Osiyo~

(waves to Lisa)

is for Teasers~

I wasn’t sure about this post. But…

I was thinking about how we put teasers for our books out everywhere for people to read at no charge, yet dislike pirate sites that give our books away. I get why we (I) like to share teasers. We spent a lot of hours sweating blood to write it and want people to read the damn thing when we’re finished. I mean, I wrote it for others to enjoy! Didn’t I?

I recently saw a pirate site that had upwards of 1200 downloads of my current book, and that pissed me off. Why? Wasn’t that the point of writing it? Yes. But that’s a grand I won’t ever see a penny of, when I’ve yet to see a hundred from my publisher for the same book. That’s why.

Then again, those people must have wanted to read it, so isn’t that a good thing? We put teasers up with the expectation that others will read it…for free. In a one month book release tour, how many teasers do you generally share? How long are each of those? How many of us put whole chapters on our blogs, or our publishers allow on some sites, for a free read? Or write a short story for the same reason?

Maybe it’s me maturing in this business, or-dreadfully- becoming desensitized, but it doesn’t bother me as much as it did even a week ago; piracy, I mean. I can’t explain why, it just doesn’t. Sure it bothers me, I’m human, but not as much. Then again, that may just be how I feel today. 🙂 It might have something to do with the low number of sales I’ve gotten in the last two years with a publisher, but I’ve come to realize that I’m not a writer for the money (obviously), so why get all bent out of shape over money when it’s the book, the story I want others to enjoy? I don’t think I could write if I let this huge problem get me down to the point it becomes a main focus. That’s me. But, why aren’t more people buying it instead of ‘stealing’ it if they really want to read it? I guess that’s why I, or any of us get mad. The thought of someone taking from us what we’d gladly give away if asked. 🙂

Maybe there aren’t as many aware of this fact about most authors (at least most of those I know) as we’d like to think. It just occurred to me in the last couple of years that asking gets some of us somewhere. Not always, what would be the point of selling books at all if that was the case, right? 🙂

But I have to think there is still a lot of good people out there. Lots who aren’t out to screw anyone they can. I have to believe in the goodness of people. So, I’ll continue putting teasers out there, regardless of how many choose to go through pirate sites. After all, I want people to read my stories, even if that’s a few paragraphs at a time, or a whole chapter or book. I write because I have too many voices in my head not to, not because I have expectations of rolling in a bed of money soon.

I don’t like that others feel good for stealing, but I’ve decided not to make a fuss over it…for now. Maybe when I’m as big as James Patterson or SK or Nora I’ll feel the need to fuss. Right now, I can’t afford to get worked up because someone is reading my book. I don’t have to like it, but I don’t have to raise my turbulent blood pressure over something I have no control over either. It’s gonna happen. Period. There isn’t enough laws yet to prevent it happening, so until there is…

Teasers. At least I have control over that much.

Dodadagohvi~