I have been on twitter again today and I must bring my opinions over here and let myself rant a bit more. One of my fave authors , Shiloh Walker, has a great blog about this subject and I will try and get the link in here when I am done.
http://shilohwalker.wordpress.com/ Check out blog on the cost of Piracy
The subject of course is the stealing of pdf's off the net. The sites pop up at an astounding rate and are sooooo very tempting to grab ahold of a new release or older book that you have been looking for but please stop taking monies away from these talented ladies and gentlemen. They have put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into these characters and they should be compensated for their time. Would you volunteer to work 8 months free time at your full time job? Why should they?
I personally am a book addict.... my compulsion is print books... I love the print books, the opportunity to hold a book in hand that someday I may have the chance to get autographed by the author that wrote it is the ultimate for me. I just started collecting auto books this past winter and have a whole shelf dedicated to the auto books... LOL I now tell people like Dakota Cassidy that I can only own auto copies of their books now...
I am not rich, in fact my family is low on the totem and we live paycheck to paycheck. With my 4 sons sports and feeding the brood I can squeeze in a new book or two only by buying sale or discounted books (walmart or zellers are the only two around me... I have no discount book sellers near like sum lucky peeps). I buy used.... a pile of used. My sons tell me I am killing a zaboomafoo everytime I buy a book. Zaboomafoo is a fictional lemur character that joins the Kratt brothers on PBS kids program.....
http://pbskids.org/zoboo/
I have people give me books, some I do not read or have time to read, I pick up books at the second hand store uptown that has been selling them for a quarter all summer, or I stop at other second hand stores or sales to bulk up my titles.... then I have a dealer in used books that I trade... for every 3 I give him he lets me pick 2.... doesn't matter if I give him 3 he will sell at $3 a piece or not I can choose any book, hardcover, large print pb or trade....yesterday I traded 9 books, pb's nothing fancy and I had bought none of them. I got 2 new magna's, (I am just trying them out), a cool Wicca large pb text book, the new Jackie Frank book, and a Janet Chapman highlander book and a Cynster Steph Laurens book... not bad.... So why are you people, OK not any of my followers, but people in general stealing and posting property that does not belong to you on the net? There are other options.... I came home with 9 other books yesterday besides my trades......... I spent $6.... that is IT! It can be done... I am in Canada and cannot participate with a lot of the trading sites on the net but please do something along these lines if you can't afford it. Volunteer to review for some site, another opportunity I am very grateful for, but remember that electronic books are not allowed to be given away or sold whatsoever. If you want to let someone sit at your computer or borrow your ereader go ahead but that is the ONLY way you are not breaking the law..... I know very well the temptation... please don't give in.... OK now end of the rant..... LOL
My week has been really busy, the kids were one of only a couple of counties in Ontario that had to go back to school last week. I was a kind mom and took them out Friday to the beach after aquiring some new protective equipment for hockey and football for my middle two. It had been the best weather week of the summer here and it was a great day although the fog was a bit much coming in off the lake at 2 in the afternoon. So hockey tryouts are done for my HockeyStar, he made the first list of carded players so will be playing for the AAA Lambton Junior Sting this year (the Sting is the junior A team that last years first draft from the NHL, Steven Stamkos, played for). The coaches are a former NHLer and a former top scorer in the OHL so hopefully they will be able to give the boys the guidance they need at this critical stage. We have a busy exhibition sched this week which includes 4 games and I hope no other surprises.
Then my other middle son, RugbyGuy, has an exhibition football game at Western University this week against a major London school. Hopefully he will get to play a lot. He missed last season due to a broken, or shall I say shattered, collarbone he got during rugby play in the summer so now he has lost his starter position but is included in several plays that they plan on running alot.
As for me..... I am dealing with the pain of my shoulder now that physio and massage have been cut off from workmans comp. I have been trying to get ahold of the new person in charge but no one ever answers the phone there and if I leave a message they always call back when I am elsewhere...... I was looking into going back to school but I guess that is only if you were on unemployment within the last 3 years. Since I haven't been on UI in I don't know how long I don't think I qualify.... I am going to go in and see but between work and the sports shuffle this week it will be another week anyway.
