Space Snark™ A blog by Rowena Cherry

Sword Master Bob Anderson has passed.

2012-01-03T08:14:00.000-05:00

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/02/bob-anderson-dead-sword-master-darth-vader_n_1179324.html?icid=maing-grid7|main5|dl2|sec3_lnk1%26pLid%3D124264

Mating Net: First Chapter read aloud

2011-12-14T15:43:00.000-05:00

Politicians (Wyden, Issa) and the Press (CNBC) Protect Piracy

2011-12-10T12:05:00.001-05:00

An hour ago, Barnes and Noble emailed me (I subscribe) to let me know that Patricia Cornwell's latest book is now available for NOOK, presumably as of today, for $14.99.

Red Mist (Kay
Scarpetta Series #19)
by Patricia Cornwell
$14.99 NOOK Price

This surprised me, because four days ago, December 6th, one of the most unscrupulous pirates I follow (who is allegedly funded and supported by Filesonic.com, by Google, by Yahoo, and by SocialGo, and by corporate advertising) notified me that Red Mist is available free to their VIP subscribers who pay something around $10 for a lifetime of illegal links to ebooks uploaded to Filesonic.com

Red Mist

The new Kay Scarpetta novel from the world's #1 bestselling crime writer.

Determined to find out what happened to her former deputy chief, Jack Fielding, murdered six months earlier, Kay Scarpetta travels to the Georgia Prison for Women, where an inmate has information not only on Fielding, but also on a string of grisly killings. The murder of an Atlanta family years ago, a young woman on death row, and the inexplicable deaths of homeless people as far away as California seem unrelated. But Scarpetta discovers connections that compel her to conclude that what she thought ended with Fielding's death and an attempt on her own life is only the beginning of something far more destructive: a terrifying terrain of conspiracy and potential terrorism on an international scale. And she is the only one who can stop it.

The pirate appears to have lifted the publisher's blurb directly from Amazon. They routinely snag the best bits of Amazon reviews, as far as I can tell.

Maybe Penguin knows why there are two covers for the same e-book.

Now, this sort of piracy carried out by a foreign (probably British) pirate, using a foreign site (Filesonic) is, in my opinion, exactly the sort of freetardy that SOPA ought to slow down. The rival plans simply won't work. If an author finds her new release being published and distributed globally as a "freebie" by pirates four days before the official launch day, she might reasonably wish for her DMCA notice to be respected a day or so after sending it.

Waiting up to eighteen months for a take down is going to ruin careers... not to mention the fact that the Issa/Wyden scheme would impose Government fees on the wronged author, and would require her to stop writing and go to Washington to file documents and employ lawyers.

(I have no right to assume anything on behalf of Ms Cornwell or her publisher. My comments are my own opinions based on two emails sent to me, each offering me access to her latest book.)

Google, EFF, and other tech companies that make a great deal of money from monetizing and promoting websites without regard for whether or not the attractions on those sites are being distributed legally. SOPA would presumably encourage companies to be a bit more socially responsible.

Meanwhile, the Press appears to be assisting the tech companies by writing sensational and misleading pieces as if they are news. In my opinion, one can simplify something to such an extent that it is a misrepresentation.

"Hollywood" suggests that only the powerful movie business has a problem with piracy. Not true. E-Book authors are routinely overlooked and omitted from this debate, yet e-book authors might well be more damaged than most copyright owners by rampant internet piracy which shares hundreds of thousands of illegal copies of e-books via computers, social networking sites, smart phones, and torrents.

Pitting a California Hill against a Californian Valley might tend to distance the issue.

Case in point:

Anti-Piracy Bill Battle: Hollywood vs. Silicon Valley By: Julia Boorstin

http://www.cnbc.com/id/45605252

Ms Boorstin suggests that the issue at the heart of the debate is "how much companies should be held accountable for policing pirated material to which they might inadvertently link."

In my experience, when she states "inadvertently" Ms Boorstin is bending over backwards to be charitable. Lord Nelson "inadvertently" didn't see the signals that he did not want to see. Red flags are ignored today. However, the fact is that SOPA doesn't ask tech companies to "monitor" or "police" or "detect". It asks them to enforce their own published Terms Of Service (that qualify them for Safe Harbour) when an infraction is brought to their attention.

In my opinion, they ought to enforce their own rules.

By presenting the copyright debate as Hollywood vs Silicon Valley, Ms Boorstin manages to remove all human interest from the "story". The piece trivializes the importance of copyright to copyright owners, and the effect of copyright infringement to those who are tempted to assume that everything on the internet is free regardless of wording such as "all rights reserved".

The proposed OPEN, (the Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade) Act is worse than what we (authors and small independent actors) have now. It sets up a very expensive process for obtaining a remedy without any guarantee of improved results. There is still no compensation for copyright owners. The abuse continues for longer. A successful claim would result in a “cease and desist” order from the ITC, a cynical remedy, given that the rogue sites in question have already demonstrated their utter disregard for U.S. law and international norms.

What are Wyden and Issa thinking? Well, there is a video on YouTube to shed light on that. They also shed

light on their true attitude toward Openness and Censorship on the Internet.

Try leaving a comment:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TadQc3Vc5LQ&feature=youtu.be

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mVLx8AtEsk&feature=list_related&playnext=1&list=SPD9FA00ECDB69E09E

h http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4t0Pl83_Apo&feature=relmfu

Remember, these Senators are allegedly concerned about "censorship" on the Internet. They oppose the Stop Online Piracy Act because they want to keep the Internet "Open". How "open" is it to delete all dissenting (but civil) comments on a YouTube video?

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You'd Think EBay Would Smell A Rat

2011-05-17T08:54:00.006-04:00

But no...

200000 EBOOKS for Ipod laptop Kindle Ipad reader DVD !! | eBay

http://cgi.ebay.com/200000-EBOOKS-Ipod-laptop-Kindle-Ipad-reader-DVD-/110686519556?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item19c56e4104

Do not believe this:
"ALL BOOKS ARE PUBLIC DOMAINED IN COMPLIANCE WITH THE GNU AND THERE IS NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT"

Why doesn't eBay notice this contradictory claim?
"INCLUDES BEST SELLERS AND LEADING AUTHORS !

EBay obliges would-be sellers to publish lies.... if they are determined to sell ebooks.
Check the contents listed below. You can see that many of the books are most certainly NOT in the public domain. Therefore, if you were to purchase this item (and I do NOT recommend that you do) you will automatically be

an infringer of copyright if you open any of the illegal files... plus, your identity will be known.

Each of these names in the list represents a folder on a CD sold by

TORVALDS

Steven Torver
Avon House, Westminster Road Cannock Staffordshire Staffordshire WS11 4RB United Kingdom	Phone: 02476467515 Email: fluffygoose@hotmail.co.uk

This guy, by the way, has had 3 eBay identities, which suggests that eBay is well aware that he is a repeat infringer of copyright, yet, eBay allows him to remain in business.

http://cgi.ebay.com/200000-EBOOKS-Ipod-laptop-Kindle-Ipad-reader-DVD-/110686519556?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item19c56e4104

CD 1
Zane Grey
Yvonne Navarro
Yasutaka Tsutsui
william sakespeare
William Mark Simmons
William Makepeace Thackeray
William Harrison Ainsworth
William Golding
William Gibson
William Blatty
Wiliam Golding
Wilbur Smith
WEB Griffin
Walter Scott
Walter M Miller
Walter John Williams
Victor MacClure
Victor Koman
Vernor Vinge
Various CD
V.C Andrews
Ursula K LeGuin
Trudi Canavan
TournamentTactics.pdf
Tony Daniel
Tom Easton
Tom Clancy
Titania Ladley
Tim LaHaye
Thomas More
Thomas Harris
Theodore Sturgeon
The Way To My Dreams.pdf
The secrets of David Blaine revealed pdf
The Encyclopedia of Card Tricks - eBook.pdf
Terry Pratchett
Terry McGarry
Terry Goodkind
Terry Brooks
Teresa Mead
Susan Sizemore
Sun Tzu
Sue Grafton
Steve Senn
Stephen Lawhead
Stephen Hawking
Stephen Ambrose
Stephanie Burke
Stella & Audra Price
Stefan Gagne
Star Wars
Spider Robinson
Star Trek update
Software Project Management For Dummies; Teresa Luckey, Joseph Phillips (Wiley, 2006).pdf
Software Project Management For Dummies Oct 2006.pdf
Snort for Dummies (2004).pdf
Small Business Marketing for DUMmIES 2nd.pdf
Small Business Financial Management Kit for DUMmIES.pdf
Six Sigma For Dummies-0764567985.pdf
sir arthur conan doyle
Simon R Green
Simon Green
Shiloh Walker
Sherrilyn Kenyon
Sherri L. King
Shelly Laurenston
Service Oriented Architecture for DUMmIES.pdf
Service Oriented Architecture For Dummies Nov 2006.pdf
Secrets To Winning Cash Via Online Poker.pdf
Seasonal Affective Disorder for DUMmIES.pdf
Scotland for DUMmIES 4th.pdf
Scanners for DUMmIES 2nd.pdf
Sarbanes-Oxley for DUMmIES.pdf
Sarah McCarty
Sarah A. Hoyt
Sara Renike
Sandra Brown
San Francisco For Dummies.pdf
Salesforce com For Dummies.pdf
SalesForce com for DUMmIES 2nd.pdf
Sailing for DUMmIES 2nd.pdf
Ryu Murakami
Rudyard Kipling
Roger Zelazny
Robin Cook
Roberts, Nora
Robert Silverberg
Robert Sheckley
Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Jordan
Robert J Sawyer
Robert E Howard
Robert Asprin
Robert Adams
Robert A Heinlein
Rob Swigart
Roald Dahl
Rick Cook
Richelle Mead
Richard Preston
Richard Matheson
Richard Adams
Rhyannon Byrd & Madison Hayes
Rene Lyons
Rebecca York
Raymond E Feist
Ray Bradbury
Random Books
Rachel Caine
R.A Salvatore
R A Lafferty
Poker Brain - Texas Holdem Winning Strategy ebook.pdf
Piers Anthony
philippa gregory
Philip K Dick
Philip Jose Farmer
Peter Robinson
Peter F Hamilton
Peter Benchley
Perry Rhodan
Paulo Coelho
Patrick Tilley
Patrick O'Brian
Pat Cadigan
Palm Pilot Files
P G Wodehouse
Oscar Wilde
Orson Scott Card
Octavia Butler
O'Brian, Patrick
Norman Spinrad
Nora Roberts
Nina Osier
Nicholas Sparks
Niccolo Machiavelli
Neal Stephenson
Neal Gaiman
Nancy Friday
Mike Resnick
Michelle Miles
Michele Bardsley
Michael Moore
Michael Crichton
Michael A Burstein
Mercedes Lackey
McGraw.Hill.Make.Yourself.A.Millionaire.eBook-LiB.pdf
McGraw Hill - Negotiating Skills for Managers Ebook-fly.pdf
Mary Kirchoff
Mary Janice Davidson
Mary A. DeCarlo
Martin Amis
Martha C Sammons
Marquis de Sade
Mark Twain
Mark Bowden
Marion Zimmer Bradley
Marion Chesney
Marianne LaCroix
Margaret Weis
Margaret Atwood
Mandy M. Roth
Madonna
Lynsay Sands
Ludlum, Robert
Lucy Monroe
Louise Muhlbach
Louisa May Alcott
Lorie O Clare
Lord Dunsany
Lora Leigh
Loius L'Amour
Lloyd Alexander
Lina Gardiner
Lin Carter
Lillian Jackson Braun
Lilith Saintcrow
Lewis Carroll
Leo Tolstoy
Lemony Snicket
Lee Child
Laurell K. Hamilton
Larry Niven
L.A. Banks
L. Frank Baum
L Sprague De Camp
L Ron Hubbard
Kurt Vonnegut
Kurt Mahr
Kresley Cole
Kim Stanley Robinson
Kim Harrison
Keri Arthur
Kenneth Robeson
Ken Follett copy
Ken Follett
Kelley Armstrong
Keith Laumer
Keith Brooke
Katie MacAlister
Kathy Love
Katherine MacLean
Katherine Kurtz
Kate Novak
Kate Elliott
Kate Chopin
Karen Chance
K. Allen Cross
Julie Garwood
jules verne
Jude Deveraux
JRR Tolkien
Jospeh Altheler
Jory Strong
Jonathon Kellerman
John Wyndham
John Varley
John Norman
John Milton
John Lennon
John LaCarre
John Grisham
John E Stith
John Cleland
John Brunner
Joe Haldeman
Joe Gores
Jim Theis
Jim Butcher
Jet Mykles
Jerry Oltion
Jerry Davis
Jerry Ahern
Jerome Bigge
Jeffery Deaver
Jeff Howell
Jean Auel
Janet Evanovich
Jane S Fancher
Jane Austen
James Schmitz
James Patterson
James P Hogan
James Oliver Curwood
James Matthew Barrie
James Hogan
James Gunn
James Ellroy
James Clavell
James Cain
James Blish
James Axler
Jaid Black
Jackie Collins
Jack Williamson
Jack London
Jack L Chalker
jack higgins
Jack Dann
Jaci Burton
J.R.R Tolkien
J.D. Robb
J.D Salinger
J.C. Wilder
J. K. Rowling
J P Kelly
J F Bone
Isaac Asimov
Iris Johansen
Illuminati and the NWO pdf
Ian Rankin 25 pdf
Ian Fleming
Iain Banks 20 pdf
hp lovecraft PDF
Homer
Holy Bible - Old & New Testaments (King James) (ebook).pdf
Henry Miller
Henry James
Hawking, Stephen pdf
Haruki Murakami
Harry Potter
Harry Harrison
Harry Adam Knight
Harold Chester
Harlan Ellison
H.P. Lovecraft - 48 Books & Short Stories [ebook].pdf
H.G Wells
H P Lovecraft
H G Wells 20 pdf
Gustave Flabert
Grimms Fairy Tales
Gregory Benford
Greg Egan
Greg Bear
Gore Vidal
Gordon Dickson
Glen Cook
George R Stewart
George R R Martin
George Orwell
Geoffrey Landis
Gene Wolfe
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Fritz Leiber
Frederik Pohl
Frederick Forsyth 9 pdf
Frederick Forsyth
frank herbert
Frank Baum
Edward Bryant
Edgar Wallace
Edgar Rice Burroughs
Edgar Allan Poe
eBook_Stephen.Hawking.-.A.Brief.History.Of.Time.pdf
Ebook How to Hypnosis for Beginners.pdf
Ebook - Photo Shop - Teach Yourself Photoshop In 14 Days.pdf
ebook - NLP - Reading womens body language.pdf
eBook - Mythology - Greek Gods.pdf
E. E. Knight
Duncan McGeary
Dragonlance
Douglas Rushkoff
Douglas Adams
Doris P Buck
Donald E Westlake
Dominiqe Adair
Diane Duane
Deidre Knight
Dean Koontz 108 pdf
David Weber
David Eddings
David Drake
David Bischoff
David Eddings 27 pdf
Dashiel Hammett
Daniel Defoe
Dan Simmons
Dan Brown
Damon Knight
D. H Lawrence
D'Arc Bianca
Cynthia Felice
Cussler, Clive pdf
Cornwell, Bernard pdf
Conspiracy_eBooks_34
Conspiracy eBooks
Connie Willis
Clive Cussler
Clive Barker 22 pdf
Cliffard D Simak
Cliff Notes
Clark Ashton Smith
Chuck Palashniuk
Christine Warren
Christine Feehan
Cheyenne McCray
Chess ebook - Alexander Kotov - Think Like a Grandmaster.pdf
Chaz Brenchley
Charlotte Bronte
Charlotte Boyett-Compo
Charles L Grant
Charles Dickens
Charles Carr
Charlaine Harris
Chandler, Raymond
Catherine Coulter
Carrie Richerson
Carolyn Ives Gilman
Carol Emshwiller
Carlos Castaneda
Carl Sagan
Carl Hiaason
C.S Lewis
C.J Cherryh
C. L Moore
C J Cherryh
C E Murphy
Bruce Sterling
Brian Plante
Brian Lumley
Brenda W Clough
Brena Williamson
Bram Stoker
Bill O'Reilly
Bernard Cornwell1
Bernard Cornwell
Ben Bova
Barry N Malzberg
Barry Longyear
Baldacci, David
Ayn Rand
Avram Davidson
Arthur Conan Doyle
Arthur C Clarke
Arkady and Boris Strugatsky
Anthony Wall
Anthologys (parnormal)
Antholgys (erotica)
Annmarie McKenna
anne rice pdf files
Anne Rice
Anne McCaffrey
Anne Bishope
Angie Sage
Andrew Lang
Andrei Platonov
Andre Norton
Amy Tan
Amanda Quick
Amanda Ashley
Alistair Maclean 25 pdf
Algis Budrys
Alfred Rester
Alexandre Dumas
Bradley Denton
Bob Shaw
Alexander Jablokov
Aldous Huxley
Albert Einstein
Alan Dean Foster
Agatha Christie 98 pdf
Agatha Christie
Aaron Allston
A. E Van Vogt
A Bertram Chandler
[EBOOK] - Dan Brown - The Da Vinci Code.pdf
900 disney coloring pages
1111 misc
101 eBay Auction Secrets eBook
1 Isaac Asimov 102 pdf
1 Charlaine Harris
1 Alistair Maclean 25 pdf
Alfred Bester
(ebook.PDF).-.Dan.Brown.-.Digital.Fortress.pdf
(ebook-pdf) Complete Idiots Guide to Amazing Sex.pdf
(ebook-pdf) - Cooking - Recipes - Cook Book - PDF format.pdf
(ebook) (Cooking) A Great Taste.pdf
(Ebook) - Diet Exercise - Martial Arts Pressure Points.pdf
(Ebook Poetry) Antologia - The Complete Corpus Of Anglo-Saxon Poetry.pdf
(business ebook) - eBay Wholesale Sources over 1000.pdf
(Ebook)_US_Army-UFO_Official_Manual.pdf
(ebook) Mathemagic (magic tricks).pdf
(Ebook) - Grammar - The Oxford Guide To English Usage.pdf
Edward Lerner
Evanovich, Janet
(ebook - Electronics) Teach Yourself Electricity & Electronics - Mcgraw Hill.pdf
!! (ebook PDF) - Stephen King - The Stand (Unabridged & Illustrated).pdf
!! (ebook PDF) - Stephen King - Insomnia.pdf
Ernest Hemingway
Elaine Cunningham
(Ebook - English) Douglas Adams -The Hitchhiker Trilogy - 5 Books 1 Short Story.pdf
(EBook - PDF - Cooking) The Salsa Book.pdf
(ebook - PDF - Self Help) Harry Lorayne - Super Power Memory.pdf
Frances Hodgson Burnett

