Friday, February 6, 2015

Intellectual theft is NOT cool!

Don't let any writer fool you; we do this for love but we also want the validation. Practically all writers want to be able to say "I make a living writing this stuff ALL day long." We type away furiously in the humongous shadow that Stephen King is casting on us, convinced that each and every sentence is going to congeal and form a miraculous best-selling blob.

Well, even though film makers are not beating down my door and my Twitter fanbase hasn't even cracked the 1,000 ceiling, I have still somehow managed to find myself in Mr. King's illustrous company.

How? I'll be happy to tell you.

Just like every famous artist out there, my work is being bootlegged. Torrented. Hijacked. Stolen. 

It is inconceivable to me that so many people feel the need to steal artists' and writers' intellectual property. And the funny thing is that indie writers like me are HAPPY to give out FREE copies of our work if people JUST ASK!!

We are trying to build careers out of this, people. So many of us slave over our novels for weeks, months and literally years to create our work. 

We then spend a considerable amount of money and many sleepless nights having artwork designed and promoting our book, only to have it downloaded en masse by entitled people who feel it is their right to steal our work. And what really rubs salt in the wound is that my book is going at the rock bottom price of $0.99. 

Some of you may think that I'm sitting here all self-righteous just because I'm the victim in this instance. But long before I ever thought to write a single word and publish it, I was a passionate proponent of maintaining people's intellectual rights. How else can an author or singer continue to fund their craft and go on producing great work?

Honestly, what does it say about humanity that we go to as much trouble as the user 'impactor' did to find a whole gaggle of free books that I'm almost positive that they could have just asked for?

It saddens me that people will go through so much trouble to find a way to break the law, but are probably the most vocal protestors when their rights are being trampled. Copyright infringement is a violation of my rights as is racial profiling and violence against women. Only when we as people step up to the plate and toss our hypocrisy, will we truly start to feel empathy for each other and make the world a better place.

Until then, I beg you, please do not download books illegally. Sometimes, saying 'please' is enough to get what you want.