What else..... I know there was more I wanted to blog about but..... Oh yeah.... contest and thongs and visitor..... where to start.... I am going to be having a contest.... I wanted to find someone who would cheaply, OK free, help me tweek up my blog then have a contest for a few books. I have won a couple that I already have and want to give them away.... they are not here yet so I will have to wait.
THONGS THONGS THONGS
LOL Dakota Cassidy was one of the people I made a sample thong of their bookcovers and sent them. I want to sell these to help pay for things I need like food, books and gas to get to hockey and football.... anyway I have invested money into buying the supplies to make them. Dakota vlogged about them in her latest vlog
http://www.dakotacassidy.net/
She muses why the hockeyvampiress name.... well I love hockey and my nocturnal sleep patterns make my kids say I am a vampire.... sooooooo ..... I do want to say thank you very much to her for making my day by talking about them during her 9:59 that she has to vlog each week.
So If you would like to buy a custom made book thong I can do it..... I can do any pic that is yours to use. If you are an author and want a bunch to use as promos or for your own collection please email me or leave comment. If you want a thong done with your cats pic, grandkids, car, anything can be done. Price depends on how many you want done. Just one.... $6 including WW shipping, more will be less..... I am up to making deals.... LOL Just let me know
Finishing off today I wanted to tell everyone about my squeeee moment this week. A while back I mentioned to Colleen Gleason, who lives in Michigan, it would be very cool if she could come to my little town and do a book signing. We never get anyone in the Sarnia area, except local book authors that do heritage books etc, so to have someone come here would be verra nice. She told be to get ahold of the librarian and give her the contact info and they would see..... well Tues I got a call from Liz, the librarian, to say that it was a done deal. Thanks to me Colleen Gleason would be making an appearance Oct 15 from 6 to 8 at the library for a reading and signing. This was way too awesome and I told Colleen this immediately on twitter to which she replied.... I am looking forward to meeting you too..... :) So now instead of taking RugbyGuy to see the opening night of Where the Wild Things Are at the theatre, for his birthday, I am seeing Colleen instead. LOL Why a 17 yr old would want to spend his birthday with his mom watching a childrens book come to life still amazes me but he says I can take him again on the weekend.... plus buy him his tattoo... LOL Anyway I will be spending the night listening to an amazing author with her latest book. I had to ask Liz who exactly was coming that night, Colleen, Colette or Joss...... LOL I just added to her work load by giving her Colleens other pen names..... BTW Colette's books are amazing!!!! LOL
Ok better go now I was supposed to be writing a review... LOL back to work and I hope everyone has a safe and happy Labour Day....
As far as PDFs on the web -- stolen work -- I don't think many people think of it as stealing. They fail to recognize that someone has spent months of their life making a book which other people have invested hard-earned cash in to publish on specualation that Joe Doe public will like it enough to buy. OR the reseller simply don't care that they are stealing, believing that no one will come after them (and too often they are correct) and simply view it as an opportunity to make some quick cash.
ReplyDeleteMiss Public, who buys these from the theif -- is also out to get what he/she can cheap.
Neither care about hurting the real author/publisher since the economic hurt inflicted isn't in front of them to be seen.
You're so right about these pirate sites. It's stealing. End. Of. Freaking. Story.
ReplyDeleteLike you, I can't afford to buy all the books I want -- esp since a paperback costs around $22 here in New Zealand -- so I cruise the stores at sale time. And beg for book vouchers for Christmas and Birthday presents. It would never, ever occur to me to download a book from a pirate site. Just can't understand the mentality.
Mind you, as my artist mother (who teaches art classes) tells me, it's generally the really wealthy people who generally try to screw her out of her class fees. Go figure.
I didn't know there were such sites until I started publishing e-books... Now I'm all to familiar with the scum who posts them.
ReplyDeleteLovely Thongs... BTW. Saw Dakota's banter about it on her vlog last week. Lovely stuff.
Nice meeting ya,
CB