CD2
Cooking By The Book.pdf
Crockpot Recipes 1.pdf
Country Cooking.pdf
(Ebook) - Grammar - The Oxford Guide To English Usage.pdf
Korean Food Recipes.pdf
Under the Deodars.epub
dotpoint12.jpg
Dolores Clairborne.pdf
JimWilson
Jim Butcher's Dresden Files - Vignette (Short Story).doc
Jim Butcher's Dresden Files - Something Borrowed (Short Story from My Big Fat Supernatural Weddin.doc
An Evening At Gods.pdf
(ebook - PDF - Self Help) Harry Lorayne - Super Power Memory.pdf
674_premium_ebooks
(Ebook)_US_Army-UFO_Official_Manual.pdf
(Ebook Poetry) Antologia - The Complete Corpus Of Anglo-Saxon Poetry.pdf
(EBook - PDF - Cooking) The Salsa Book.pdf
!! (ebook PDF) - Stephen King - Insomnia.pdf
(ebook) (Cooking) A Great Taste.pdf
(Ebook) - Diet Exercise - Martial Arts Pressure Points.pdf
(Ebook - English) Douglas Adams -The Hitchhiker Trilogy - 5 Books 1 Short Story.pdf
(ebook - Electronics) Teach Yourself Electricity & Electronics - Mcgraw Hill.pdf
(business ebook) - eBay Wholesale Sources over 1000.pdf
1000 Atkins Diet Recipes.pdf
Physical Map Of The World - Colour - Excellent! - Emap - Ebook.pdf
Pet Sematary.pdf
23_CLASSIC_BOOKS
101_romantic_ideas+bonus_ebooks
patricia cornwell
lover mine
Limits and Renewals.epub
on her majesty's secret service_v1.0.html
pizzarecipe
Sneakers.pdf
Slow Cookin' Secrets.pdf
Four Past Midnight - 1 - Introduction.pdf
For Your Eyes Only.txt
Chocolate Fantasy 20 Recipes.pdf
StopSmokingForever
The Man with the Golden Gun [v1].txt
Party_Games_Ebooks
parkingfines
painttrees
Low-carb Recipe Secrets.pdf
Jamie Oliver - Sainsburys Recipes.pdf
James Bond 007 08.4 Risico by Ian Fleming.txt
Five Part System.doc
Excel 2010 For Dummies.pdf
Actions and Reactions.epub
A Taste Of Vitality.pdf
The Cookin' Cajun.pdf
Jhonathan and the Witches.pdf
Rudyard Kipling - The Two Jungle Books.lit
Robert Ludlum
Riding the Bullet.pdf
Native American Health Recipes.pdf
MySpaceMoneyMachine.pdf
The Very Best Of Emeril.pdf
The Versatile Egg.pdf
Ian Fleming-Live and let die(v 1.0).rtf
H.P. Lovecraft - 48 Books & Short Stories [ebook].pdf
Night Shift - Grey Matter.pdf
Serious Kitchen Play.pdf
Secrets To Winning Cash Via Online Poker.pdf
Secret_Crystals_and_Gemstones_Vol_I_eBook
Seafood Recipes.pdf
James Bond 007 08.3 Quantum Of Solace by Ian Fleming.txt
The Blue Air Compressor.pdf
The Bread Baker Bible.pdf
Indian Recipes 2.pdf
Indian Recipes 1.pdf
Bachman Books 4- Running Man.pdf
Carrie.pdf
Carolinas Country Cooking.pdf
Chess ebook - Alexander Kotov - Think Like a Grandmaster.pdf
Chattery Teeth.pdf
Betty Crocker cooking basics recipes.pdf
Andy McNab
Gifts In A Jar.pdf
Anne McCaffrey
ani3c.gif
Cajun Recipes.pdf
books
The Geezer Cookbook.pdf
The Fifth Quarter.pdf
The Darktower 1 - The Gunslinger.pdf
FM34-54 (Technical Intelligence).pdf
The Essential Guide To Baking.pdf
EbayincomeNow
Ebay_TipsAndTricks
Jack Higgins
J.D. Robb
The Art And Science Of Cooking With Cannabis.pdf
Poker Brain - Texas Holdem Winning Strategy ebook.pdf
Plain Tales from the Hills.epub
McGraw Hill - Negotiating Skills for Managers Ebook-fly.pdf
How To Prepare Delicious Meals On A Budget.pdf
The Leprechaun.pdf
The Jerky Chef.pdf
The Other Side Of The Fog.pdf
J. K. Rowling
In the Key-Chords of Dawn.pdf
goldfinger 1.0.html
God Bless Texas.pdf
Captains Courageous.epub
Top 200 Recipes.pdf
times.jpg
The Cursed Expedition.pdf
The Crate.pdf
Recipes
Healthy, Thrifty Meals.pdf
Ian Fleming - [James Bond 007] - Dr. No (v1.0).html
Interpretation_Of_Dreams_326_Pages
Simon R Green
Guide to Cake Recipes.pdf
Grimms Fairy Tales
Night Shift - Sometimes They Come Back.pdf
Four Past Midnight - 5 - The Library Policeman.pdf
Twilight01-Twilight.pdf
Twilight Series
Granny Whites Bread Recipes.pdf
Gramma.pdf
The Ten O 'Clock People.pdf
The Stranger.pdf
The 1918 Fanny Farmer Cookbook.pdf
system.htm
Prize Winning Recipes.pdf
McGraw.Hill.Make.Yourself.A.Millionaire.eBook-LiB.pdf
googleprofits.pdf
Google-Money-Pro-2a.pdf
booklist.txt
Before The Play (TV Guide).pdf
Jim Butcher's Dresden Files - It's My Birthday, Too (Short Story from Many Blood Returns).doc
Cujo.pdf
Crouch End.pdf
Trail Recipes.pdf
(ebook-pdf) Complete Idiots Guide to Amazing Sex.pdf
Fleming - From Russia with Love.txt
International recipes.pdf
Gambling_Systems
g.gif
Ian Fleming - You Only Live Twice (v1.0).html
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon.pdf
Secret_eBay_Marketing
Night Shift - Quitters.pdf
Night Shift - One For The Road.pdf
GoogleSecrets_TipsTricks.pdf
Twilight03-Eclipse.pdf
Twilight02-New_Moon.pdf
Night Shift - The Man Who Loved Flowers.pdf
Night Shift - The Ledge.pdf
Learn_German
Learn to play Guitar E-book
Jim Butcher's Dresden Files - Restoration of Faith (Short Story).doc
Four Past Midnight - 4 - The Sun Dog.pdf
!! (ebook PDF) - Stephen King - The Stand (Unabridged & Illustrated).pdf
Potpourri Recipes.pdf
Popsy.pdf
Popcorn 'n More.pdf
Nelson Family Recipe Book.pdf
Fleming, Ian - Live and Let Die.nfo
Bachman Books 3 - THE LONG WALK.pdf
John Grisham
John Gardner - Goldeneye.txt
Ebook How to Hypnosis for Beginners.pdf
Uncle Otto's Truck.pdf
Twilight04-Breaking_Dawn.pdf
Sauces And Marinade Recipes.pdf
Santesson Recipe Collection Swedish Cooking.pdf
Ive Got To Get Away.pdf
Dan Brown
Dale's Recipe Book.pdf
The Mist.pdf
Great Tastes.pdf
The Enlightened Kitchen.pdf
Casino Royale.rtf
Jamie Oliver - The Naked Chef 2.pdf
Ebay_success
Night Shift - The Woman In The Room.pdf
Mathcad Electrical Engineering Library 14.0 Retail
Lunch at the Gotham Cafe.pdf
THE 50+ DISCS
Night Shift - Battleground.pdf
Never Look Behind You.pdf
The Dead Zone.pdf
The Day's Work.epub
Salads Recipes.pdf
Salad Master.pdf
Ian Fleming- The Hildebrand Rarity.rtf
Night Shift - I Am The Doorway.pdf
The Jaunt .pdf
Souffles Recipes.pdf
The Moving Finger.pdf
The Monkey.pdf
Stephen Hawking
Sri Lanka Cooking.pdf
Nona.pdf
The Shining.pdf
The Salsa Book.pdf
Survivor Type.pdf
supermindvolume2.pdf
Night Shift - Children of the Corn.pdf
The Doctor's Case.pdf
The Encyclopedia of Card Tricks - eBook.pdf
Rudyard Kipling.par2
Night Shift - Graveyard Shift.pdf
Night Shift - Foreward.pdf
Head Down.pdf
Skybar.pdf
Skeleton Crew.pdf
Kathy Reichs 11 pdf
KamaSutra
James Patterson
Night Shift - The Lawnmower Man.pdf
The Thing at the Bottom of the Well.pdf
Jeffery Deaver
Jeff Kinney
Rainy Season.pdf
Professional Pizza Guide.pdf
Salad Dressing Recipes.pdf
Thy Servant a dog.epub
Traffics and Discoveries.epub
TournamentTactics.pdf
Italian Recipes.pdf
It.pdf
It Grows on You.pdf
Ice Cream Delights.pdf
Ian Fleming.par2
Chinese Vegetarian Cooking Recipes.pdf
Le Cordon Bleu Recipe - Tarte Aux Pommes Classique.pdf
L.T.'s Theory Of Pets.pdf
eBook - Mythology - Greek Gods.pdf
ebayinfo
The Man Who Would Not Shake Hands.pdf
The Man In The Black Suit.pdf
Know Your Spices.pdf
Kim.epub
Casserole Crazy.pdf
Desserts Of Vitality.pdf
Coleman Family Cookbook.pdf
Clive Cussler
The Reach.pdf
Stephen King - Needful Things.pdf
Stephen King
no risk 100% system.doc
Night Shift - Trucks.pdf
Good Eats, A Treasury of Favorite Recipes.pdf
Arthur C Clarke
Appetizer Recipes.pdf
Ebook - Photo Shop - Teach Yourself Photoshop In 14 Days.pdf
The Oktoberfest Cookbook.pdf
The Naulahka.epub
supermindvolume1.pdf
Sue Grafton
Night Shift - The Mangler.pdf
Lifestyle to Health.pdf
Lifes Handicap.epub
chartup.jpg
AuctionAid
Autopsy Room Four.pdf
AutomatedEbaySales
Home Delivery.pdf
The TommyKnockers.pdf
Google-Money-Pro-2a.doc
The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet.pdf
Pies & Pizzas Recipes.pdf
Four Past Midnight - 2 - The Langoliers.pdf
moonraker v1.0.html
TheFruitMachineCode
The Way To My Dreams.pdf
ebook - NLP - Reading womens body language.pdf
auctionaddesigner
Astrology_And_Tarot
Recipes Tried And True (1894 Cookbook).pdf
Insiders Recipes Master Edition Cookbook.pdf
infostore
The Green Mile.pdf
The Greek Kitchen.pdf
saveyourdrivinglicence
Four Past Midnight - 3 - Secret Window, Secret Garden.pdf
Night Shift - Jerusalems Lot.pdf
Night Shift - I Know What You Need.pdf
Holy Bible - Old & New Testaments (King James) (ebook).pdf
Heavenly Cookies.pdf
South of the Border.pdf
South Beach Diet & Recipes.pdf
1000atkinsdietrecip78
10000 ebooks
ArtofKissing
The Plant (Part 1-5).pdf
The Pacific Islands Cookbook.pdf
Fruit Machine Cheat Book
Japanese Recipes 1.pdf
Janet Evanovich
Now We're Cooking.pdf
Nora Roberts
Excel 2010 For Dummies
eBook_Stephen.Hawking.-.A.Brief.History.Of.Time.pdf
The End of the Whole Mess.pdf
Night Shift - Night Surf.pdf
The House on Maple Street.pdf
The Hardcase Speaks.pdf
Soup Recipes 2.pdf
Soup Recipes 1.pdf
Night Shift - The Last Rung On The Ladder.pdf
Night Shift - The Boogeyman.pdf
Lessons_in_Yoga_118_Pages
LearningFrenchEbook
The Dark Man.pdf
Jim Butcher's Dresden Files - Heorot (Short Story from My Big Fat Supernatural Honeymoon).doc
Squad D.pdf
Childrens Classi
Betty Crocker Cookie Book Recipes.pdf
Hotel at The end of The Road.pdf
Hosting
The Regulators.pdf
The Reaper's Image.pdf
A Diversity of Creatures.epub
Generations Of Recipes.pdf
game.jpg
Jim Butcher's Dresden Files - .vol0+1.PAR2
Jim Butcher's Dresden Files - .par2
James Bond 007 08.1 From A View To A Kill by Ian Fleming.txt
Mexican Cooking.pdf
memory
FM34-40-2 (Basic Cryptanalysis).zip
90_day_powerseller_challenge
Thumbs.db
Thinner.pdf
Perdue Chicken Cookbook.pdf
Patrick O'Brian
Catch_Fish_Ebook
cat
Rare - The Road Virus Heads North.pdf
Random Books
Santesson Recipe Collection Aphrodisiac Cooking.pdf
Healthy Low Carb Recipes.pdf
Healthy Gourmet Recipes.pdf
Night Shift - Strawberry Spring.pdf
AutoCAD 2011 FOR DUMmIES by David Byrnes.pdf
A Taste of Italy.pdf
(ebook-pdf) - Cooking - Recipes - Cook Book - PDF format.pdf
Big Wheels A Tale of The Laundry Game (Milkman #2).pdf
Beachworld.pdf
BasicHTML
500 Recipes for Bread.pdf
3000 Science Fiction Books
30 Recipes 30 ingredients.pdf
Zucchini Recipes.pdf
You Know They Got a Hell of a Band.pdf
Vegetarian Curry Bible.pdf
Vegetable Recipes.pdf
ebay secrets
Dreamcatcher.pdf
009_78.gif
101 Recipes from God's Garden.pdf
diamonds_are_forever_v1.0.html
Diabetic Recipes.pdf
A Taste of China.pdf
(ebook) Mathemagic (magic tricks).pdf
dog
Crockpot Recipes 2.pdf
30 Minutes Indian Recipes.pdf
The Cat from Hell.pdf
The Essential Seafood.pdf
Cycle of the Werewolf.pdf
website_in_5days
Vintage Posters
write_for_fast_cash
Word Processor of the Gods.pdf
witchcraft_e-books
FM34-60 (CounterIntelligence).zip
Joy Of Canning.pdf
Jonathan Kellerman

SUB FOLDERS... alphabetical, each containing multiple popular authors' folders.

These are the B authors

Bain, David

Baker, Naomi Novik, Garth Nix, Elizabeth Bear, Kage & Moorcock, Michael & Vandermeer, Jeff

Baker, Gary

Bova, Ben

Berman, Steve

Blish, James

Baker, Kenneth

Barton, William H_

Bear, Elizabeth

Brown, Simon

Bacigalupi, Paolo

Bredenberg, Jeff

Burstein, Michael A_

Black, Holly

Bear, Greg

Blumlein, Michael

Bertin, Eddy C_

Bryenton, Drew Dale Daniel

Broderick, Damien

Baxter, Stephen

Buettner, Robert

Brennan, Marie

Barron, Laird

Bradley, Marion Zimmer

Brown, Fredric

Bester, Alfred

Bulmer, Kenneth

Bethke, Bruce & Day, Vox

Brackett, Leigh

Brunner, John

Bradbury, Ray

Breton, William

Blaylock, James P_

Buckell, Tobias S_

Buckley, Bob

Brin, David

Bain, Darrell

Burgess, Anthony

Busby, F. M_

Ballard, J.G_

Bein, Steve

Brooks, Terry

Bryant, Edward

Beckett, Chris

Berry, Stephen William

Burroughs, Edgar Rice

Bishop, Michael

Bertel, Erik John

Brotherton, Mike

Baker, Kage

Banks, Iain

Ballantyne, Tony

Braver, Gary

Brad Thor

Brown, Eric

Barton, William

Butcher, Jim

Baker, Scott

Bailey, Dale

Binder, Eando

Burns, Stephen L_

Ballard, J. G_

Ball, Brian

Bruce, Bethke,

Brust, Steven

Banks, Iain M_

These are the C authors

Carpenter, Humphrey

Chase, Robert R_

Chiang, Ted

Clarke, Brian J_

Campbell, Jack

Cole, Everett B_

Cummings, Ray

Cowdrey, Albert E_

Combs, Mike

Collier, John

Cooper, Edmund

Compton, Stoney

Czerneda, Julie

Cornell, Paul

Coppel, Alfred

Cady, Jack

Clarke, Arthur Charles

Carver, Jeffrey A_

Clinton, Jeff

Chandra, C. K_

Carlson, Jeff

Chilson, Rob

Carnell, John

Clough, Brenda W_

Chwedyk, Richard

Chandler, Tony John

Castro, Adam-troy

Corvidae, Elaine

Charnas, Suzy McKee

Clarke, Arthur C. & Lee, Gentry

Clarke, Arthur C_

Clarke, Arthur C. & Ganim, Peter

Coblentz, Stanton A_

Castle, Sarah K_

Cherryh, C. J_

Card, Orson Scott

Chandler, A. Bertram

Chadbourn, Mark

Casil, Amy Sterling

R authors

Reichert, Mickey Zucker

Resnick, Laura

Robinson, Kim Stanley

Rocklynne, Ross

Reeve, Laura E_

Robinson, Spider

Rackham, John

Robinson, Spider Robinson, Jeanne

Roberson, Chris

Roberts, Keith

Rome, David

Robbins, David

Robinson, Frank M_

Rusch, Kristine Kathryn

Rotsler, William

Rudolph, Mark

Reynolds, Alastair

Rucker, Rudy

Resnick, Mike & Robyn, Lezli

Rogers, Bruce Holland

Robertson, R. Garcia y

Rosenblum, Mary

Rich, Harold Thompson

Rickert, M_

Richard Dreyfuss

Resnick, Mike

Riley, David B_

Reed, Robert

Reynolds, Mack

The DVDs include links to pirate sites for bonus reading!

Hidden in the e-book section is a J K Rowling folder.

Harry_Potter_and_the_Half_Blood_Prince.pdf
Rowling, J.K - Harry Potter 3 - Prisoner of Azkaban.pdf
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.pdf
Rowling, J.K - Harry Potter 2 - The Chamber of Secrets.pdf
3 -Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.pdf
Harry Potter 2 Chamber Of Secrets.pdf
Harry Potter 4 Goblet of Fire - J K Rowling.pdf
Rowling, J.K - Harry Potter 1 - Sorcerer's Stone.pdf
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.pdf
Rowling, J.K - Harry Potter 4 - The Goblet of Fire.pdf
Harry Potter 1 Sorcerer's Stone.pdf

There is a James Patterson folder, too.

The Beach House - James Patterson.lrf
Cross.pdf
The Quickie.pdf
2nd Chance.pdf
Violets Are Blue.pdf
Cross Country.pdf
Thriller_ Stories to Keep You Up All Nig.pdf
Thriller_ Stories to Keep You Up All Nig - James Patterson.lrf
Mary, Mary.pdf
THELAKEHOUSE_JAMES-PATTERSON.pdf
7th Heaven.pdf
The Lake House.pdf
5th Horseman.pdf
The Quickie - James Patterson.lrf
The Lifeguard.pdf
The Jester - James Patterson.lrf
Season Of The Machete - James Patterson.lrf
Kiss The Girls - James Patterson.lrf
Judge & Jury.pdf
4th of July.txt
Sundays at Tiffany's.pdf
Step on a Crack.pdf
The Lake House - James Patterson.lrf
The Jester.pdf
When the Wind Blows - James Patterson.lrf
Maximum Ride 4 - The Final Warning - James Patterson.lrf
2nd Chance - James Patterson.lrf
Maximum Ride 3 - Saving the World and Other Extreme Sport.pdf
Maximum Ride 3 - Saving the World and Ot - James Patterson.lrf
The Big Bad Wolf - James Patterson.lrf
The Dangerous Days of Daniel X - James Patterson.lrf
The Big Bad Wolf.pdf
Double Cross - James Patterson.lrf
Violets Are Blue - James Patterson.lrf
Mary, Mary - James Patterson.lrf
James Patterson - Mastermind.pdf
The Beach House.pdf
Hide and Seek - James Patterson.lrf
Maximum Ride 4 - The Final Warning.pdf
You've been Warned.pdf
When the Wind Blows.pdf
Midnight Club.pdf
Four Blind Mice - James Patterson.lrf
The Dangerous Days of Daniel X.pdf
The Fifth Horseman - James Patterson.lrf
Kiss The Girls.pdf
Hide and Seek.pdf
Patterson, James - Hide and Seek.pdf
Roses Are Red - James Patterson.lrf
Step on a Crack - James Patterson.lrf
Maximum Ride 5 - Max.pdf
Sail.pdf
Run For Your Life.pdf
See How They Run - James Patterson.lrf
Season Of The Machete.pdf
Cat and Mouse - James Patterson.lrf
Pop Goes The Weasel - James Patterson.lrf
See How They Run.pdf
Honeymoon1.pdf
Honeymoon - James Patterson.lrf
Patterson, James - Honeymoon.pdf
Maximum Ride 2 - School's Out Forever.pdf
Maximum Ride 2 - School's Out Forever - James Patterson.lrf
Maximum Ride 1- The Angel Experiment.pdf
Maximum Ride 1- The Angel Experiment - James Patterson.lrf
1st to Die.pdf
The 6th Target - James Patterson.lrf
Suzannes Diary for Nicholas.pdf
Judge & Jury - James Patterson.lrf
Beach Road - James Patterson.lrf
Roses Are Red.pdf
Cross - James Patterson.lrf
Jack & Jill - James Patterson.lrf
Double Cross.pdf
4th of July - James Patterson.lrf
3rd Degree.pdf
7th Heaven - James Patterson.lrf
Four Blind Mice.pdf
Beach Road.pdf
Cradle and All - James Patterson.lrf
Alex Cross 15 Trial.pdf
Black Friday.pdf
Jack & Jill.pdf
Along Came a Spider.pdf
Cat and Mouse.pdf
London Bridges - James Patterson.lrf
First to Die - James Patterson.lrf
London Bridges.pdf
8th Confession.pdf
list.txt
Cradle and All.pdf
3rd Degree - James Patterson.lrf
Midnight Club - James Patterson.lrf
Pop Goes The Weasel.pdf
4th of July.pdf
6th Target.pdf
Along Came a Spider - James Patterson.lrf

The Twilight series is included several times.... this is because all these various

collections are sold and resold on eBay, I guess.

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner.pdf
01 - Twilight.pdf
The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner.epub
03 - Eclipse.epub
01 - Twilight.epub
05 - Midnight Sun.epub
03 - Eclipse.pdf
04 - Breaking Dawn.pdf
04 - Breaking Dawn.epub
02 - New Moon.epub
05 - Midnight Sun.pdf
02 - New Moon.pdf

Why on earth do the Publishers not do something about EBay and PayPal?

