! If you'd like to read them for yourself then just click here.
I screen grabbed some of the comments as I wanted to share them. I debated about including the names of those who wrote them but decided to remove. However if you follow the link above they'll be easy enough to find.
Here are a few of them with my reply below:
My books are available for everyone - to BUY! My ebooks are just 99p or 99¢ - a token price.
I've chosen to share some of my stories for free and if you want to read them you can visit wattpad and read them with my blessing. You don't have to rely on websites that infringe copyright to read something for free. There are loads of sites that offer free content without breaking the law. Here are just three of them:
Project Gutenberg - offers over 57,000 free eBooks
Bookbub - sign up for free and get alerted to free ebooks
Free-ebooks.net - they stipulate in their Ts and Cs that anyone uploading a book must own the copyright, so you know you're not infringing someones rights.
Just because a person is willing to steal an authors copyright and put up via a website doesn't make it right.
I'm a 'real' author, my friend is a 'real' author. We've had many, many books published. She objected to her copyright being stolen and why shouldn't she, it's her living. My writing makes up part of my income. If we can't pay our bills we can't write. If we can't write then you don't have books to read. People are willing to pay to go to the cinema, the theatre, a music venue. Books aren't any different. They take time and skill to write. We should be paid for our time and our skill - other professionals are.
Oh, and how do you know what the aim of the person writing the book is? Have you asked any authors about how they feel when their livelihood is compromised?
Just because you read fast doesn't mean you have the right to infringe an author's copyright. Also please see my suggestions above for respecting an author's copyright and getting a free read from sites that respects authors and their work.
Also haven't you ever heard of a library? You can loan books for free there.
If you're reply is "I don't have a library near me" then create your own. This is a photograph I took whilst visiting friends in a local village. They all worked together to turn a disused phone box into a library and it's thriving! Yes, I know they won't be signed up to the PLR (Public Lending Rights) but at least an author knows the books here were purchased as some point. So, they would have made at least something from the sale of that book.
What about a charity book shop? You can get inexpensive books from these.
Also you obviously know this is wrong, otherwise you'd not want to hide the fact that an author's copyright is being stolen.
Every heard of waiting?
I can't afford hardbacks. So guess what, I wait until they're available as an ebook or paperback OR wait for it, this idea is truly ground breaking..... I ask for it as a present!
If you didn't download because you knew it was wrong then a huge THANK YOU from a 'real' writer who relies on the income from her books to help pay the bills. If you didn't download but were going to go back later to do so, ah what a shame!
Phew - feel a bit better now.
Regards
Lynne
Blatant plug time
Hedgehog of Moon Meadow Farm (ebook 99p/99¢ - 10 stories)
I screen grabbed some of the comments as I wanted to share them. I debated about including the names of those who wrote them but decided to remove. However if you follow the link above they'll be easy enough to find.
Here are a few of them with my reply below:
My books are available for everyone - to BUY! My ebooks are just 99p or 99¢ - a token price.
I've chosen to share some of my stories for free and if you want to read them you can visit wattpad and read them with my blessing. You don't have to rely on websites that infringe copyright to read something for free. There are loads of sites that offer free content without breaking the law. Here are just three of them:
Project Gutenberg - offers over 57,000 free eBooks
Bookbub - sign up for free and get alerted to free ebooks
Free-ebooks.net - they stipulate in their Ts and Cs that anyone uploading a book must own the copyright, so you know you're not infringing someones rights.
Just because a person is willing to steal an authors copyright and put up via a website doesn't make it right.
I'm a 'real' author, my friend is a 'real' author. We've had many, many books published. She objected to her copyright being stolen and why shouldn't she, it's her living. My writing makes up part of my income. If we can't pay our bills we can't write. If we can't write then you don't have books to read. People are willing to pay to go to the cinema, the theatre, a music venue. Books aren't any different. They take time and skill to write. We should be paid for our time and our skill - other professionals are.
Oh, and how do you know what the aim of the person writing the book is? Have you asked any authors about how they feel when their livelihood is compromised?
Just because you read fast doesn't mean you have the right to infringe an author's copyright. Also please see my suggestions above for respecting an author's copyright and getting a free read from sites that respects authors and their work.
Also haven't you ever heard of a library? You can loan books for free there.
If you're reply is "I don't have a library near me" then create your own. This is a photograph I took whilst visiting friends in a local village. They all worked together to turn a disused phone box into a library and it's thriving! Yes, I know they won't be signed up to the PLR (Public Lending Rights) but at least an author knows the books here were purchased as some point. So, they would have made at least something from the sale of that book.
 |
| Small local library which is FREE to use! |
What about a charity book shop? You can get inexpensive books from these.
Also you obviously know this is wrong, otherwise you'd not want to hide the fact that an author's copyright is being stolen.
Every heard of waiting?
I can't afford hardbacks. So guess what, I wait until they're available as an ebook or paperback OR wait for it, this idea is truly ground breaking..... I ask for it as a present!
If you didn't download because you knew it was wrong then a huge THANK YOU from a 'real' writer who relies on the income from her books to help pay the bills. If you didn't download but were going to go back later to do so, ah what a shame!
Phew - feel a bit better now.
Regards
Lynne
Blatant plug time
Check out my various collections of short stories:
Hedgehog of Moon Meadow Farm (ebook 99p/99¢ - 10 stories)
Ten Tales of Brer Rabbit (ebook 99p/99¢ - 10 stories)
Ten Tales of Coyote (ebook 99p/99¢ - 10 stories)
Anansi The Trickster Spider (ebook £1.49/$1.49 - 16 stories)
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