By the way, there are at least two auctions going on at the moment, and there have been similar auctions for at least the last month.

110686519556
110677541082
Look out for Private Auctions, also.
Check the "Feedback" for comments from purchasers.

New Copyright Bill Targets ISPs, Search Engines | PCWorld Business Center

2011-05-15T08:57:00.000-04:00

New Copyright Bill Targets ISPs, Search Engines | PCWorld Business Center

Now, to find out how to get a court order!

Twitter Help Center... Helps Whom?

2011-05-14T09:09:00.002-04:00

I'm having a most unpleasant experience with Twitter. I think it is time to share it.
In my opinion, it is absolutely wrong that authors have to risk identity theft in order to protect their copyright, and that OSPs such as Twitter are able to ignore "red flags" with impunity.

On Sunday, May 8th, I received a Google Alert.

-----Original Message-----

From: Google Alerts <googlealerts-noreply@google.com>

To: rowenaxXXX@XXXXXX.com

Sent: Sun, May 8, 2011 8:13 pm

Subject: Google Alert - "Forced Mate"

Realtime

1 new result for "Forced Mate"

NancyWrebb: Added new book - "Forced Mate Rowena Cherry"
Twitter - 20 hours ago

I checked out the innocuous-seeming link and discovered that this profile is a shill for one of the most notorious pirate sites on the web.

@NancyWrebb Nancy Wrebb

Added new book - "Forced Mate Rowena Cherry"

22 hours ago via Nancy Wrebb Favorite Retweet Reply

Nancy Wrebb

@NancyWrebb Madison, USA

A new library with daily updates. Literature in different directions, for every taste.

http://bit.ly/iksyP

The link goes to wiredshelf.com and given the complaints freely available on the internet about the problems that would-be subscribers to this so-called "library" have had after giving these pirates their credit card info, I am not worried about sharing the link.

I've heard that there is malware attached to the downloads, too. This would not surprise me. No legal e-book version of Forced Mate by Rowena Cherry with the out of print Dorchester cover (girl) exists. Some pirate created it.

That same evening, May 8th, I sent a DMCA to Twitter. I used the online form that can be found with some difficulty on Twitter Twitter Help Center

This is the transcript that Twitter returned to me. I've redacted my info.

Rowena Cherry, May-08 07:31 pm (PDT):
Tell us about yourself: I am the copyright owner.
Your full name: Rowena Cherry
Job title: author
Email address: XXXXXXXXXXXXX
Street address: XXXXXXXXXXX
City: XXXXXXXXXXXX
State/Province:XXXXXXXXX
Postal code: XXXXXXXXX
Country: XXXXXXXXXXX
Phone number(optional): n/a
Fax number(optional): n/a
Description of original work: http://twitter.com/#!/NancyWrebb
NancyWrebb Nancy Wrebb
Added new book - "Forced Mate Rowena Cherry"
Reported Twitter account: NancyWrebb
Description of Infringement: I am the author of Forced Mate. NancyWrebb is directing Twitter users to wiredshelf.com which is a pirate site (Russian, I think) which posts illegal copies of copyrighted works without the permission of copyright owners, and ignores DMCA notices. wiredshelf.com has been infringing my copyright for months. Has ignored 4 takedown notices. Is allegedly a scam charging "subscriptions" then misusing credit card info. My copyrighted books are being published and distributed illegally.
Type of infringing material: n/a
Type of infringing material: n/a
Type of infringing material: Tweets
Specific Tweets: @NancyWrebb Nancy Wrebb
Added new book - "Forced Mate Rowena Cherry"
http://twitter.com/#!/NancyWrebb
512(f) Acknowledgment: I understand that under 17 U.S.C. § 512(f), I may be liable for any damages, including costs and attorneys' fees, if I knowingly materially misrepresent that reported material or activity is infringing.
Good Faith Belief: I have good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.
Authority to Act: The information in this notification is accurate, and I state under penalty of perjury that I am authorized to act on behalf of the copyright owner.
Signature: Rowena Cherry
Anything else?(optional): In my opinion this NancyWrebb account does nothing but post book titles to encourage innocent Twitter users to click through to the scam/pirate site. This is not a legal library, and they do not have permission to profit from my works

Twitter responded to me on May 10th that I had not given them enough info.

phantasm, May-10 01:00 pm (PDT):
Hello,
We received your copyright complaint. However, additional information is required to make it an effective notification under the DMCA.

We have not been provided with sufficient information to locate the allegedly infringing material on Twitter. Please provide a detailed description of the copyrighted work that is claimed to be infringing and information reasonably sufficient to permit Twitter to locate the material on Twitter’s website or services.

If you are reporting the content of a Tweet, please give us a link to that Tweet following these instructions: http://support.twitter.com/articles/80586. Or please specify if the alleged infringement is in the background, avatar, etc.
NOTE: A LINK TO A PROFILE PAGE IS INSUFFICIENT.

We cannot process your request without a non-defective notice pursuant to the DMCA. In order to assist us in responding to your request, please submit a complete notice here: http://support.twitter.com/forms/dmca

Please be aware that under 17 U.S.C. 512(f), you may be liable for any damages, including costs and attorneys’ fees, incurred by us or our users if you knowingly materially misrepresent that material or activity is infringing.
Thank you,
phantasm
Twitter Trust & Safety

Twitter Trust and Safety! Now isn't that Orwellian?

I replied thus:

Hi, Twitter support,

I supplied the text of the tweet on May 8th. Everything you needed was properly supplied originally. You are giving me the run around. I am copying my lawyer.

What this USER has apparently done is boasted that she has added
MY BOOK to her illegal, subscription based, copyright infringing site.

NancyWrebb: Added new book - "Forced Mate Rowena Cherry"
Twitter - 20 hours ago

Specific Tweets: @NancyWrebb Nancy Wrebb
Added new book - "Forced Mate Rowena Cherry"
http://twitter.com/#!/NancyWrebb

NancyWrebb Nancy Wrebb

Added new book - "Forced Mate Rowena Cherry"

8 May

The TWEET is copied here, and was copied originally. What more am I supposed to do?

Nancy's page takes visitor to
@NancyWrebb Madison, USA

A new library with daily updates. Literature in different directions, for every taste.

http://bit.ly/iksyP

Bitly is http://bit.ly/iksyP
Which takes people to wiredshelf.com
http://wiredshelf.com/

Forced Mate is being illegally shared here
http://wiredshelf.com/search/?query=Forced+Mate&category=0&x=66&y=12

I think it is a very poor show for you to threaten an author whom your service is ripping off.

Sincerely,
Rowena Cherry

And subsequently, thus

Tue, May 10, 2011 4:26 pm

http://twitter.com/#!/NancyWrebb/status/67076726068494336

This is the timestamp.
Hope this helps. You should treat this complaint as a RED FLAG as defined by the DMCA, and take a look at the entire account.
Sincerely,

Rowena Cherry

And thus

Tue, May 10, 2011 4:27 pm

Timestamp.
http://twitter.com/#!/NancyWrebb/status/67076726068494336

Best,

Twitter has not responded for three days.

I am now back on the Twitter site.
http://support.twitter.com/forms/dmca
I have added the following to my repeat DMCA

You may not find the Tweet "Added new book - "Forced Mate Rowena Cherry" objectionable in itself. You should look at the entire profile to comprehend what is going on here. Where was my book added? Why does this user post that she added my book? Look at the url at the top of her page. The live link goes to the Russian/Chinese pirate site wiredshelf.com which is no "library". Forced Mate by Rowena Cherry is not available as an ebook from anyone except myself. I have not sold a copy to these people, I have not signed any contract with any "library" for this book.
Nancy Wrebb
Nancy Wrebb
@NancyWrebb Madison, USA
A new library with daily updates. Literature in different directions, for every taste.
http://bit.ly/iksyP

By the way, Twitter likes to threaten and silence righteous copyright owners by warning them that
their personal information may be published on the hostile site run by EFF, "Chilling Effects" and also supplied to the pirates.

I understand that in order to process this notice, Twitter may provide third parties, such as Chilling Effects and the affected user, with a copy of this complaint. For more information see our Copyright Policy.

How is this not a threat that Twitter will cooperate with identity theft to punish whistle-blowers?

Amusingly, Twitter warns me

Security reminder: Unless specifically requested, do not include private information (address, phone) in this request. Never include your password.

The form cannot be submitted without private information.

Dear Twitter, I am reporting copyright infringement.
Please fill out all the fields below so we can review your report.

Here is what I know about wiredshelf (attached to my sixth DMCA)

Dear Sirs,

I write for the sixth time since April 5th to complain about copyright infringement of two of my novels on the site WIREDSHELF.COM. I have complained on online forms, including to privacyprotect.org which assigned my complaint low priority, pretended that the infringement was on "wired.com" instead of "wiredshelf.com" and closed my complaint without addressing it.

Wiredshelf.com appears to be a for-subscription site, which charges readers a fee for access to illegally uploaded, copyright infringing e-books, which are provided "free" to "subscribers" without the knowledge, consent, permission or any remuneration to copyright owners.

I recognize hundreds if not thousands of in-copyright works of romance fiction by friends and colleagues on this site.

My books are
http://www.wiredshelf.com/book/forced-mate-335114
http://www.wiredshelf.com/search/?query=Forced+Mate&category=0&x=48&y=19

http://www.wiredshelf.com/book/mating-net-334153
http://www.wiredshelf.com/search/?query=Mating+Net&category=0&x=27&y=14

Please scroll beyond the clarification of exactly who WIREDSHELF.COM is for a reiteration of my DMCA

Website Title:

Www.wiredshelf.com

Title Relevancy

Visitors by Country:

Russian Federation 15.2%
United States 13.4%
India 10.1%

Ukraine 5.2%
Great Britain (UK) 3.6%
Germany 3.5%

Alexa Trend/Rank:

#44,894: for the last three months.

Compete Rank:

#40,958 with 46,170 Unique visitors per month

Quantcast Rank:

#132,359

AboutUs:

Wiki article on Wiredshelf.com

ICANN Registrar:

BIZCN.COM, INC.

Created:

2010-11-23

Expires:

2011-11-23

Updated:

2010-12-27

Registrar Status:

clientDeleteProhibited

clientTransferProhibited

Name Server:

NS4.CNMSN.COM (has 4,572 domains)

Whois Server:

whois.bizcn.com

General TLDs:

WiredShelf.com (registered and active website)

WiredShelf.net (registered and active website)

WiredShelf.org (never registered before)

WiredShelf.biz (never registered before)

WiredShelf.info (registered and active website)

WiredShelf.us (never registered before)

Whois Record

Reverse Whois:

"Privacy-Protect.cn" owns about597 other domains

Email Search:

is associated with about 606 domains

Registrar History:

1 registrar

NS History:

1 change on 2 unique name servers over 1 year.

IP History:

5 changes on 5 unique name servers over 1 years.

Whois History:

91 records have been archived since 2010-11-24 .

Dedicated Hosting:

wiredshelf.com is hosted on a dedicated server.

DomainTools for Windows®

Now you can access domain ownership records anytime, anywhere... right from your own desktop! Download Now>

Domain name: wiredshelf.com

Registrant Contact:
Privacy-Protect.cn
Henry Nguyen Gong
+33.0466583875 fax: +33.0466583875
Rue la produit 34
Nimes Languedoc-Roussillon 30189
fr

Administrative Contact:
Henry Nguyen Gong
+33.0466583875 fax: +33.0466583875
Rue la produit 34
Nimes Languedoc-Roussillon 30189
fr

Technical Contact:
Henry Nguyen Gong
+33.0466583875 fax: +33.0466583875
Rue la produit 34
Nimes Languedoc-Roussillon 30189
fr

Billing Contact:
Henry Nguyen Gong
+33.0466583875 fax: +33.0466583875
Rue la produit 34
Nimes Languedoc-Roussillon 30189
fr

DNS:
ns4.cnmsn.com

Created: 2010-11-23
Expires: 2011-11-23

Server Type:

nginx

IP Address:

91.201.66.202 Reverse-IP | Ping | DNS Lookup | Traceroute

ASN:

AS21098

IP Location:

- Russian Federation - Donekoservice Ltd

Response Code:

200

Domain Status:

Registered And Active Website

IP Information for 91.201.66.202

IP Location:	Russian Federation Donekoservice Ltd
ASN:	AS21098
IP Address:	91.201.66.202
Reverse IP:	1 website uses this address. (example: wiredshelf.com)

inetnum: 91.201.64.0 - 91.201.67.255
netname: Donekoserv
descr: DonEkoService Ltd
country: RU
org: ORG-DS41-RIPE
admin-c: HP2220-RIPE
tech-c: HP2220-RIPE
status: ASSIGNED PI
mnt-by: RIPE-NCC-END-MNT
mnt-by: MNT-DONECO
mnt-lower: RIPE-NCC-END-MNT
mnt-routes: MHOST-MNT
mnt-domains: MNT-DONECO
source: RIPE # Filtered

organisation: ORG-DS41-RIPE
org-name: DonEko Service
org-type: OTHER
address: novocherkassk, ul stremyannaya d.6
e-mail:
mnt-ref: MNT-DONECO
mnt-by: MNT-DONECO
source: RIPE # Filtered

person: Haralevich Piotr
address: novocherkassk, ul stremyannaya d.6
mnt-by: MNT-DONECO
phone: +74951000000
nic-hdl: HP2220-RIPE
source: RIPE # Filtered

route: 91.201.66.0/24
descr: Route to Mhost Data Center
origin: AS21098
mnt-by: MHOST-MNT
source: RIPE # Filtered

A Rant About Copyright Infringement

2011-05-10T22:04:00.000-04:00

Currently, I am battling a site that is registered in France, China, and Russia. It is called wiredshelf.com and I understand that not only does it post e-books such as mine to entice booklovers to "subscribe" to a "subscription library" of 100,000 e-books (many of which are being advertised and possibly shared "free" without the consent, permission or compensation to the copyright owners) but it also allegedly abuses any credit card information supplied by would-be subscribers.

Wiredshelf.com looks legitimate. It turns up in searches on Google and Alexa. It is protected by various privacy-protect "fronts".

Wiredshelf is protected by Twitter. Twitter members may boast freely in tweets that they have added or uploaded copyrighted works, and direct all the world to wiredshelf.com. In response, Twitter insists on DMCAs for the copyright owners, takes two or more days about it, will not remove any link except those identified individually by actual copyright owners.

Moreover, Twitter threatens the very authors it is harming with exposure on Chilling Effects, and with lawsuits if they should dare to overstep the bounds.

EBay is awash with DVDs of e-books burned by amateurs and entrepreneurs who seem to believe that they can claim copyright on anything they can snag from a pirate site. EBay raises unbelievable hurdles to authors. Copyright owners must own specific types of accounts, they must be pre-registered, they must have access to faxes and printers... woe betide any copyright owner who happens to be travelling when she hears that her e-books are being illegally auctioned on eBay!

Copyright-infringing vendors keep their good reputations. EBayers who purchase illegal DVDs are not informed that they do not (as they were led to believe in the auctions) own the copyright to bestselling modern novels that they bought on EBay. Therefore, the same copyright infringing collections are sold over and over again in multiple auctions by increasing numbers of eBayers.

The same happens on other internet sites.

My works have been stolen, shared, sold without my permission, scanned, posted in libraries more times than I can count. My copyright has been directly infringed by SONY, AMAZON and indirectly infringed by Plunder, Astatalk, EBay, wiredshelf....

Congress and the Library of Congress must define what is a RED FLAG, and must oblige OSPs that want "Safe Harbor" to pay attention to and investigate warnings and reports from members of the public.

Something must be done to address the all-too-popular misconception that if an e-book is "freely" available on a pirate site or file sharing site, it must necessarily be "in the public domain". If the author is alive, she probably owns that copyright, in which case, no one else may claim copyright over that work.

Just because Google or Adbrite robots place respectable companies' advertisements on a site (for pay) does not confer necessary respectability on that site. It could still be infringing authors' and artists' and musicians; copyright.

Just because a hosting site has wording it its TOS and TOU that deplore and forbid copyright infringement and ostensibly threaten infringers with banning and loss of access does not mean that those sites follow through. It does not mean that sites like FILESONIC aren't paying a cash bounty for every unwitting illegal downloader who visits their site and steals a "free" movie, game, or e-book, or for every new subscriber who signs up for a paid premium account so that they can download more "freebies" faster, before the greedy publishers and producers find out that their work is being given away free, and send a take down notice.

At the moment, creators cannot afford to sue pirates, and the pirates know it. They post "Guides" to that effect on EBay. Piracy pays, because pirates (and PayPal and Google and the advertisement aggregators) keep making money until the pirates are caught, and when they are caught, they simply have to change an email address and start again.

Sincerely,
Rowena Cherry

Looks Too Good To be True - Fraud / SOFTWARE PIRACY

2011-04-15T17:36:00.000-04:00

Looks Too Good To be True - Fraud / SOFTWARE PIRACY

Here's a great online site to report piracy... of your own work, or of others.

Scott Turow On Random House (reposted w. permission)

2011-03-07T11:59:00.000-05:00

Random House, the largest trade book publisher in the U.S., announced last week that it is adopting the agency model for selling e-books. For readers and authors concerned about a diverse literary marketplace, this is welcome news, a chance for online bookselling to avoid the winner-take-all trap. Random House's move gives brick-and-mortar bookstores, many of which are now selling e-books but cannot afford to lose money on those sales, a fighting chance in the new print + digital landscape.

"Book retailers have faced extraordinary challenges in recent years," said Authors Guild President Scott Turow, "a double whammy of recession and a shift to digital books that had cut many stores out. For anyone who loves bookstores, this is the best news out of the publishing industry in a long time. Random House's move may prove to be a lifeline for some bookstores."

Apple introduced the agency model into bookselling last year when it launched the iPad and the iBookstore. In January 2010, as Steve Jobs was announcing Apple's new device, Amazon controlled an estimated 90% of the U.S. e-book market. The price of entry into that market was steep: Amazon, using the reseller model for e-books, was routinely selling e-books at a substantial loss to build the market and to ward off competitors such as Barnes & Noble, which had just begun selling the Nook. As we described in last month's alert (How Apple Saved Barnes & Noble. Probably.):

Apple wouldn't sell e-books under the reseller model that Amazon had been using to lock down the market. (Under that model, the publisher sells e-books to a reseller at a discount of about 50%. The reseller can then sell the e-book at any price, constrained only by antitrust law and the reseller's ability to absorb losses.) Instead, Apple would sell e-books under the same "agency model" it used for iPhone apps. Under the agency model, Apple acts as the publisher's agent, selling e-books at the price established by the publisher and taking a 30% commission on each sale. To participate, a publisher would have to agree to a set of ceilings on e-book prices, generally $12.99 or $13.99 for new books. A publisher would also have to agree not to sell to others under more favorable terms.

If the agency model took hold, unfettered discounting of e-books would be out. Amazon would lose its ability to buy market share in a nascent, booming industry.

Macmillan leapt at the agency model, and Amazon fought back. In a dramatic, week-long showdown, Amazon removed the buy buttons from print and digital editions of virtually all of Macmillan's books. Macmillan stood firm, and five of the big six trade publishers (all except Random House) quickly adopted the agency model. The Guild immediately backed the agency model as essential for creating a healthy, diverse e-book retailing environment, even though it would mean lower royalties for many authors in the near term.

Barnes & Noble benefitted more than anyone from publishers' adoption of the agency model. It still had to subsidize sales of many Random House titles to stay in the game with Amazon, but it didn't have to lose money on the sales of other titles. Barnes & Noble's share of the e-book market grew at a pace that surprised everyone in the industry and is now approaching 20%.

The biggest beneficiaries of Random House's shift to the agency model may be independent booksellers, many of which are now selling e-books through an arrangement with Google. While Barnes & Noble could absorb some losses in selling Random House e-books, this was out of the question for most independent booksellers. Many readers will soon be able to support their local booksellers when they buy e-books, without paying a stiff price for their loyalty.

"Getting local booksellers into the e-book game is essential," said Mr. Turow. "Equally essential, if e-books are going to help sustain a vibrant literary culture, is restoring the traditional division of proceeds between authors and publishers. Random House and other major publishers have a lot of work to do on that score."

For a discussion of e-book royalties, see E-Book Royalty Math: The House Always Wins and The E-Book Royalty Mess: An Interim Fix.

--------------------------------
Feel free to forward, post, or tweet. Here is a short URL for linking: http://tiny.cc/3o9fa

Kindle e-book piracy accelerates | Fully Equipped - CNET Reviews

2011-03-06T06:46:00.000-05:00

The comments on this article are really thoughtful.

Kindle e-book piracy accelerates | Fully Equipped - CNET Reviews

Kindle e-book piracy accelerates | Fully Equipped - CNET Reviews

2011-03-06T06:27:00.000-05:00

Kindle e-book piracy accelerates | Fully Equipped - CNET Reviews

Start-up hopes to profit from Kindle lending | Deep Tech - CNET News

2011-03-06T06:25:00.000-05:00

Interesting coverage of Amazon's e-book lending program.

Start-up hopes to profit from Kindle lending | Deep Tech - CNET News

If a publisher or author wants the 70% level of commission, they
apparently are forced to allow "sharing".

Those who don't want e-books "shared" must elect the 35% commission
level.

The eBook User’s Bill of Rights | Librarian in Black Blog – Sarah Houghton-Jan

2011-03-02T09:33:00.000-05:00

About 70 posts into the discussion, the Librarian's true motivation is revealed.
I will say this for her, she is an excellent self-promoter.

Over the long term, I cannot see that her business model is in the public interest.
As Scott Turow pointed out, authors must have a financial incentive to write.

If publishing e-books does not make financial sense, the quality of e-books will
deteriorate, and the field will be left to the vain and to the advertisers.

The eBook User’s Bill of Rights | Librarian in Black Blog – Sarah Houghton-Jan

My response to Sarah was:

This is telling, Sarah. Thank you for sharing your true motivation.

"Writing, and giving away my writing, helps others–which is why
I got into libraries in the first place. It also even helps me by raising my profile
and exposure, which leads to other paid engagements (like speaking and training).
This blog, which has always been free and CC-licensed, helped me get more paid gigs
than anything I was ever paid to write and that’s a fact."

For you, writing isn't a career. It is an advertisement for your paid services.

That is all very well, but some authors don't share your desire to make their living
as paid speakers and trainers. They want to write books, and be paid a fairly and
freely negotiated fraction of the price for which each copy of those books is legally sold.

Each copy.

Legally sold.

In pursuit of your own paid career as a speaker and trainer, you arrogate to yourself
the right to demand that authors' private contracts are unilaterally renegotiated
without their consent.

Why should anyone pay to be trained by you, or to hear you speak?
Doesn't knowledge want to be free?
Doesn't everyone in the world have the right to benefit from your wisdom
regardless of their ability to pay for the experience?
Do you allow your audiences to make audio and video recordings of your paid speeches
and training sessions, and to then sell or "share" those recordings of your paid work ...
without paying you?

Possibly, you do. You might consider that great publicity, and for a time it could be.

If Sarah truly and honestly "put her money where her mouth is", she would upload videos and audios of her
paid speeches and training sesssion etc. Free.

Of course, in time, everyone who might have wanted to pay to hear her speak could more conveniently
access a free mp3 (or whatever) from the comfort of their internet connection.

Then, Sarah would be walking a mile in the moccasins of the authors whose works she thinks should
be freely shared and resold.

Illinois legislation impacting Amazon Associates Program? | The Whole Bird Politics

2011-02-27T12:43:00.000-05:00

Wow!!!
Who knew that Amazon is an authority on what is unconstitutional ?

Illinois legislation impacting Amazon Associates Program? | The Whole Bird Politics

Greetings from the Amazon Associates Program:

We regret to inform you that the Illinois state legislature has passed
an unconstitutional tax collection scheme that,
if signed by Governor Quinn, would leave Amazon.com little choice
but to end its relationships with Illinois-based Associates.

I am very surprised that a corporation is allowed to stir the pot in this way. My
understanding was that it is constitutional for the individual States to levy taxes
to meet their needs.

I'm also surprised that Amazon affiliates aren't routinely taxed on their income from
sales referrals. Shouldn't there be some kind of tax forms... 1099s??

As I see it, any income paid to affiliates is either taken out of Amazon's cut on sales,
or it is taken out of the publishers' and authors' cut. Since the author does not receive
that amount, the author isn't paying taxes on it.

Someone ought to be paying taxes. I'm with Illinois on this. I think Michigan and Kentucky
and Florida ought to be taxing Amazon affiliates' income, too.

Would the Bard Have Survived the Web? - NYTimes.com

2011-02-16T08:22:00.000-05:00

Would the Bard Have Survived the Web? - NYTimes.com

Snarking back at a pirate

2011-02-15T15:24:00.001-05:00

After two or more years, YAHOO finally, apparently, did the right thing and parted ways with
one of the worst alleged pirates on the internet.

These people make $0.03 (three cents) from every download that they can trick
booklovers, movie-lovers, music-lovers, magazine-lovers etc into illegally downloading. Also,
they tell their audience that they, too, can make money by sharing movies, e-books, music that
they do not own, and that they have downloaded illegally.

They do not tell those innocent persons that the pirates will receive approximately 20% of
the new members' commissions.

Nor do they tell their victims that by illegally downloading copyrighted material, the victims
in theory risk the possibility of prosecution, fines of up to $250,000 per file downloaded, and
up to 5 years in prison.

Okay. There's a slim chance that that would happen. Nevertheless, if you are going to "steal"
("stealing" isn't the legally correct term for infringing copyright) copyrighted material, you
ought to be given the opportunity to make an informed decision whether it is worth it.

The "Free Book Club" was a club that infringed copyright, and encouraged others to do so.
It infringed AMAZON's copyright, by snagging reviews, or substantial portions of AMAZON-owned
reviews from the pages of books that were being legally sold on AMAZON.

It infringed the publishers' copyright by posting copyrighted cover art.

It provided links to a file hosting site, so that members of their club could follow the links
and illegally download copyrighted works that had been illegally uploaded to that site in violation
of the hosting site's terms of use, and the copyright of the true copyright owners.

Make no mistake, just because one person has infringed copyright by uploading an in-copyright
e-book, movie, tune, magazine, etc to a file-hosting site, that does not make a "stolen" work
free and legal for everyone else to "steal".

The work is still under copyright. The right to copy it, and distribute it still belongs to
the author.

Subject: Book Club Newsletter (important, please read)
From: Club Admin

Dear Book Club Members
We have closed the FreeBookClub at Yahoo Groups.
This was due to an argument with Yahoo over our 'absolute' right to inform members of complimentary books etc., and even though we are not the hosts of these giveaways, we do not accept that we should told what we can or cannot say to our membership in an email newsletter. Yahoo has lost the plot!
We are currently looking for a more reliable mailing service, but in the meantime, if you would like to continue to recieve notifications about new giveaways, please join our Google Group, using the form below. Hopefully they better understand our legal rights of free speech!

Regards, Club Admin

The problem, I think, comes with these pirates' misunderstanding of what "free" and "complimentary"
and "giveaway" mean.

A book can be "complimentary" if it is given away by someone with the legal right to give it
away. In the case of most of the works these pirates shared, the copyright owner probably did
not voluntarily give it away. Is it logical that at the same time that "The Sorcerer's Apprentice"
and "The Social Network" are on pay-per-view on TV, or even still running in cinemas, is it
reasonable to believe that the film-makers want you to be able to get it free from FILESONIC?

Personally, I wonder about the "free speech" issue. It might be a matter covered by the truth
in advertising laws.

Is there a legal difference between something "stolen" and something "free"?

Where does solicitation to commit a crime begin?

How to Prevent Sex on Mars: His and Hers Spaceships? - Study: Astronauts of the opposite sex are bound to have some

2011-02-14T10:54:00.000-05:00

How to Prevent Sex on Mars: His and Hers Spaceships? - Study: Astronauts of the opposite sex are bound to have some

The E-Book Royalty Mess, courtesy of Authors' Guild

2011-02-11T17:45:00.000-05:00

The E-Book Royalty Mess: An Interim Fix

February 11, 2011. To mark the one-year anniversary of the Great Blackout, Amazon's weeklong shut down of e-commerce for nearly all of Macmillan's titles, we're sending out a series of alerts on the state of e-books, authorship, and publishing. The first installment ("How Apple Saved Barnes & Noble. Probably.") discussed the outcome, of that battle, which introduced a modicum of competition into the distribution of e-books. The second, ("E-Book Royalty Math: The House Always Wins") took up the long-simmering e-royalty debate, and showed that publishers generally do significantly better on e-book sales than on hardcover sales, while authors always do worse.

Today, we look at the implications of that disparity, and suggest an interim solution to minimize the harm to authors.

Negotiating a publishing contract is frequently contentious, but authors have long been able to take comfort in this: once the contract is signed, the interests of the author and the publisher are largely aligned. If the publisher works to maximize its revenues, it will necessarily work to maximize the author's royalties. This is the heart of the traditional bargain, whereby the author licenses the publisher long-term, exclusive book rights in the world's largest book market in exchange for an advance and the promise of diligently working to the joint benefit of author and publisher.

Now, for the first time, publishers have strong incentives to work against the author's interests.

As we discussed in our last alert, authors and publishers have traditionally acted as equal partners, splitting the net proceeds from book sales. Most sublicenses, for example, provide for a fifty-fifty split of proceeds, and the standard hardcover trade book royalty -- 15% of the retail price -- represented half of the net proceeds from selling the book when the standard was established.* But trade book publishers currently offer e-book royalties at precisely half what the terms of a traditional proceeds-sharing arrangement would dictate -- paying just 25% of net income on e-book sales. That's why the shift from hardcover to e-book sales is a win for publishers, a loss for authors.

The Pushback

The publisher's standard reply to this -- which we heard yet again after last week's alert -- is a muddle, conflating fixed costs with variable costs. Let's address that before we move on.

For any book, a publisher has two types of fixed costs: those attributable to the publisher's operations as a whole (office overhead, investments in infrastructure, etc.) and those attributable to the particular work (author's advance, editing, design). The variable costs for the book are the unit costs of production. These costs (print, paper, binding, returns, royalty) tell a publisher how much more it costs to get, say, 10,000 additional hardcover books to stores and sell them. The publisher's gross profit per unit (unit income minus unit costs) is the amount against which the author's royalties are traditionally and properly measured. With this sort of analysis, a publisher can compare the gross profitability per unit of, for example, a hardcover to a trade paperback edition.

Investments in technology change nothing. Publishers never argued, for example, that hardcover royalties needed to be cut when they began equipping their editorial and design staffs with expensive (at the time) personal computers, buying pricey computers and software for their designers, tying those computers together with ever-more-powerful Ethernet cables and routers, and hiring support staff to maintain it all. Publishers simply took their share of the gross profits from book sales and applied it to all of their costs, as they always have. What remains after deducting those costs is deemed the publisher's net profit. Similarly, authors take their share of the proceeds of their book sales and apply it to their overhead (food, clothing, shelter, and computer technology) and costs (their labor and out-of-pocket costs to write the manuscript). What remains is the author's net profit.

The proper question is this: how much better off is a publisher if it sells a book, print or digital, than it is if it doesn't? That is what we measured. We then compared that to the author's print and digital royalties per book.

Publisher's E-Gains + Author's E-Losses = E-Bias

Applying standard trade hardcover and e-book terms to Kathryn Stockett's "The Help," David Baldacci's "Hell's Corner," and Laura Hillenbrand's "Unbroken," we found that publishers do far better by selling e-books than hardcovers (realizing "e-gains" of 27% to 77%), while the authors do much worse (suffering "e-losses" of 17% to 39%). Publishers can't help being influenced by the gains; e-bias will inevitably drive their decisions.

Some simplified examples show how e-bias plays out in publishing decisions:

1. Promotional Bias. Assume a publisher is contemplating whether to invest a portion of a book's limited marketing budget in stimulating the sale of digital books (paying for featured placement in the Kindle or Nook stores, perhaps) or in encouraging print sales through a promotion at physical bookstores. Either way, the publisher expects the investment to boost sales by 1,000 copies. A sensible publisher would spend the money to promote digital books, pocketing an additional $1,570 to $4,170 on those sales compared to hardcover sales. Such a decision, however, would cost Ms. Stockett, Mr. Baldacci, and Ms. Hillenbrand $1,470, $1,570, and $670, respectively, in royalties.

2. Print-Run Bias. E-gains of 27% to 77% become irresistible when a publisher looks at risk-adjusted returns on investment, as any businessperson would. Once a book is typeset for print, the publisher must invest an additional $30,000 to have 10,000 hardcover books ready for sale, using the figures from our prior alert. Once the digital template is created and distributed to the major vendors, on the other hand, there is no additional cost to having the book ready for purchase by an unlimited number of customers. Even the encryption fee (50 cents per book, at most) isn't incurred until the reader purchases the book. In this environment a publisher is nearly certain to keep print runs as short as possible, risking unavailability at bookstores, in order to decrease overall risk and maximize the publisher's return on investment.

Publishers, in short, will work to increase e-book sales at the inevitable expense of hardcover sales, tilting more and more purchases toward e-books, and their lower royalties. Publishers, as sensible, profit-maximizing entities, will work against their authors' best interests.

An Interim Solution: Negotiate an E-Royalty Floor

This won't go on forever. Bargain basement e-royalty rates are largely a result of negotiating indifference. The current industry standards for e-royalties began to gel a decade or so ago, when there was no e-book market to speak of. Authors and agents weren't willing to walk away from publishing contracts over a royalty clause that had little effect on the author's earnings.

Once the digital market gets large enough, authors with strong sales records won't put up with this: they'll go where they'll once again be paid as full partners in the exploitation of their creative work. That day is fast approaching, and would probably be here already, were it not for a tripwire in the contracts of thousands of in-print books. That tripwire? If the publisher increases its e-royalty rates for a new book, the e-royalty rates of countless in-print books from that publisher will automatically match the new rate or be subject to renegotiation.

So, what's to be done in the meantime? Here's a solution that won't cascade through countless backlist books: soften the e-bias by eliminating the author's e-loss. That is, negotiate for an e-royalty floor tied to the prevailing print book royalty amount.

Turning again to our last alert for examples, here are the calculations of e-losses and e-gains without an e-royalty floor:

"The Help," by Kathryn Stockett

Author's Standard Royalty: $3.75 hardcover; $2.28 e-book.

Author's E-Loss = -39%

Publisher's Margin: $4.75 hardcover; $6.32 e-book.

Publisher's E-Gain = +33%

"Hell's Corner," by David Baldacci

Author's Standard Royalty: $4.20 hardcover; $2.63 e-book.

Author's E-Loss = -37%

Publisher's Margin: $5.80 hardcover; $7.37 e-book.

Publisher's E-Gain = +27%

"Unbroken," by Laura Hillenbrand

Author's Standard Royalty: $4.05 hardcover; $3.38 e-book.

Author's E-Loss = -17%

Publisher's Margin: $5.45 hardcover; $9.62 e-book.

Publisher's E-Gain = +77%

Here are the calculations with an e-royalty floor:

"The Help," by Kathryn Stockett

Author's Adjusted Royalty: $3.75 hardcover; $3.75 e-book.

Author's E-Loss = Zero

Publisher's Margin: $4.75 hardcover; $4.85 e-book.

Publisher's E-Gain = +2%

"Hell's Corner," by David Baldacci

Author's Adjusted Royalty: $4.20 hardcover; $4.20 e-book.

Author's E-Loss = Zero

Publisher's Margin: $5.80 hardcover; $5.80 e-book.

Publisher's E-Gain = Zero

"Unbroken," by Laura Hillenbrand

Author's Adjusted Royalty: $4.05 hardcover; $4.05 e-book.

Author's E-Loss = Zero

Publisher's Margin: $5.45 hardcover; $8.85 e-book.

Publisher's E-Gain = +62%

While this wouldn't restore authors to full partnership status in the sale of their work, it would prevent them from being harmed as publishers try to maximize their revenues. This is only an interim solution, however. In the long run, authors will demand to be restored to full partnership, and someone will give them that status.

Part 4 of this series will look at online piracy and book publishing.

--------------------------------

*A traditional industry rule of thumb was that the price of a hardcover should be five or six times the cost of production. (John P. Dessauer, Book Publishing: What It Is, What It Does. R.R. Bowker 1974, p. 92). To keep the math simple, let's assume that it's priced at five times the cost of production, that there are no returns, and that the bookseller pays the publisher 50% of the list price for the book. Of the 50% the publisher receives, subtract 20% for the cost of production (one-fifth the retail price) and the net proceeds are 30% of the retail list price. Split that in two, and one arrives at the author's standard hardcover royalty, 15% of the retail list price. (A current rule of thumb is that the cost of producing a hardcover is about 15% of the retail price, but the actual costs vary widely.)

--------------------------------

Feel free to forward, post, or tweet. Here is a short URL for linking: http://tiny.cc/0p0jb

From The Authors' Guild

2011-02-04T08:33:00.000-05:00

E-Book Royalty Math: The Big Tilt

To mark the one-year anniversary of the Great Blackout, Amazon's weeklong shut down of e-commerce for nearly all of Macmillan's titles, we’re sending out a series of alerts this week and next on the state of e-books, authorship, and publishing. The first installment (“How Apple Saved Barnes & Noble. Probably.”) discussed the outcome, one year later, of that battle. Today, we look at the e-royalty debate, which has been simmering for a while, but is likely to soon heat up as the e-book market grows.

E-book royalty rates for major trade publishers have coalesced, for the moment, at 25% of the publisher’s receipts. As we’ve pointed out previously, this is contrary to longstanding tradition in trade book publishing, in which authors and publishers effectively split the net proceeds of book sales (that's how the industry arrived at the standard hardcover royalty rate of 15% of list price). Among the ills of this radical pay cut is the distorting effect it has on publishers’ incentives: publishers generally do significantly better on e-book sales than they do on hardcover sales. Authors, on the other hand, always do worse.

How much better for the publisher and how much worse for the author? Here are examples of author’s royalties compared to publisher’s gross profit (income per copy minus expenses per copy), calculated using industry-standard contract terms:

“The Help,” by Kathryn Stockett

Author’s Standard Royalty: $3.75 hardcover; $2.28 e-book. Author’s E-Loss = -39%

Publisher’s Margin: $4.75 hardcover; $6.32 e-book. Publisher’s E-Gain = +33%

“Hell’s Corner,” by David Baldacci

Author's Standard Royalty: $4.20 hardcover; $2.63 e-book. Author’s E-Loss = -37%

Publisher’s Margin: $5.80 hardcover; $7.37 e-book. Publisher’s E-Gain = +27%

“Unbroken,” by Laura Hillenbrand

Author’s Standard Royalty: $4.05 hardcover; $3.38 e-book. Author’s E-Loss = -17%

Publisher’s Margin: $5.45 hardcover; $9.62 e-book. Publisher’s E-Gain = +77%

So, everything else being equal, publishers will naturally have a strong bias toward e-book sales. It certainly does wonders for cash flow: not only does the publisher net more, but the reduced royalty means that every time an e-book purchase displaces a hardcover purchase, the odds that the author’s advance will earn out -- and the publisher will have to cut a check for royalties -- diminishes. In more ways than one, the author’s e-loss is the publisher’s e-gain.

Inertia, unfortunately, is embedded in the contractual landscape. If the publisher were to offer more equitable e-royalties in new contracts, it would ripple through much of the publisher’s catalog: most major trade publishers have thousands of contracts that require an automatic adjustment or renegotiation of e-book royalties if the publisher starts offering better terms. (Some publishers finesse this issue when they amend older contracts, many of which allow e-royalty rates to quickly escalate to 40% of the publisher’s receipts. Amending old contracts to grant the publisher digital rights doesn’t trigger the automatic adjustment, in the publisher's view.) Given these substantial collateral costs, publishers will continue to strongly resist changes to their e-book royalties for new books.

Resistance, in the long run, will be futile. As the e-book market continues to grow, competitive pressures will almost certainly force publishers to share e-book proceeds fairly. Authors with clout simply won’t put up with junior partner status in an increasingly important market. New publishers are already willing to share fairly. Once one of those publishers has the capital to pay even a handful of authors meaningful advances, or a major trade publisher decides to take the plunge, the tipping point will likely be at hand.

In the meantime, what’s to be done? We’ll address that in our next installment in this series, on Monday.

Our assumptions and calculations for the figures above follow.

--------------------------------------------------------

Doing the Numbers: Hardcover

To keep things as simple as possible, we assumed that for hardcovers: (1) the publisher sells at an average 50% discount to the wholesaler or retailer (2) the royalty rate is 15% of list price (as it is for most hardcover books, after 10,000 units are sold), (3) the average marginal cost to manufacture the book and get it to the store is $3, and (4) the return rate is 25% (a handy number -- if one of four books produced is returned, then the $3 marginal cost of producing the book is spread over three other books, giving us a return cost of $1 per book). We also rounded up retail list price a few pennies to give us easy figures to work with.

“The Help,” by Kathryn Stockett has a hardcover retail list price of $25. The standard royalty (15% of list) would be $3.75. The publisher grosses $12.50 per book at a 50% discount. Subtract from that the author's royalty ($3.75), cost of production ($3), and cost of returns ($1), and the publisher nets $4.75 on the sale of a hardcover book.

“Hell’s Corner” by David Baldacci, has a retail list price is $28. The standard royalty is $4.20; the publisher's gross is $14. Subtract royalties ($4.20), production and return costs ($4), and the publisher nets $5.80.

“Unbroken,” by Laura Hillenbrand has a hardcover list price of $27. Standard royalties are $4.05. The publisher's gross is $13.50. Subtract royalties of $4.05 and production and return costs of $4, and the publisher nets $5.45.

Doing the Numbers: E-Book

E-book royalty rates are uniform among the major trade publishers, but pricing and discounting formulas fall into two camps: the reseller model favored by Amazon (Random House is the only large trade publisher using this model) and the agency model introduced by Apple a year ago. (See yesterday’s alert for more information on these models.)

Under the reseller model, the online bookseller pays 50% of the retail list price of the book to the publisher and sells the book at whatever price the bookseller chooses (for bestsellers, Amazon typically sells Random House e-books at a significant loss). Random House frequently prices the e-book at the same price as the hardcover until a paperback edition is available.

Under the agency model, the online bookseller pays 70% of the retail list price of the e-book to the publisher. The bookseller, acting as the publisher’s agent, sells the e-book at the price established by the publisher, but the publisher is constrained by agreement with Apple and others to set a price significantly below that for the hardcover version.

The unit costs to the publisher, under either model, are simply the author’s royalty and the encryption fee, for which we’ll use a generous 50 cents per unit.

Here’s the math:

“The Help” has an e-book list price of $13 and is sold under the agency model. Publisher grosses 70% of retail price, or $9.10. Author's royalty is 25% of publisher receipts, or $2.28. Publisher nets $6.32. ($9.10 minus $2.28 royalties and $0.50 encryption fee.)

“Hell’s Corner” is also sold under the agency model at a retail list price of $15 list price. Publisher grosses 70% of retail price, $10.50. Author's royalty is 25% of publisher receipts, or $2.63. Publisher nets $7.37. ($10.50 minus $2.63 royalties and $0.50 encryption fee.)

“Unbroken” is sold by Random House under the reseller model at a retail list price of $27. Publisher grosses $13.50 on the sale. Author’s royalty, at 25%, is $3.38. Random House nets $9.62. ($13.50 minus $3.38 royalties and $0.50 encryption fee.)

------------

Feel free to forward, post, or tweet. Here is a short URL for linking: http://tiny.cc/r71q0

The perfect mating

2011-01-26T08:34:00.000-05:00

Borders + Yahoo

Occasionally, I try to solve the business world's problems, and if I can stick it to Amazon at the same time, well, that's all right with me.

Last night, I was seething --as I often do-- about the problem of certain Yahoogroups that persistently infringe copyright, and that YAHOO refuses to remove despite the OCILLA issues. However, writers, authors, readers all love Yahoogroups.

We booklovers love Yahoogroups! If only Yahoo saw the competitive advantage in being ethical!

Copyright infringement is a huge and growing problem. Facebook, Twitter, Google follow the law, more or less, but they are not exactly proactive about it.

What if readers could trust that "IF IT IS ON YAHOO, IT IS LEGAL"? (This isn't the case right now, but it could be. Authors would be delighted to help Yahoo clean up the few rotters among its groups, if it wanted to do so.)

Amazon doesn't allow freelance authors to give away free e-books and free novellas on Amazon's DTP platform. Yahoo could. Why doesn't Yahoo look into it? "IF IT IS ON YAHOO, IT IS LEGAL".

Borders is another company that, from a stock market perspective, appears to be struggling. It, too, is a 'ME TOO'.

But, what if Borders and Yahoo got together?

Yahoo has the platforms and the booklovers yahoogroups, and the languishing search engine, and the Yahoo Answers. Borders still has the bookstores, and the contacts with publishers, and the name, and the good will, and the payment structure.

Do you think that a Borders-Yahoo match-up could provide real competition for AMAZON?

Borders+Yahoo could be a rival for Amazon and Shelfari, and EBay/PayPal.

Borders+Yahoo could transform the bricks and mortar stores into fantastic, book-related internet cafes, and if they worked with NCR, they could do download/POD right there in the stores, and avoid enriching the Post Office.

What do you think?

From Authors Guild

2011-01-03T13:14:00.001-05:00

How Apple Saved Barnes & Noble. Probably.

Happy blackout anniversary! Where were you when the lights went out? We're sending out a series of alerts this week and next that look at the state of e-books, authorship and publishing to mark the one-year anniversary of the Great Blackout, when Amazon attempted to protect its near complete dominance of the rapidly growing e-book market through a stunning, punitive act against a publisher that dared to challenge its terms. (To see our account of this showdown as it happened -- posted last Groundhog Day -- go to "The Right Battle at the Right Time.")

It was one year ago last Saturday that Amazon turned out the lights on nearly all of Macmillan's books, removing the "buy buttons" from the print and electronic editions of thousands of titles. Macmillan authors, many of whom had linked their websites to Amazon pages that were suddenly disabled and useless, found themselves cut off from readers who frequented the dominant online bookstore.

Amazon's stunning move was a preemptive strike, an attempt to keep Macmillan from going through with its plan to shift to an "agency model" for selling e-books. Macmillan, which immediately saw its online sales plummet, stood firm and prevailed: Amazon ended the blackout after a week.

The story of the blackout and its aftermath reveals much about the high-stakes device and format war that's reshaping the publishing industry. Last year's Amazon-Macmillan showdown was a critical battle in that war.

One Year Ago: Amazon's 90% E-Book Market Share

By last January, Amazon seemed destined to retain an overwhelming share of the e-book market. It then, by most accounts, commanded about 90% of the U.S. trade e-book market. Barnes & Noble had entered the game just two months before, launching the Nook in time, barely, for the critical holiday season. Few in the industry were optimistic about Barnes & Noble's e-book efforts, however.

Amazon's strategy, it seemed clear, was to leverage its formidable advantages -- including its dominance of the online print book market -- to all but lock up the e-book market. If it was successful, Amazon would control the equivalent of a vast online book club. Any publisher wanting to sell to the club would have to agree to Amazon's terms. This was an ugly prospect: book clubs tend to be resilient, but ultra low-margin enterprises for all involved, except the proprietor.

Amazon went all-in with the Kindle and its proprietary e-reading software. This commitment was most evident on Amazon's home page -- surely the most valuable retail space on the Internet -- on which it featured the Kindle nearly every day since its launch.

Amazon's most potent weapon in the e-book format and device war, however, was the strategy it deployed so effectively in its conquest of online bookselling: using its seemingly limitless financial resources to discount books at rates no competitor could long sustain. Amazon now pushed this tactic to a new level, routinely buying e-books at wholesale prices of $13 and $14 and immediately selling them at a loss, for $9.99. This not only built customer enthusiasm for the Kindle and e-books, but helped crush online and offline competitors that were selling physical books. Amazon could win the future as it finished off the past.

The prospects for Barnes & Noble in this environment were decidedly grim. Its net income had plummeted during the recession, falling 65% in two years. For Amazon, however, it was as if the Great Recession hadn't happened. Its revenues had grown 65% and its net income increased 72% over the prior two years. Its market capitalization, which had climbed past $55 billion (it stands at $77 billion today), towered over Barnes & Noble's $1 billion.

The e-book market, by all appearances, was for sale to the highest bidder -- the retailer willing and able to sell the most digital books at a loss. Barnes & Noble was in no shape to compete against Amazon in that game.

Then the game shifted.

Enter Apple

On Wednesday, January 27, 2010, Steve Jobs announced the launch of the iPad and the iBookstore.

If the agency model took hold, unfettered discounting of e-books would be out. Amazon would lose its ability to buy market share in a nascent, booming industry.

Five of the big six trade publishers (not Random House) allowed their logos to be displayed at Apple's iPad announcement. The next day, Thursday, Macmillan CEO John Sargent informed Amazon that it would be shifting to the agency model when the iPad was released. It appears that he was the first publisher to do so.

If there were any doubts about the stakes in this battle, they were erased the following day, when Amazon retaliated by removing the buy buttons from all Macmillan titles (with exceptions for textbooks and scholarly books, where Amazon faced stiff online competition). It removed the buy buttons from all editions -- not just the electronic version -- in an attempt to use its clout in the print book industry to enforce its preferred business model in the e-book industry.

Though the e-book market was growing fast, cutting off Macmillan and its authors from Amazon's print book market -- Amazon controlled an estimated 75% of online trade book print sales in the U.S. at the time -- was far more punitive than just severing Macmillan's ties to the e-book market. Amazon had used this buy button removal tactic before to punish publishers in the U.S. and the U.K. who fail to fall in line with Amazon's business plans, but it had never done so as boldly or comprehensively.

Amazon blinked, perhaps after consulting with antitrust counsel. After a one-week blackout, Amazon and Macmillan came to terms, and Macmillan could sell e-books through Amazon using the agency model. Four of the other big six would come to terms with Amazon on the agency model. Random House, the largest trade publisher, has chosen not to use the agency model, for reasons we will describe in the future (hint: Stieg Larsson).

One Year Later

Barnes & Noble is, unexpectedly, the biggest beneficiary of Apple's entry into the e-book market. With five of the big six trade book publishers using the agency model, Barnes & Noble was able to enter the e-book market based largely on its customer relationships and on technological innovation, rather than on its willingness to burn through capital to subsidize book sales. Its share of the e-book market has grown rapidly over the past year, approaching 20% of trade sales. Its introduction of the Nook Color reportedly gave it a substantial lift over the holidays.

Barnes & Noble still finds itself subsidizing sales of Random House e-books -- it generally matches Amazon's price on those titles -- but those costs appear manageable. Barnes & Noble faces substantial challenges, as do all physical bookstores, as publishing moves to its partly digital future, but it appears to have regained its footing. Should the agency model ever collapse, however, Barnes & Noble could quickly find itself at Amazon's mercy. Amazon's growth and profitability continue to soar, and its appetite for out-discounting competitors at any cost appears undiminished.

In the meantime, Apple is not standing still. According to numerous, but conflicting, reports Apple may be revising the terms for booksellers using iPhone and iPad apps as e-readers. We will be watching these developments closely.

Tomorrow: The E-Royalty Debate

------------

Feel free to forward, post, or tweet. Here is a short URL for linking: http://tiny.cc/s6433

Feds hint at charges for WikiLeaks' Assange | Privacy Inc. - CNET News

2010-12-09T05:02:00.002-05:00

Feds hint at charges for WikiLeaks' Assange | Privacy Inc. - CNET News

Bathetic as it may be, I wonder whether or not the Feds will include copyright infringement among their list of charges against the WikiLeaks founder. It might stick, and the maximum penalty for knowing, repeated copyright infringement is five years in prison and a fine of $250,000 for each work.

Works are usually books, or songs, or movies, or games.

Usually, for full copyright protection, the "work" has to be registered with the Library Of Congress. Are state secrets entered into the loc.gov?

Can one argue that government employees' reports are "works"? Were they "works for hire" and does that make a difference? I don't know. Everything one writes is said to be instantly copyrighted to the author.

Copyright infringement is the unauthorized copying and publishing of works without the permission of the copyright owner... usually the author.

It seems to me, that the WikiLeaks problem may make passage of COICA (s~3804) much more likely.

S-3804 Why Authors And Voice Talent Need Help

2010-11-16T05:01:00.000-05:00

Senators considering S 3804 should read this. This is a prime example of why authors and voice talent need a change in the law.

As I said before, the books are not "Complimentary". They are stolen. Illegally posted. Posted without permission.

The club owner admits as much.

**********************************************************************************

The Complimentary Books Site has Changed Location!

Dear Members

It would seem that Google finally took down the 'Books' site (due to terms of service!... which means that some book publishers complained!!). Anyway, after just an hour, the new site is 'live again'

I honestly don't know why they bother!

Please use the following url to find the new site as this will always point to the new Google pages as they are created

"XXXXXX" ">XXXXXX Click Here to Collect Your Complimentary Books!

It's always fun and games trying to get these nice 'goodies' to the membership!!

Regards

Club Admin

******************************************
Why do publishers bother?
Feel free to tell this pirate, my friends. The income that he is making from his piracy is made at great cost to those he preys upon. He is a parasite!

How To Recognize A Pirate

2010-11-12T09:22:00.000-05:00

Yahoo, Google, Picassa and others are involved in some fairly blatant piracy. So much for "Don't Be Evil"!

Here... put your deductive powers to the test and see if you can spot the tacit admission that these people understand perfectly well that the books they are telling you (innocent readers) are "free", "freely available" and "complimentary" are in fact pirated in violation of the law and the rights of the authors.

***************************************************************************
Welcome to The Free Book Club!

If you love free books, then you have come to the right place, you are sure to find something you like with us!

Use the menu on the left to view the book collections' when you find something you like, click on the link and download it.

It's as easy as that!

Please tell your friends about our site, we are sure they will appreciate the thought!

Join our FREE BOOKS club TODAY!

NOTE: Don't miss out!... 'Its the early bird that catches the worm'
Due to complaints by book companies, files get deleted all the time, so join the club using the form below, and you will be notified the minute a new bookmix has been completed!
*******************************************************************

The BOOK CLUB is indeed free to join, as long as the Yahoo group owner does not recognize your author name, in which case, you are not welcome.

Many of the books are only "free" because someone else stole them. They may have been snagged from a pirate site, they could contain all manner of viruses and trojans and formatting horrors. If you download one of these books, not only are you receiving stolen goods, but you could be getting a lot of nasty stuff you did not expect.

"COMPLIMENTARY" books.

Complimentary means "given free, as a courtesy".

This should be investigated under the trades description act, IMHO! The owners didn't give the books "free" as a "courtesy". The person giving it free, as a courtesy doesn't own the rights, and is giving something they have no right to give. That's wrong.

Besides, they aren't giving you the books as a courtesy. They are trying to trick you into purchasing downloading services, and also to use your interest as a hook for selling space to advertisers, who are in turn ripping off respectable businesses who have no idea that their advertising budget is being used to fund copyright infringement.

2010-11-09T15:36:00.000-05:00

EFF generally encourages the free reproduction and distribution of its informative mailings, so I
assume that this is the case with this plea for donations.

What I find fascinating is that PayPal is apparently doing a matching donation effort to support this
organization.

PayPal profits enormously from copyright infringement, because so many pirates receive accept payments for copyright infringing sales of intellectual property that they have no right to sell (or otherwise monetize) through PayPal.

I've never heard that PayPal attempts to make any sort of restitution to the authors and publishing professionals. This open sponsorship by PayPal of an organization that is campaigning against COICA strikes me as quite significant.

This is a friendly message from the Electronic Frontier Foundation. View it in a web browser.

Dear Friend of Digital Freedom,

Donate to EFF this week and you can double — or even triple — the value of your contribution! PayPal and Convio will match up to $5,000 in donations to EFF made via PayPal between Tuesday, November 9, and Friday, November 12, 2010.
First, double your donation through PayPal.

Go to the (XXXXXXXX redacted).
Enter the information and choose PayPal as your payment method.
You will be redirected to a PayPal login page to complete the transaction.
You're done! PayPal matching is automatic.

Then, triple your donation with employee matching.

Ask your human resources department if your employer matches your charitable donations.
Fill out the paperwork and forward it to EFF for completion (if necessary).
You're done! It's a simple step that maximizes your impact and keeps EFF going strong.

Even current members can make contributions to help put EFF on top! And as an added bonus, the charity that raises the most money and the charity that receives the most donation transactions will each receive $1,000 prizes. But hurry, the contest ends on Friday!
Thanks in advance for your support!

nihilistic_kid: Copyright follies

2010-11-05T05:50:00.000-04:00

Fascinating blog piece in defense of an author whose copyright was allegedly (I have to say that) infringed by a magazine.

nihilistic_kid: Copyright follies

The comments are definitely worth reading, too.

Picture This

2010-10-31T06:34:00.001-04:00

This is an extended metaphor.

Picture me standing outside Office Minimal. The shop window is broken.

(The shop window is DRM.)

"Free zip drives!" I yell. "Come and get your free zip drive. Oh, yeah! Oh, yeah! Freely available zip drives for everybody. Step right up and get your free zip drives. It's easy to collect all you want. For free!"

As eager zip drive lovers rush through the gaping hole in the window --which I swear I didn't make, I just found it, and am sharing my findings-- I murmur another message.

"Plastic bags! Buy your easy-to-use plastic bag here. For the easy, on-the-spot price of $2.00 you can have the convenience of being able to carry away far more free zip drives than you could manage in your own two hands!"

A police car cruises by.

"Not to worry, Officer," I reassure the patrolman. "I didn't break the window. The freely available zip drives aren't in my hands. I'm just exerting my First Amendment Right of free speech to tell people where to find free zip drives...

"Roll up! Roll up!" I interject to the world. "Get your freely available zip drives. All you can carry. They're in the public domain!" Then turning back to the officer, I tell him, "Zip drives want to be free. $14.99 is too expensive. $14.99 is a ridiculous price, charged by greedy, money-grub...."

The officer has lost interest. The patrol car is already edging past Better Buy, several paces down the street, where one of my associates is distributing wire shopping carts on a profitable basis to Better Buy lovers who are collecting free CDs. All he asks in exchange for the loan of a wire shopping cart is that they look for five seconds at what he has on display when he opens his raincoat.

"Free zip drives! Get your $2.00 plastic bag here!!" I do a little business. Pointing other people at freely available zip drives (hosted elsewhere) is amazingly profitable, and the Law can't touch me.

I hear some of what my associate is telling the officer.

"... only $14.99," he wheedles. "The fat cat CD producers aren't going to miss $14.99. For goodness sake, it's only the price of a fancy coffee."

The law enforcement officer moves on.

A woman in a pink hat flags him down. She appears to be indignant. She points at me. "But, it's stealing!" I hear her say.

"Madam, are you the actual owner of the zip drives?" The yahoo in the patrol car asks her. "You can't go around making unsubstantiated accusations unless you are the person being allegedly ripped off. In which case, I'll need your full real name, your phone number, your email address, proof that you are who you say you are, proof that you actually own those freely available zip discs, a formal statement that you have a good faith belief that you are being ripped off, and...."

More raised voices. I lose interest in the pink hatted protester. Someone who must be the Better Buy manager appears to remonstrate with my friend.

"Yes, I can. I can and I will," my friend blusters as CD-carrying members of the public gather around to back him up. "You'll never stop me. CD-liberation needs to exist."

"You greedy piggy! How dare you complain!" the shoppers exclaim. "We'll never shop in your store again!"

*****

Folks, if someone tells you that a tune, game, image, e-book is "free" or "freely available", do your due diligence. See if the artist has a web site. If he or she does, they are probably alive, the work has probably been created in the last 70 years, and may be under copyright protection.

If it's for sale on Amazon, that is a very good indication that maybe that work isn't supposed to be free.

Penny Sansevieri on MONETIZING "FREE"

2010-10-28T05:43:00.003-04:00

This article by Penny is about monetizing something one wrote oneself, not about "monetizing" copyright infringement ripped from the author.

I find it rather timely, given that I wrote an Opinion piece "To Freebie Or Not To Freebie" for 1stTurningPoint this week.

Feature Article: How to Monetize "Free"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
These days, everyone talks about free content. "Give it away!" they say, but does this really work? Well, yes and no. As with anything, there has to be a strategy.

Recently I was on my morning run through our neighborhood and I noticed a number of garage sale signs (that's tag sale for those of you back east). One of the signs had a sign beneath it that read: We have free stuff! As I ran though the neighborhood I passed that house and noticed they put all their free stuff in the "Free zone" and already, even at that early hour, hoards of people were migrating there.

I passed the other garage sales which were doing OK, but not great. Clearly the one with the free stuff pulled more people, but did it actually sell more paid merchandise? Yes. I checked in with the sale after my run to find most of the good stuff gone (note to self: shop first, exercise later).

When I talked to the homeowner they said that the free stuff went fast, but as I noted each time I passed by, it wasn't junk stuff, it was actually good enough to make the garage sale shopper feel like they got a real deal. If it's junk and it's free, it doesn't really matter.

What's the lesson here? Free stuff can help you sell more of the paid
merchandise, but you have to be careful, because some people just want freebies and that's fine. But they are not your customers. Here are some tips to help you maximize the use of free:

1. Why free? The first question you should ask yourself is why are you doing this? If you aren't sure, then free might not be right for you. Free content should be offered to help further your message, build a list, and get new people into your marketing funnel. If your model isn't set up this way, maybe it should be. If you aren't interested in this kind of a marketing model, then free probably isn't your thing.

2. Define how free can help: Figure out why you want to give free stuff. As I mentioned above, getting clear about your model will help determine if a free product is even worth your time. If it is, then you need to figure out how it will help you. As an example, we have a lot of free stuff on the Author Marketing Experts, Inc. site (www.ameauthors.com) but the free for us is designed to build trust. Distrust is rampant online, and in particular, in the book promotion and publishing industry. There are a lot of scams out there and so trust is important. Our free stuff builds our mailing list, yes, but it also builds trust.

3. Make sure it's really free: A lot of people have content that is purported to be free when it's not really free. What I mean is that you get a sliver of it, not even a piece really worth mentioning, but the stuff you want is something you have to pay for. If you want to do free, make it free. Find something of value and give it to your customers.

4. Make it something your end user wants: As I've mentioned a few times, make sure the free is something people want. If it isn't you

a) won't bring in the right crowd of people (you'll end up just getting the freebie hunters, and

b) you won't build your mailing list as fast.

So, for example, give your readers something really substantial like an e-book or tips, or a workbook. Virtually any electronic product is easy to create and deliver. When I changed our freebie on the Author Marketing Experts, Inc. website, we quadrupled our sign-ups. So, what was the freebie? 52 Ways to Sell More Books. Now, as an author, isn't that appealing to you? Exactly my point.

So, what if you've written a fiction book? Well, consider this: 83% of Americans want to write a book, so what if you gave them a free how-to guide? You don't even have to create this yourself, you could partner with someone who has already created this.

If you don't like that idea, consider (for those of you in the historical fiction market) doing a did-you-know piece on the history you're
referencing in your book. The idea here is to a) give value, and b) give your readers something they will care about. Also, whenever possible, give your readers something they need to keep so it will remind them of you and your book: tip sheets, workbooks, reference charts. All of these things are pieces that your consumer may keep, which can keep you top of mind.

5. Take names: You should never give free away without asking for an email
address. I see people do this all the time; they have a ton of free stuff but never collect emails. If that's the case, the freebies you are offering may be of great value to your end user but they won't matter to your marketing. Get emails. It's called an ethical bribe. You get something (their email) and give them something (the free stuff).

6. Make it easy to get: Don't make free difficult. What I mean is make it easy to get your free stuff. If people have to jump through hoops, they won't do it and the free stuff won't matter. For example - put your free stuff on your home page, or at least have a link to it, though I recommend using free stuff as an ethical bribe (as a way to get sign-ups for your newsletter). When you ask for their email, make it easy. A simple click or two is all it should take. Then, don't ask for too much information. If you ask me for my address, birthday, and whatnot I doubt I will want your free stuff that badly. Shorten the staircase. If you make it complicated, it's not really free. Just bait. If you bait your consumer in this fashion you'll lose them.

7. Make the free stuff work for you: If you give away something, make sure that it works for you. What I mean is that when you get our free stuff, we always make sure and remind folks of who we are and what we do. For a while we had a free Twitter e-book that always went out with our product catalog imbedded in it.

8. Call to action: Make sure that your free stuff has a call to action. You are collecting names and email addresses and building your list, that's great. But what do you really want people to do? Define what you want them to do, and then include your call to action in the free stuff. Let's face it, it's a good piece - designed to help your reader - but it must also help you. It's ok to promote your book on the last page, or encourage folks to do a consult with you if that's what you offer. You can also offer specials and change these periodically in the giveaway.

9. What will you give? People often ask me what you should give away, and I say, it depends: Who is your market and what do they want? Now, on our site you'll see 52 Ways to Sell More Books, which is an e-book we offer when you sign up for our newsletter. Do our folks want that? You bet. Why? Because they are authors and authors want to sell more books. A special report or e-book always makes a great freebie, maybe you have a white paper that you did on the industry; if so, offer it as a freebie.

10. Follow up! The best kind of free stuff is, as I like to call it, the gift that keeps giving. Auto responders are a great system but often underutilized when it comes to marketing. If you are collecting names and then never contacting your prospects again, what's the point? Our 52 Ways to Sell More Books is delivered over several weeks, and then when we're done, we deliver more quality content. People need to be reminded, and reminded again. Now, you can also funnel folks into your newsletter as I mentioned earlier. I do both. We have the auto responder and the newsletter. Think it's too much? Maybe, but our market wants information. Define what your market wants and then give it to them. If a newsletter and an auto responder is overkill, then scale it back. No one knows your market like you do.

The real key here is that free stuff can work well for you in so many ways, but free stuff without a goal is just free. Great to get free stuff, right? But then how is all of this hard work going to pay off for you?

If you still aren't a believer of free, try it for 90 days and see if it doesn't change your life. If you do it right, free will monetize your audience like nothing else will. The biggest reason is that in an age of pushing things on consumers, your audience really wants to sample what you have to offer before they buy. Free is a great way to do that. It's also a great way to stay in front of your audience, build trust, and develop a loyal following.

Reprint permission
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You are welcome to reprint any items from "The Book Marketing Expert
Newsletter." However, please credit us as a source with the following paragraph:

Reprinted from "The Book Marketing Expert newsletter," a free ezine offering book promotion and publicity tips and techniques. http://www.amarketingexpert.com

The suggestions are all Penny Sansevieri's. I think all authors need to check with their own state and local laws before following any suggestions about giving something away if there are strings attached... but I might be mixing up sweepstake/contest laws with freebies.

I should also add that copying and pasting doesn't work very well given my limited abilities, so the punctuation/paragraphing is all mine, and I take full responsibility if the editing is inaccurate.

Rowena Cherry

For Those Who Wish To Support Authors...Support This, please

2010-10-22T16:17:00.000-04:00

This is an email from Lucinda Dugger, Director of The Copyright Alliance:

Dear Copyright Advocates,

A couple weeks ago I emailed you about a bill that has been introduced in the Senate that will combat online infringement of copyrighted works (it's called the "Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act" or "COICA"). I encouraged you to sign a petition in favor of the bill.

Though many of you did this, our efforts have not been enough.

The opponents of this bill have been active in mobilizing the masses to speak out against it. The result of their efforts is that it seems like the public is against this bill. Yet, I hear from you everyday about how websites are illegally posting your creative works for others to take and how this affects your livelihood.

This bill would benefit all artists and creators! TAKE ACTION TODAY! Stand up for your rights!
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
1.   Speak up on blogs and listservs. Last week I blogged about a musician who spoke out in favor of the bill on a website. When he did so, others verbally attacked him calling him a "greedy pig" among other things. This musician and other artists need your support on this effort. Post blogs and comments on your own websites or on websites like this one.
2.   Contact your Senator and House Representative. Tell your congressional representatives to vote YES to the bill. Tell them your story and how piracy and infringement affect you.

      To find and email your Senator, go here.
      To find and email your House Representative, go here.
3.   Tweet this: Stop online piracy of art, music, movies, books, all creative works. Vote yes to Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act #COICA
4.   Facebook this: The U.S. Congress is debating a bill that could help millions of artists around the world. If passed, the bill would allow the government to target and shut down "internet sites dedicated to infringing activities" which are "primarily designed" to access unauthorized copyrighted material. Tell your representatives to vote YES to the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (COICA).
WHAT IS THIS BILL ABOUT?
1.   Check out this short video by independent filmmaker Ellen Seidler as she talks about how websites that are illegally hosting her movie are profiting. Yet, she is losing money. This bill will help shut down websites like these.
2.   The bill will not target minor violations of copyright. It will target "internet sites dedicated to infringing activities" that are "primarily designed" to offer or provide access to copyrighted material "without the authorization of the copyright owner."
3.   The Attorney General will be able to request a court order to suspend the domain names of U.S.-based infringing websites. For non-U.S.-based websites, the Attorney General will be able to request a court order to require the ISPs to block the website. Credit card companies and networks providing ads to these sites will also suspend all activity with the infringing sites.
4.   A list of all the domain names that are found to be infringing copyright protected content will be posted on a "publicly available Internet site, together with other relevant information, in order to inform the public."
REMEMBER PILFERED MAGAZINE?
Last February we made you aware of "Pilfered Magazine", an online magazine that freely took images from photographers without their permission and didn't credit or compensate the photographers. Because of your emails, Tweets, and postings on blogs and Facebook, the magazine was shut down in a weekend and has never reopened.

It is important that we take collective action on this bill too. Pilfered is not the only website that hosts and offers infringing material. This bill will help remove other websites like Pilfered from the internet.

ONE VOI©E: SPEAK UP FOR CREATORS' RIGHTS

Best,
Lucinda Dugger
P.S. If you received this email from a friend, and you are interested in receiving more information about how you can speak up for your rights, sign up for our network of Copyright Advocates.

Can Nation's Power Grid Handle a Surge of Electric Cars?

2010-10-17T19:23:00.000-04:00

Can Nation's Power Grid Handle a Surge of Electric Cars?

Where my mother lives in the UK, they handle electricity surges in a practical way. Every neighborhood has two set periods (I think of about 2 hours in length) when electricity is on cheap rate to encourage a subset of the population to do their electricity-intensive tasks then.

One can run the clothes washer and dishwasher at other times, but if one does, one pays a higher rate.

Wouldn't it make sense if people were able to charge their vehicles at their workplaces?

EBAY - Recall This!

2010-10-17T15:11:00.000-04:00

EBay and PayPal profit mightily from copyright infringement, and so do pirates.

I wonder why EBay has never yet (that I've heard about) issued a RECALL of illegally sold
CDs at their own expense.

When Amazon mistakenly distributed copyright infringing copies of George Orwell's works
on the Kindle, Amazon "recalled" the works. Sort of.

The difference was, they did not require any customers to mail CDs back to them.

Where would be the point? one might wonder, in publishers demanding that EBay recall bootlegged CDs.
The customers could easily transfer the copyright-infringing e-books onto their desktops before returning the offending CDs to EBay.

However, some would be angry. Some would be embarrassed to discover that they had been identified as purchasers of stolen property. Some, who might have been contemplating "sharing" these works might understand that copyright still means something, and that these works at least are in-copyright.

EBay might be more careful in future. Right now, EBay and its subsidiary PayPal are responsible for making copyright infringement and piracy profitable.

Here's an example.

Miss Pixy (not her real name) takes two series of ebooks by an author and burns them onto CDs, which she sells for $10 each. EBay allows her to sell 10 copies of each $10 CD per auction.

Miss Pixy could make $100 (less PayPal and EBay fees, and maybe less $2.00 shipping and handling which she might or might not charge the customer) for each auction, if she sold all of them. She could have an auction every week of the year. It seems to me, she could make thousands, even tens of thousands of dollars and not pay the author a cent.

Let's remember, real people are paying real money to purchase these CDs. These are lost sales.

I sometimes wonder if victimized publishers and authors know how easily the customers could be tracked. PayPal has a record of all of them: email, mailing address, real name, credit card or bank account number.

Moreover, who purchased what is a matter of public record if they left "Feedback" for the vendor on their EBay profile page. Any publisher's legal department could easily identify who bought what.

Upping The Ante On Nasty (a review of DRACULAS)

2010-10-16T12:23:00.000-04:00

In the beginning, Joe wrote these words (among others)

"…And it's going to freak you out.
If you're easily disturbed, have a weak stomach, or are prone to nightmares, stop reading right now. There are no sexy teen heartthrobs herein.
You have been warned…."

I do have a weak stomach, I am prone to nightmares, and I don't enjoy fainting. But I also have a strong contrarian streak, so when Joe Konrath warns me that I'm probably not going to want to look at his collaborative effort with Jeff Stand, Blake Crouch, and F. Paul Wilson, curiosity will impel me to look.

But, I started cautiously at the back. Worth the entire $2.99 by themselves are the bonus stories, one of which begins with the awesome line, " The hardest thing about killing a hitchhiker is finding one to pick up."

"DRACULAS"is worth its weight in gold for the bonus material alone.

Curiosity, killed cats, and other red herrings aside there's another reason to devour every bit of this exceptionally well-written, highly entertaining and disturbing book. Joe Konrath hangs ten on the crest of the most powerful waves and this book could be the way authors write faster, add extra value and thrive.

Here's how. Four first rate spec fic and occasionally hilarious authors put their heads together to horrific effect. Each chose their own hero/victim/evil-doer from a cast of characters, and each dashed off a parallel novella of approximately 20,000 words, then they sliced and diced and cobbled each author's bits together into the literary equivalent of a Frankenstein's monster. Only, it's Freddy on steroids. It gives a whole new dimension to sucking face, and not a nice one.

The dedication --"For Bram Stoker, with deepest apologies"-- is a perfect foretaste of what to expect from "DRACULAS". Irreverence. Dark humor that is so wry, it's twisted. Offensive stuff, and indeed there is a scene involving bowels and a clown who likes to make rather different balloon animals…. Lots of "wet work", and they maybe ought to have offered apologies of some depth to Clint Eastwood, too!

The prologue (not that they call it that) contains the mother of all hooks. Erroneously, I imagined the conversation those 4 bad boys of grim might have had, before I looked at Joe's generous back matter, and learned how it really was.

"Let's dig up a head."
"Let's make it really old…"
"And evil. It must be evil."
"Let's attach something nasty to it. What?"
"A curse."
"Wicked teeth."
"Maybe we make those teeth like… like Sleeping Beauty's spindle."
"Dracula's deadly prick…"
"We need sex…"
"You can't have sex with a severed head…"
"Oh, yes you can!"
"Look, we'll call the person who gets hold of the head More Cock."
"And we'll give him an incurable disease."

The foregoing is my imagination. This conversation did not happen… but the gentle reader should remember that Joe Konrath aka Jack Kilborn once wrote a Christmas story about an amnesiac werewolf who discovered that his midnight snacking habit was abnormal after he noticed buttons and coins in his poop.

Yes, there is poop humor in "DRACULAS" in the bonus matter. There's "crazy poop bags" and "werewolf poop", so if scattered references to poop offends you, beware. Moreover, there are 30 occurrences of "crap", and as for the "F-bomb"… it is dropped 114 times (-36 not in story). Oh, the joys of a search function in an e-book! I recommend using it. There's "blood" on virtually every page: 382 mentions.

Their "Draculas" have the compassion of hornets, the dentition of sharks, the voracious appetites of shrews and no respect for garlic whatsoever. If you can contemplate a rabid, blood thirsty Edward Scissorteeth in a maternity or pediatric ward, using a severed artery as a drinking straw, or lashing out among the blind… go for it, but with your eyes open.

Do not necessarily trust the reviews, and do not pay $2.99 merely to find out what's in "DRACULAS". There's more than enough in the free sample chapters to give you an accurate idea what to expect.

Know before you buy that you're going to be ambushed by some of the grossest, sickest, most disturbed, politically incorrect and indiscriminate bloodlusty slash fest that four insensitive guys can think up.

Disclaimer. This is an author review. 4-stars is as low as I go. Five Stars!

How Piracy Hurts.

2010-10-14T11:15:00.005-04:00

(guest post by Deborah MacGillivray)

Does piracy of books hurt? It destroys lives.

I knew a lovely lady. She became one of my closest friends. Our friendship was formed on the internet. Likely, we would have never known each other without that magic connection. But that link, while bringing the world to your home, also offers you a mask. Dawn hid herself from the world. Few knew Dawn Thompson was a paraplegic. She could stand, take a step or two, but otherwise, she was trapped in a wheelchair, day in, day out, for the last years of her life.

It was always Dawn’s dream to be an author. The power, the gift of storytelling was in her heart, in her soul. Dawn would have written even if she never was published because the magic was a part of her. Just as she was about to make it in publishing, she was nearly killed in a car accident. It left her with legs that no longer served her, and hands that had not been properly cared for during hospitalization, thus were curled back, useless. She only had use of her index fingers and her thumbs. But oh did she make use of those remaining digits! Dawn wrote dozens of books, most were published by Kensington Books and Dorchester Publishing.

While it was her dream to be published, it also was her necessity to sell her novels. It was one of the few ways left to her where she could raise money to support herself. She was left with a very small disability check, not enough to allow her to survive. She needed that money that would come from her books. In 2007, Dawn was on the verge of being a bestselling author, and her plans were not to buy a second home in Florida or Hawaii, nor buy that yacht we laughingly hear so much about. Dawn’s plans were to have a roof over her head, an apartment in a reasonably safe neighborhood, food for her and for her cat and medicine, the basics that many of us―most of us―take for granted. In the final years of her life, she expanded that drive to want to protect her sister. Her younger sister Candy is also disabled. Dawn thought she could write, sell lots of books and she, the cat and Candy would get by. Nothing fancy, just to be safe, have medicines and decent meals.

My heart broke when I called Dawn one day and she was crying. I finally got the story out of her―what the proud Dawn was trying to hide―just how dire her situation was. She barely had money for food, a condition that had been going on for months. She knew if she could make it until the end of the year, the royalties from her books would actually be giving her the means to survive. She was crying because she was rationing her tea. Tea was a luxury she couldn’t afford, so she allowed herself ONE teabag each Sunday as a treat for herself. Dawn had a helper supplied by the government that came in for a couple hours five days a week. And the aid just went into the kitchen, helped herself to the last tea bag. Dawn wouldn’t have her tea on Sunday. I sat and cried. One teabag per week? How sad was that?

Dawn was so close to making it, but because of the lack of good food she grew weak, and after a long day of work finishing a book, she collapsed as she tried to move from the wheelchair to the bed. As she battled for her life in hospital, she took steps to protect her sister. She gave Candy several of her remaining unpublished books outright, and assigned the rights and royalties of the ones already published to Candy. If the worst came, she wanted Candy taken care of.

The worst did come. We lost Dawn in February 2008, but she died with the belief Candy wouldn’t face the horrible circumstances of choosing between medicine and food, that her pain and hard work would provide the means to take care of her sister. Only Candy is not secure. Her fate is very dire, as bad as what faced Dawn. Maybe worse.

Sad, you say, but how does this relate to piracy?

Simple. Dawn wrote for two publishers, but the one that has control of most of her books is Dorchester Publishing. Recently, they informed the public they were restructuring their business, dropping the mass market line, and moving to only e-book and trade size.

Why? Because they are not selling mass market paperbacks on a level to stay in the black. Why should people pay for books, when they can get on the net and enter a name of a book or author and find dozens, hundreds of places where they can download books free. Illegally.

People are giving away books, or even more heinous, selling them. They are making money off the hard work of others. When I put in Dawn’s name in a search engine, I shall find her books listed on so many pirate sites it’s sickening. One place selling one of her books illegally had over 4800 downloads. Just ONE book on ONE site. Yes, all those downloading the book might not have ever bought it. But many probably would have. People who professed to love her books would have bought her next book, and her next. Now, why should they pay, when it’s minutes to locate a novel, second to download? To steal it.

These criminals ―yes, THAT is what they are ―make money off Dawn’s works. They are stealing. Dawn used to arise at 7am and would work all day and night and finally struggle into bed around 1am. SEVEN days a week. The whole time she was in agony from metal rods and pins in her body, along with sitting in a wheel chair eighteen hours a day. Those thieves are making money off her agony. The money venues/handlers such as PayPal are making money off Dawn’s pain.

And now they are stealing from Dawn’s sister. They say they aren’t hurting anyone, justifying their criminal activities, because each book is only the “price of a cup of coffee.” But multiply that by two dozen books, multiply that by thousands of downloads, multiply that by dozens, maybe hundreds, even thousands of sites stealing from Dawn’s sister. Suddenly, you are talking about a lot of money. Candy is on very limited means. She gets disability, but is too young for Medicare so she has no medical treatments for dangerously high blood pressure and arthritis. She cannot drive, cannot walk but a few steps with a walker. Currently, she is rooming in a place, and the situation is dangerous to her health. Every penny matters to her simply surviving.

So the next time someone says they can get a book offline cheap, and they aren’t hurting an author because, after all, they all live in big, fancy homes and have a yacht, think again. You are stealing food from people, medical care, a decent place to live. You are stealing people’s hard work. The next time you search out your favorite author on a torrent, before you push that button know you are stealing from people’s children, and you hurt people’s ability to support themselves. Ask yourself, if you would work at your job when people refused to pay you and yet expected you to perform anyway? Could you survive in a job where you might not get money for months, years?

You are stealing. Plain and simple. There is no justification for that. You are hurting people, and none of the blithe rationalizations can whitewash that bald fact.

by Deborah MacGillivray

*********************************

If Deborah MacGillivray's story of what piracy has done and is doing to one author and her sister moves you, please do something.

Tweet this.

Share it.

Complimentary Books? But "compliments" of whom?

2010-10-10T07:10:00.004-04:00

On the fringes of the law are people who tell lies and lure honest folks into illegal activities. Then, there are the cynical major corporations such as PayPal and Yahoo who profit from this sort of thing, and refuse to take any sort of investigative action.

What would you think, if you saw this in your email?

Another 54 Complimentary Books.

Book Mix 20
Dear Members
We are sure you will find something of interest in this terrific mix of complimentary books!
Another 54 Free Books for Everyone! (Book Mix 20). When you click the link below, follow the simple instructions on the book page to arrive at the download links page. Easy!

Would you realize that you are about to become a pirate?

If you are told --twice-- that the books you are about to receive are "COMPLIMENTARY" and once that they are "FREE", you'd expect that the authors and the publishers had given permission for this.

Wrong.

The books have been stolen, pirated, illegally uploaded to a hosting site or pirate site in violation of the authors' copyrights... "shared".

You don't know this. You've no reason to suspect that you are doing anything wrong, so you click the link.

You see "FREE BOOKS FOR EVERYONE".

Sounds good. In fact, the books are only free to everyone who chooses to steal them. And they are not really free. You are about to get your computer loaded up with tracking cookies. Also, you will probably be asked to send $2.00 to PAYPAL (and PayPal will take at least 44 cents as their commission for being part of this sale of links to stolen goods), or you will be asked to click on a link to watch an advert.

I believe that this is click fraud, and it is illegal. The advertiser wants people who are potentially interested in the product to click the link and actually watch the ad. The advertiser pays per click. Do they really want to pay for several hundred thousand people to get links to stolen ebooks?

Notice the instructions to "Skip Ad" after 5 seconds.

Its easy to collect all the books below for FREE!
Simply click the link below, watch the advert for 5 seconds, then click on the YELLOW BUTTON (Skip Ad) as it appears at the top/right of your screen and you will be directly taken to the main book page!

Scrolling down....

Please note that we are not the 'hosts' of any books, neither did we upload them to any hosting provider. We simply find links to books, that were freely available on the web and share our findings with our members!

Get a clue. This disclaimer is here because these people know that what they are doing is on the shady side of the law. Are they an "Online Service Provider"? If so, the DMCA applies to them, and the safe harbor provisions protect them.

Here's what Chilling Effects http://www.chillingeffects.org/dmca512/ says about safe harbor

In order to qualify for safe harbor protection, a service provider who hosts content must:

have no knowledge of, or financial benefit from, infringing activity on its network
have a copyright policy and provide proper notification of that policy to its subscribers
list an agent to deal with copyright complaints

But, are they hosting content? Is a list of links to illegal books "content"? Is a list of links a copyright infringement? You cannot copyright titles.

Ah! Here's the thing. They may not be hosting the books, but they are hosting the COVERS. Cover art is usually copyrighted. A lot of people think it is in the public domain, but they might not be right about that. Now I have my rights back to Forced Mate, Insufficient Mating Material, and Knight's Fork, I must create my own covers if I want to self-publish those books.

In the middle of the display of illegally uploaded and hosted book covers is an advertisement by Tudor Court Condominiums. I wonder why Simon Ditchbum believes that people who unwittingly steal e-books are likely to be interested in moving to Thailand.

Maybe you'd like to ask him! He published this info in his paid advert, so I guess he welcomes inquiries.

Email: info@tudorvillas.co.uk
Contact us on Skype: simon.ditchbum

International: Tel: +66 (0) 818 630 201, Tel: +66 (0) 861 122 850

Moving down....

Uh-oh. The other major sponsor is MARKETING CHAT which is another weebly site and appears to be run by the same wonderful, honorable, sharing people who run the Freebie club.
http://www.marketingchat.info/freebies.html

They are ripping off a whole 'nother selection of cover artists and book authors.

Notice this wording, too. This is where YAHOO is involved in this. And if you think YAHOO doesn't know, think again. This author complained to YAHOO and was banned from the group.

Join our FREE BOOKS club TODAY!

If you want to be kept informed of the LATEST selections of books & audio books, then why not join our FREE Club

Now, we are almost at the bottom of the page. Let me point out that there is no copyright notice, symbol or statement of copyright policy, no contact info, no listed name of the copyright agent to whom one should complain, no DMCA link.

Anyway, I am making "Fair Use" of their content. I am using it to illustrate a report, a critique, a commentary in the public interest.

Here is the honest reader's first ... maybe third... hint of trouble. Check this out and see what you think.

Useful Download Info

After clicking the links below each book summary, and downloading the file(s), you will find that most files are saved in ZIP format or in .RAR format, if you do not have the program to open these .RAR files on your computer, you can get it FREE here: http://peazip.source forge.net/index.html A simple search on Google will find you many free programs like this. ZIP files are opened with WinZip (most computers have this program on their computers, however, if you do not, simply go to http://www.win zip.com and download the program free!)

Word to the wise crackers. Yeah. I know the links don't work. I messed with them. OK?

Zipped files are easy to open. Simply click on the book links, taking you directly to the download page. Click on the 'Free User' button (each host is a little different, but all offer free download, you just have to wait a few seconds!), click the download button and your book will start to download. Once fully downloaded, your computer will ask you if you want to OPEN or SAVE the file. We suggest that you first SAVE the file to a place on your computer, eg; My Documents. Once you have done this, you can easily find the file, and by clicking on it, it will open. You will then see all the smaller files inside. You can either select all of these at once (click on the top one, then hold down your SHIFT key while you click on the bottom one, then click EXTRACT. It will then ask you where to save the files to (we suggest My Documents for now unless you have already created a new folder and place you would like to keep them). The programme will then save the files. If you prefer, You can also OPEN the file straight away. It will then start to gradually load the file. Once it is ready (100% loaded), you can then click OPEN again, and you will see all the smaller files in the box. Select one or ALL of these files, and click the 'EXTRACT TO' link. You will then be given a choice of places you can save the UNZIPPED files.

1. There are no book summaries.
There were book summaries on the previous 19 "complimentary" collections, but I infer that someone told these terrific people that hosting summaries lifted from the publishers' sites was dodgy.

2. Should you infer that if you click the links, you go directly to a page that hosts the book you want? Maybe. What's the deal with the ZIP?

Who uploaded the books to zip folders?
What is a .RAR file, and do publishers sell e-books as .rar files?

In the binary newsgroups, RAR is used to compress large files. As people post larger and larger files, it has become more important to compress them down as much as possible. That's why RAR and yEnc were invented, and that is why they have caught on so fast. Typically, a poster will compress his file with RAR.

http://www.techsono.com/faq/rar.html

So... RAR is commonly used by persons intent on infringing copyright to enable them to compress and publish large folders (such as e-books). Of course, not all RAR users are pirates, just as not all dogs are borzois.

3. Notice the English English spelling. The perpetrator of this...um... magnificent generosity with other people's work (authors' works) may be an Englishman.

4. Why are there lots of smaller files? What are you downloading and unzipping apart from the stolen e-book you thought you were getting? Trojans? Maybe. Remember, you are getting stolen content from a pirate site.

5. I wonder what is the deal with these choices of where to save the new files. Could it be... more advertising? Or maybe you have to pay membership and join a storage site? If you know, do tell!

Rowena Cherry

Copyright And Piracy | Publishing In the 21st Century

2010-10-08T17:31:00.002-04:00

My contracts are not 35 years old, but if you own one that is (or inherited one that is) you should read this.

Copyright And Piracy | Publishing In the 21st Century

Guest Blog: How Do We Prevent EBook Piracy

2010-10-08T00:14:00.001-04:00

Cherish D'Angelo aka Cheryl Kaye Tardif with her back against the wall!

Now, that strikes me as a thoroughly clever image to accompany this spirited author's commentary on piracy.

Over to Cherish:

Thank you for inviting me to be a guest blogger during my Cherish the Romance Virtual Book Tour, which launches my contemporary romantic suspense, Lancelot's Lady. Today I'll be discussing the controversial issue of ebook piracy and offering my thoughts on how we can prevent it.

How Do We Prevent Ebook Piracy?

I believe the key to solving or resolving the piracy issue is to understand WHY people engage in piracy. The first reason is they have a sense of entitlement. They believe they should get things for free. They also believe they should be able to share an ebook just as they would a print book. What they don't understand is the issue of making copies and breaking copyright laws. Educating readers is crucial to diminishing the amount of piracy that occurs.

Copyright is in place to protect authors. It's the only real protection we have. Copyright means the author (or publisher) has the right to make copies of a work―either in print or as ebooks, audio etc. Authors and publishers are the ones who have the right to authorize who distributes the author's work. Making and selling copies of works is the way authors make an income from their profession. When someone shares a file illegally, they're acting as an unauthorized distributor. Neither the author nor publisher is paid. Some pirates are even going so far as to sell authors' ebooks so that they are making an income. That is theft.

I understand that people like to share a book they've read. Some will even say they do it to help the author. If they really want to help the author, they should encourage their friends to buy the book or ebook. DRM, digital rights management, is set in place with some ebooks to help prevent piracy.

Many people don't like DRM because it prevents them from sharing between their own devices. That needs to be addressed. I have no problem with someone wanting to have my ebooks on their computer, iPhone and ereader. But what stops them from then sharing the file with friends by giving them their own copy of the file?

So how do we prevent ebook piracy? That's a difficult question to answer. I believe educating readers is part of the solution. They need to understand the laws and why they're in place. But will they really care about whether the author can afford to pay their bills? Probably not. They want the immediate gratification of a good read, not an insight into the author's finances.

If I had the power to stop piracy, I probably would start with closing down all file sharing websites. Most are sharing pirated material. If you want to share something you've written, email it as an attached PDF or whatever. Too easy. But this doesn't stop someone from emailing a PDF ebook they bought or got from another pirate.

Next I'd instigate stricter laws for those participating in illegal file sharing. Higher fines paid directly to the author and/or publisher would be set in place. Do I really want to penalize readers though? No, of course not. But our society revolves around laws. I have to follow them. Why shouldn't everyone else?

Ebook pricing plays a part in piracy. Most people believe ebooks should be priced lower than the print version. I happen to agree. I've said it for years: ebooks just don't have the same overhead as a huge print run of books that have to be stored. Once publishers start to realize that consumers won't pay the steep price of today's ebooks, we'll start seeing lower prices as the majority.

Regardless of publishers who are marketing ebooks at well over $10, readers still have choices. There are thousands of ebooks selling for less than $5, some by well-known bestselling authors and some by lesser known authors. There are ebooks selling for less than $2 and some for less than a dollar.

People don't have to illegally download ebooks when they can get them inexpensively or for free. Many authors, including me, often give books away for free. I regularly have contests with free ebook prizes. Just take a look at this virtual book tour. I'm not only giving away my ebooks throughout my tour, I'm also giving away other authors' ebooks―with their permission.

Please help me prevent ebook piracy. Show an author you support them and help enable them to continue writing and doing what they love. Buy an ebook today, whether it's mine or someone else's, and please…do not illegally download ebooks. On behalf of all authors, I thank you.

By the way, my ebooks are all under $5, with the most expensive at $4.99 for a new release. My least expensive ebook is only $0.99, with the majority at $1.99 and $2.99.

Lancelot's Lady ~ A Bahamas holiday from dying billionaire JT Lance, a man with a dark secret, leads palliative nurse Rhianna McLeod to Jonathan, a man with his own troubled past, and Rhianna finds herself drawn to the handsome recluse, while unbeknownst to her, someone with a horrific plan is hunting her down.

Lancelot's Lady is available in ebook edition at KoboBooks, Amazon's Kindle Store, Smashwords and other ebook retailers. Help me celebrate by picking up a copy today and "Cherish the romance..."

You can learn more about Lancelot's Lady and Cherish D'Angelo (aka Cheryl Kaye Tardif) at http://www.cherishdangelo.com and http://www.cherylktardif.blogspot.com. Follow Cherish from September 27 to October 10 on her Cherish the Romance Virtual Book Tour and win prizes.

Where do you read most―on the couch, in bed, in the bath, on a bus, at work?

Leave a comment here, with email address, to be entered into the prize draws. You're guaranteed to receive at least 1 free ebook just for doing so. Plus you'll be entered to win a Kobo ereader. Winners will be announced after October 10th.

Commerce Seeks Comment on Protecting Copyrighted Works on the Internet | Department of Commerce

2010-10-07T16:40:00.001-04:00

Commerce Seeks Comment on Protecting Copyrighted Works on the Internet | Department of Commerce

Go here and click through to the email address if you have helpful opinions for the government on how your copyright ought to be protected

http://www.commerce.gov/blog/2010/10/05/commerce-seeks-comment-protecting-copyrighted-works-internet

More to know:

A lot of pirates who think they are safe because of "Safe Harbor", probably are not, if only their victims would maintain a database.

Here's what EFF says

In the online world, the potentially infringing activities of individuals are stored and transmitted through the networks of third parties. Web site hosting services, Internet service providers, and search engines that link to materials on the Web are just some of the service providers that transmit materials created by others. Section 512 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) protects online service providers (OSPs) from liability for information posted or transmitted by subscribers if they quickly remove or disable access to material identified in a copyright holder's complaint.
In order to qualify for safe harbor protection, a service provider who hosts content must:

have no knowledge of, or financial benefit from, infringing activity on its network
have a copyright policy and provide proper notification of that policy to its subscribers
list an agent to deal with copyright complaints

While the safe harbor provisions provide a way for individuals to object to the removal of their materials once taken down, they do not require service providers to notify those individuals before their allegedly infringing materials are removed. If the material on your site does not infringe the intellectual property rights of a copyright owner and it has been improperly removed from the Web, you can file a counter-notice with the service provider, who must transmit it to the person who made the complaint. If the copyright owner does not notify the service provider within 14 business days that it has filed a claim against you in court, your materials can be restored to the Internet.

http://www.chillingeffects.org/dmca512/

Here is what I take to be an abuse of Safe Harbor, but I might be mistaken.

http://bookstar.weebly.com/bookmix19.html

Even if the authors and the publishers wish to give their books away free to readers as a promotional campaign, I doubt that they intended for their books to be bundled, and used to incentivize readers to click an advertisement for AdFly

You will also notice a "Free Books Club Group" on Yahoo. I complained to that group about e-book piracy, and was banned. I complained to Yahoo, too.

Best wishes,
Rowena Cherry

Internet Policy Task Force

2010-10-07T16:39:00.000-04:00

Friends, if you support the rights of authors to control the copying and distribution of their novels, please take
half an hour to submit your views to the government.

Internet Policy Task Force

This is important.

Thank you for standing up for our livelihood and our future income from royalties.

Best wishes,
Rowena Cherry

Copyright And Piracy | Publishing In the 21st Century

2010-10-06T21:31:00.000-04:00

Look what Richard Curtis has turned up. According to the 9th Circuit Court, e-book "sales" are actually licenses, not sales, and authors should be paid
50%, not 24%

Check it out!

Copyright And Piracy | Publishing In the 21st Century

Sisters are doing it for themselves... on Tuesday

2010-10-04T20:27:00.000-04:00

My Crazy Tuesday radio show tomorrow (first Tues of the month, 2pm Eastern until 4pm) on http://new.pivtr.com/

"Sisters are doing it for themselves!" Self-publishing, that is. (Brothers, too.)

On Crazy Tuesday at 2:00 pm Eastern, multi-published authors Jacquie Rogers, Amber Scott, Brenna Lyons, Norman Wilson, Kim McDougall, and Gemma Halliday join Rowena Cherry to explain how to exercise reserved and reverted book rights, especially e-book rights, and get back in the game.

Between us, we'll cover everything from buying an ISBN, to doing a cover, to editing and formatting, to uploading to Smashwords and Kindle and more.

Some of us mean to step on Joe Konrath's coat-tails
http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2010/10/you-arent-ja-konrath.html
Best,
Rowena Cherry

Two Cheers For Senator Patrick Leahy

2010-09-30T23:07:00.001-04:00

I'm really torn about this Bill. I read the Effector argument against the Bill, and I read the Copyright Alliance point of view.

Frankly, I have a sense... just a sense... of the "Don't Let A Good Crisis Go To Waste" mentality. However, it is only a Bill, and it is in Committee, isn't it? That's when a bit of common sense ought to be introduced, and draconian provisions should be modified, and unintended consequences ought to be anticipated.

Here's what I originally wrote.

"....the Chairman — who on Monday was the lead sponsor introducing bipartisan legislation targeting rogue pirate sites — equates infringement with theft, and emphasizes the importance of enforcement of creator’s rights."

http://blog.copyrightalliance.org/2010/09/highlights-of-an-amazing-day-on-the-hill/
Written by Patrick Ross

Oops. I see that Patrick was gracious enough to mention my name.

"...And I shared with Chairman Conyers how I had the pleasure of interviewing three artists in Michigan, authors Rowena Cherry (from the Detroit suburbs) and Lillian Cauldwell, and orchestral composer James Aikman."

My thanks to Patrick Ross and Lucinda Dugger for all they do to support creators and artists everywhere across this great land.

"What If..." World-building with Michelle Picard

2010-09-29T00:02:00.005-04:00

First, thank you Rowena for hosting me here at your Space Snark blog. I’m off on a race through my month long blog tour to introduce my newest release, Surviving Eden. Surviving Eden is the second in the Eden’s Court series. The first of these books, Ruling Eden, won a second place final in the 2010 PRISM awards this past summer. I have an incredible new video book trailer for the new release if you want to stop by my website (http://michellepicard.com) and take a look on my books page for the link.

The basic premise for these contemporary romance fantasies? What if a modern woman suddenly learns she is heir to the throne of a magical realm hidden in our world and the most powerful magical being on the planet? That’s Rachel’s story (my heroine) as she finds herself in charge and fighting to make peace between vampires, shapeshifters, faeries, witches, demons, angels and dragons. All set to the backdrop of the Garden of Eden.

As a fantasy writer, it’s a no-brainer that I’m in love with the process of world building. I dove into my world of Eden’s Court after developing a common creation myth explaining the joint origins of the seven paranormal races and humanity. I decided to blame it all on Lillith. Name sound familiar? As I sought a home for my paranormal creatures for my story and a place to symbolize the nexus of their creation, it was easy to fall back upon the Judeo-Christian mythology of the Garden of Eden saturating western culture. I knew this would be an easy access point for western readers. I like taking familiar mythology and twisting it to make it just a bit uncomfortable or different for my audience. So what sort of research did I do about Eden to bring this altered version of the mythology to my pages?

In Jewish folklore, Lilith was the first wife of Adam, then banished from the garden when she refused to make herself subservient to him. This story does not appear in the book of Genesis, but even for a non-bible scholar like myself, this mythology was floating in the ether around me. In the original story Lilith is made into a demon figure. She is evil and her tale is reminiscent of original sin and women as evil temptresses. I unequivocally reject these notions and instead have seen the use of the name Lilith by modern Jewish feminists as a positive figure who represents the equality of women to men. In my constant struggle to create morally ambiguous villains, I decided to name the goddess who created life on Earth Lillith (slight tweak to common spelling in the myth). Although not originally identified as a villain in my first story, Ruling Eden, by the start of Surviving Eden it is clear Lillith plays this role. Still, I was not interested in buying into the negative picture of Adam’s first wife. Part of the story arc of the series involves the unveiling of Lillith’s motives and the transformation of this character away from a definition as a “bad guy” to a more complexly motivated entity who is invested and cares in her own alien goddess way. I love that type of transformation. I love it when by the end of a story I have no bad guys left. And not because I’ve killed them off.

In addition to concocting my goddess, I made Eden as magical as I could. I littered it with every known plant possible from every climate, gave it an infinite number of climates, made it shrink and expand as needed, and finally gave it sentience. No apple trees, however. This view of Eden wasn’t based on research. Research is fun, but I wanted to take the nugget of the picture of paradise and expand that in unlimited directions. I wasn’t satisfied with making it a wholly idyllic place either because I love duality in all things. So murder and mayhem happens in my garden and it’s sentience shrieks out in very unattractive ways. It’s a magically powerful place, which multiplies the strength of any other beings’ magic, but my heroine has a love/hate relationship with it.

In my writing, taking the smallest piece of research brings me a long way when I add my creativity to the mix. It’s a jumping off point, but it tickles me to know something lies at the heart of the new idea, like the folklore tale of Lilith. And like a reference I made to angelic beliefs regarding the Tree of Life, with the image of this tree as part of the garden. (One of the paranormal races I feature in the story are angels.)

I hope you enjoy exploring Eden if you take a look at Surviving Eden or its predecessor Ruling Eden. You can find out more about me and my books at http://michellepicard.com. Don’t forget to watch my brand new book video trailer for Surviving Eden. As I said, the link appears on my books page on my website. You’ll find all the ways to contact me on the site in addition.

Be well, and I hope you find your own garden to nurture you. But don’t let it be too idyllic. What’s the fun in that?

Michelle

Rachel Rieh wields enough magic to make a goddess jealous, or so she learned three weeks ago when she thought she was an ordinary, reclusive, and short-tempered gal from Boston. In this second story of Eden’s Court, Rachel, now the new ruler of the Kesayim, (angels, demons, dragons, faeries, vampires, shapeshifters and witches -- the goddess-created protectors of mortalkind) finds herself faced with the task of stopping vampire hunters from annihilating the vampire race. Her lover, Gabriel, half-angel, half-demon, stands by her side to help if she can escape her obsession with protecting him at all cost.

Earth is already on the verge of destruction within six months because magic is out of balance. The new threat to the vampires destabilizes the situation more. In her race to save the vampires, Rachel meets Lilith, goddess, creator of all Kesayim and humans, and the one with all the answers to Rachel’s problems. But is the cold-hearted goddess intent on changing Rachel into her image the greater threat to Rachel and everyone she loves?

Excerpt

Warning --since this is a PG blog-- the following contains explicit mention of body parts!!! (Clinical terms)

Moonlight filtered through the windows of my bedroom, softly draping Gabriel’s naked body as he lay next to me on his stomach. His thoughts seemed to be somewhere else entirely. I loved how the pale light played along his flawless limbs, his smoothly muscled body. The silken sheets teased my already sensitive skin. I let my thoughts drift away from my gnawing guilt as I avoided discussion about my date with Colin. As Gabriel relaxed by my side, his aura glowed bright with his pleasure.

I’d given up on trying to shut-off my perception of auras. The dizzying visuals superimposed over everyone’s bodies were now becoming familiar, natural. Gabriel’s included the outline of a pair of wings jutting from his back. Their ghostly image had been present even before he manifested those wings for the first time during his battle with Michael in council.

Tonight was no exception. With downy feathers tucked magically away inside his body, a trick he alone of his angel counterparts could accomplish, his aura reflected their shining outline. The shadow wings were almost as lovely as the real thing.

I couldn’t resist running my fingers down the raised skin on both sides of his back while I lay beside him, my head supported by elbow and hand. I’d convinced myself Gabriel felt shy about the wings. I’d only seen them twice, including the time they manifested. But his hesitation to show them to me hurt. Perhaps he didn’t fully trust me. I dismissed that thought as ludicrous, but it still nagged at me.

My light tracing of the soft, barely perceptible tissue ridges sent pleasant tingles into my hand. His body tensed under the movement of my fingers and I felt his discomfort in the contact. Disappointed with his response, I stilled my fingertips.

“I won’t touch them if you don’t want me to,” I whispered into the hushed night of the room, holding my breath for his reply.

After a moment he relaxed, as if he’d fought through his initial hesitation to some decision. “Please continue,” he said, voice sleepy. “It feels good.”

I smoothed the ridges once again, delighting in the tiny shocks sparking into me. Gabriel’s voice bounced out into the moon-touched room, filling the space with its rich tones, surprising me with its serious intent. “When I was a child I fell asleep most every night dreaming of wings. I hated being born without them.” He paused. “The dream died long ago and I never thought to gain them. Yet… Here I am.”

My breath hitched hearing the pain of the memory in his cautious words. He sounded surprised to be speaking them. Guilt flooded through me for forcing him to expose himself to this hurtful past. Every day he walked into that negotiation room to manage the talks between the angels and demons. It was one thing for me to insist on facing my own memories head-on; another to see someone I loved forced into the same.

Gabriel caught my eyes before I could glance away. “I recognize that look on your face,” he chided. “You are blaming yourself, again.”

I kept my gaze on the window, the shadows of the garden just outside, wishing I could hide the waiver in my voice. “Don’t badmouth a little good old-fashioned guilt.” I tried to joke away his point-on comment. I swallowed past the lump in my throat and the will to give my smart-mouth rein died a sudden death. “My decision puts you in that room with them everyday.” I removed my hands from him, unable to continue my caress.

He shifted on his side, reaching his hand to cradle my face. “Being in that room may be frustrating, but it is valuable to me as well. I feel less need to run from them.”

My indignation surged on his behalf. I wanted to insist that he never ran, but hadn’t I accused him of the same weeks ago? My words had been to the effect that he’d bought into their crap about being an abomination. I’d wanted this experience for him--a chance to put to rest the ghosts that haunted him. I just hadn’t counted on how witnessing his pain during the process would shred my heart.

He smiled as if he’d recognized the play of thoughts and emotions running across my face and valued them. “I did run, in my own way. But being forced to watch the angels and demons confront their issues, I feel less like I am some shameful secret that must be denied.”

“I’m sorry this hurts you,” I blurted, my words choking me. I hated how out of control my emotions became with him. I valued my control.

His voice roughened with irritation. “You never forced me into the room. It was my choice, if you remember.”

“Yeah, but--"

“Do not make less of what I do by claiming responsibility for that choice. I survived hundreds of years making my own decisions before you were even born.”

Gabriel’s tone made my hackles rise for just a moment before I remembered his pain. He had a point, but I wasn’t about to give up on blaming myself in this matter. Call me masochistically stubborn.

His momentary anger dissolved, shifting into an all too different mood. His fingers moved in a caress of my cheek. He was a master at distracting me when he wanted and I’d sullenly noted before how most of the time this was a good thing. “Besides,” his voice lazed, “I need your mind focused elsewhere. It has always been my fantasy to make love to a woman with wings wrapped around us, brushing along our bodies.”

My mouth quirked up as my nipples tightened. “Any woman in particular, or will you just put out a personal ad? Wanted: female with wing fetish. Only those already butt naked need apply.” His chuckle tightened all things lower on me and I shifted on the bed, anticipation licking my skin.

Readers, please follow the tour and comment; the more you comment, the better your chances of winning.

The tour dates can be found here:
http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2010/08/virtual-book-tour-surviving-eden.html.

Author friends, please take this fantastic opportunity to observe and learn from Michelle Picard's tour. Check out her interviews and her topics for her articles. See which posts appear to be most successful in terms of the number and length of the comments left by followers and fans.

Anyone who needs creative services: blog tours organized, banners, posters, cover art, book trailers...

visit Marianne and Judy at Goddessfish.com

http://www.goddessfish.com

INTERNET PIRACY IS BIG BUSINESS

2010-09-28T19:47:00.009-04:00

Internet pirates are not happy with President Obama (an author) and Vice President Biden (a well known passionate defender of copyright). Today, I received this (from EFF):

Dear Friend of Digital Freedom,

The U.S. government has made two proposals this week that threaten online speech and privacy in radical new ways. Either one, if passed by Congress, will fundamentally rewrite the rules of the Internet. EFF is fighting hard for your rights and needs your help.

These proposals are the most frightening we've seen in a long time. The first is a bill called the "Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act," which would give the Justice Department new powers to censor websites accused of aiding "piracy." The second is an Obama Administration proposal that would end online privacy as we know it by requiring all Internet communication service providers -- from Facebook to Skype to your webmail provider -- to rebuild their systems to give the government backdoor access to all of your private Internet communications.

EFF is battling these threats to Internet users' privacy and freedom of speech, and we need your support. More than half of EFF's funding comes from individuals like you, and none of our funding comes from government grants. That means that when EFF goes toe-to-toe against government attempts to snatch away your rights, we pull no punches in defending the civil liberties of all technology users and innovators.

Become an EFF member today, and join the ongoing fight for privacy, free expression, and civil liberties on the Internet, as we face down these threats and secure a better future for us all.

On the other hand... (say I)

PayPal makes 0.40c every time some "sharing" Yahoo group manager sells a $2.00 link to authors' in-print, in-copyright books. Why is this allowed? Why are there SEVENTEEN "Bookmix" collections of dozens of copyrighted books, some of which include four recent works by the same author?

I could understand that sharing one book by an author might be good promo, but not an entire series. Does EFF not understand what they are helping to do?

Is it right that YAHOO and PAYPAL have no responsibility for the actions their business model supports and apparently encourages?

Is it right and fair that Club Freebie can charge "a convenience fee" of $2.00 and profit from copyright infringement by pirates? Is it right that Club Freebie can legally hide behind this wording:

"Please note that we are not the 'hosts' of these books, neither did we upload them to any hosting provider. We simply find links to books, that were freely available on the web and share our findings with our members."

'FREELY AVAILABLE'? I wonder whether the publishers agree that these books are "freely available".
"Freely available" is a bland euphemism for allegedly stolen property that could very well be infected with viruses, malware etc.

Nevertheless, they are charging $2.00 to sell links to "freely available" e-books that --it is reasonable to guess-- effing pirates have uploaded to the internet.

This isn't just a single book for promo... this is multiple works. So, if this is LEGAL, the law has to change. The alternative is for the general public to side with authors, and turn in pirates, and generally let it be known that "sharing" is not right or fair.

Here's a copyright alliance petition

Dear Copyright Advocates,

As promised, we seek to keep you updated with news from Capitol Hill that affects your rights as an artist or creator. Read on to find out more about a new bill that is targeting rogue pirate sites. And take this opportunity to make your voice heard!

On Thursday, September 30th, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to vote on legislation that will target web sites that profit from infringing music, movies, books, images, software, and other creative works. These websites don't give a dime to artists. The legislation is called "Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act" or S-3804. It is sponsored by 16 Democratic and Republican senators and its chief sponsor is Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT).

Our online world is now polluted with professional, legitimate-seeming sites that offer a wide array of artistic works for free and are supported by ads sold on the sites. Sometimes these sites even charge subscription fees for access to creative works. NOT A DIME OF THAT MONEY ever reaches the artists who create the work, such as an independent filmmaker we blogged about recently or another independent filmmaker profiled today in The Los Angeles Times. These sites profit from theft, pure and simple.

The legislation would encourage online ad brokers, online payment processors (such as credit card companies) and ISPs to cut off the income flow that feeds this piracy. As comic book author and illustrator Colleen Doran said in her Creators Across America video, "These sites wouldn't be around if not for the dough."

A growing number of artists are banding together to support this legislation. Colleen has used her blog to promote the legislation (here and here). In addition, a coalition of artists has put together an online petition you can use to let your elected representatives know how important it is to keep rogue web sites from profiting from your work. As the petition notes: "The theft of copyrighted works like photography, music, movies, books, software and games is a devastating problem... This rampant theft inhibits the ability of American businesses to invest and innovate -- and stifles the capacity of American artists and creators to earn a living, support their families, and invest in their own creative development."

You might also want to let Senator Leahy know you appreciate the hard work he and his colleagues are doing on behalf of artists.

We'll keep all of you informed as this legislative effort continues.
Best,
Lucinda Dugger
Director of Outreach

10 Big Myths about copyright explained

2010-09-27T19:17:00.000-04:00

Superbly original, list-style article that anyone could understand. I love it!!!

10 Big Myths about copyright explained

A Bootleg E-Book Bazaar Operates in Plain Sight | Publishing In the 21st Century

2010-09-27T08:36:00.000-04:00

With apologies if I have already provided a link to this exposé of for-profit e-book piracy, which is perhaps just heating up after simmering for the last five days.

The anonymous husband of a bestselling author makes some masterful points about Cory Doctorow and Joe Konrath, comparing them to street buskers. I think you might enjoy the post.

A Bootleg E-Book Bazaar Operates in Plain Sight | Publishing In the 21st Century

Best wishes,

Rowena Cherry

Compare and Contrast Blog Tours

2010-09-06T10:12:00.002-04:00

I am delighted to announce that I shall be hosting guest blogs on September 29th, and another on October 9th

On Sept 29th, this blog welcomes Michelle Picard, author of Surviving Eden, who is participating in a professional blog tour organized and run by my talented friends at Goddessfish.com (with whom I do quite a lot of business, and whom I heartily recommend).

Michelle Picard's tour began on September 20th, and runs through to October 15th, and you haven't missed out if you don't start at the beginning. There is no requirement that anyone has to be the first to post a comment. Conversations usually continue for the duration of the tour.

Something to know about professionally run (and DIY) tours is that the more that followers comment, the better their chances of winning whatever prize(s) are being offered.

Michelle Picard's tour dates can be found here: http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2010/08/virtual-book-tour-surviving-eden.html.

A disclaimer: with Goddessfish run tours, the tour host with the most comments will win as well.

The October visit is part of a DIY (nothing at all wrong with that) tour by Cherish D'Angelo to promote Lancelot's Lady. This tour begins on September 27th, and runs to October 10th.

While I may not post actively (because I believe that readers and unmotivated followers ought to have the best chances of winning whatever prizes are on offer), you can be sure that I will be following both authors' tours, comparing and contrasting, and learning.

I think you should, too.

Opportunities to observe, in real time, in the field how two different authors go about their blog tours, what kind of reaction and support they get... well, to quote another popular advert... are priceless!

***************************************
This space was previously occupied by a really fun link:

http://www.eviloverlord.com/lists/overlord.html

Peter's Evil Overlord List: Too clever not to share, IMHO

Peter's Evil Overlord List

YouTube - Meet Authors Lillian Cauldwell & Rowena Cherry

2010-09-05T22:59:00.000-04:00

When Patrick Ross made the film, he warned us that we'd be well and truly pixellated, and we are.

YouTube - Meet Authors Lillian Cauldwell & Rowena Cherry

Some "Like it" votes would be very much appreciated, but to do that, you have to sign in.

Penny Sansevieri on Book Signings Beyond Bricks And Mortar

2010-09-04T07:08:00.003-04:00

I subscribe to Penny Sansevieri's amarketingexpert.com newsletter, and I think that you should do so, too. But... for those who don't, here is another excerpt from the most recent newsletter that I find worth sharing, and which I share thanks to the blanket written permission granted at the bottom of each of Penny's newsletters.

Feature Article: Beyond the Bookstore: Holding Book Events in Non-Traditional Venues

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you're tired of hearing "no" every time you try and secure a book signing, take heart. Signings have become a lot more challenging since more books than ever are being published each year and stores are cutting back on events. What's an author to do? If you're hungry for an event and not willing to wade through the endless submission process of a bookstore, consider doing events in non-bookstore markets.
What's a non-bookstore event? Well, obviously it's anything outside of a bookstore but more than that, it's a unique location, likely in your city or town. We've done events at video stores, electronics stores, grocery stores, restaurants, coffee shops, even Hallmark stores. When you start to dig into this market, the possibilities are really endless. It's just a matter of finding a place that will make sense to host your event.
Picking the Right Venue
The first piece of this is picking the right venue. The venue can depend on a few things; first, you might look at the topic of your book to help generate some ideas. We once had an author who wrote a book on wine/movie pairings - pairing the right wine with a movie. I placed this author in a Blockbuster Video and the results were tremendous. I had another author with a computer book and I placed him at a computer store on a busy Saturday afternoon. He sold out of some 65 copies of his book in one afternoon. Another great venue is a Hallmark or some other gift shop. Why? Because people are going to a gift shop or Hallmark for one thing: a gift. Autographed books make great gifts.
Selling the Idea to the Venue
This will take a bit of work because it's likely that the venue has never even entertained the idea of doing an event, let alone an author signing. You'll need to make sure they are clear on the WIIFM (what's in it for me): tell them you'll be promoting the event, marketing it to the media (which we'll cover further on in this article). Make sure they know that you'll handle the book orders (meaning getting the books to the store) if need be.
Yes, there is a lot more legwork involved for these events, but the payoff is huge. You may have to sell the books to them on consignment; what that means is that they take the books and can return to you whatever they don't sell. Encourage the venue, however, to keep a stock in their store after the event in case people come by when you're gone. I've done this before, and nine times out of ten the books never get returned to the author and are sold instead. Also, in many cases the store will often reorder and before you know it, you're part of their inventory.
The other piece to this is to try, whenever you can, not to go through their corporate offices. Much like doing an event at Starbucks (which I've also done) and Hallmark, a pitch to corporate could take weeks and even months to approve. Most stores have the ability to approve from 3-5 events per year, meaning that they can have events at their store without having to go through the corporate offices. Most major corporations do this so that the stores can provide community support without getting bogged down in tedious paperwork for event approval. If you can avoid the red-tape of a corporate approval, do that whenever you can.
Selling the Books
As I mentioned, you will likely have to do a consignment. The inventory part for most major stores gets tricky, and if the books have to be approved for inventory, you'll end up going through corporate again. More red tape. Try to work with the venue as much as you can so you don't have to create an inventory of your books. The upside, however, is that if the inventory process is easy, you will be on their reorder list for the future!
Marketing the Event
This is the easy part, believe it or not. Local media loves local authors and while that's a good foot in the door - the unique venue location will virtually seal the deal. Market yourself to media well in advance of the event and then again the event day. Also, if you're doing an event in a mall, see if you can get the other stores to participate by doing bookmarks or bag stuffers. Bag stuffers, by the way, are a great way to help the store market your event. You could also do a custom bookmark. With printing so cheap these days, it might be easier to have event-specific bookmarks made up that you can give to the store to help them push the event to their patrons.
Make sure you get the store OK first, before you hand them bag stuffers and bookmarks. Also ask if you can create a poster that includes your book cover and the event information. See if you can get a placement on the venue website and perhaps a notification sent to their mailing list. Unlike bookstores that crank out author events all the time, a unique venue that doesn't see author events all that much will be much more receptive to promotional ideas.
More Venue Ideas
Once you take your eye off of the bookstore focus, the opportunities for book events are endless. Consider the following: street fairs, farmers markets, gyms, yoga studios, wineries, art stores, Starbucks, coffee shops, restaurants, grocery stores, airports. Yes, I said airports. I've traveled a great deal and almost every time I go through the San Diego airport, Dallas Fort Worth or San Francisco, I see an author signing their books. Look out for this: if you're not paying attention you could miss it while rushing to catch your flight.
Other Benefits to Doing Non-Bookstore Events
The benefits of these types of events are pretty significant, especially if speaking and events are part of your marketing tool kit. Book events held in these exclusive markets will not only take you off the track of competing for space in a bookstore, but because they are unique they will draw much more attention both from the media and readers.
Having a traditional book signing is always great. It will help you get into the bookstore market and might even get your book on their shelf. But if bookstores aren't open to an event, don't let that discourage you from planning one. Being unique will not only help you gain more attention, but it will help to keep you out of the rejection funnel that often comes from competing in a high-traffic market. Also, venue events outside of bookstores are a fun way to build an audience, get your feet wet doing events and speaking and grow your career as an author!

Make Your Mark Online
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ready to make your own *big* impression online? We've had a *huge* success story I'm dying to share with you. A recent campaign we did got the author on PAGE 1 of Google out of 115 million competing web pages, and the best part? He wasn't even on Google when we started. If you're ready to get found online, consider one of our Red Hot Internet Marketing campaigns. Email us today for more information: info@amarketingexpert.com.

Need Book Marketing Content?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Visit the articles page on our AME website and you'll find a range of articles by Penny, which may be used along with her byline (provided at the top of the page). The complete list is at http://www.amarketingexpert.com/articles/.

Reprinted from "The Book Marketing Expert newsletter," a free ezine offering book promotion and publicity tips and techniques. http://www.amarketingexpert.com

Beware: Warranty-Expiring Scam

2010-08-29T15:19:00.000-04:00

Friends,
I despise salespersons who use linguistic sophistry to frighten and trick people into buying something they do not need. Probably, if you hear from anyone with a vague name such as "Credit Card Services" or "Motor Vehicle Services" or "Publisher Services" you ought to report them to your state Attorney General, and also to your local Better Business Bureau. Maybe to the Postmaster, too!

Notice that I am being threatened with a $2,000 fine and 5 years imprisonment if I am caught "OBSTRUCTING WITH DELIVERY" of this missive which I honestly believe to be an attempt to swindle me!

So, what does it say with such great urgency? That my factory warranty (or my dealership warranty) is expiring. The truth is, my legitimate warranty is good for approximately 5 years from new, and I'll bet yours is, too.

What *is* going to expire alarmingly soon is this offer of this spurious coverage! They mention their own allegedly made-up expiration date of 09/08/10 three times, in large print. But that--I repeat--is when their offer expires. Not when my own, existing, real car warranty expires.

If I'm getting this, I'll bet an awful lot of Americans are also getting something similar. As with spam in your email account, your best course of action is to set the paper aside, under no circumstances to use the telephone number on the mailing, and to telephone your car dealership using the number provided in your vehicle documents or contract.

All the best,
Rowena

The Copyright Alliance Blog » Blog Archive » Limiting Copyright to 12 Months

2010-08-28T23:08:00.000-04:00

The Copyright Alliance is an organization that advocates for the rights of all creators and copyright owners, and if you haven't heard of it before, please visit the website (this is one blog post worthy of comment, I feel).

The Copyright Alliance Blog » Blog Archive » Limiting Copyright to 12 Months

E-book piracy costs U.S. publishers $3 billion, says study | VentureBeat

2010-08-27T07:03:00.000-04:00

E-book piracy costs U.S. publishers $3 billion, says study | VentureBeat

The irony of ebook piracy

2010-08-02T07:58:00.000-04:00

Here's a really entertaining irony. Authors of e-books have a sort of "no compete" clause in their contracts.

That's right. Even the author and copyright owner is not permitted to "share" more than a certain number (maybe as few as 5!!!) of her own e-books.

Once she has shared her agreed number of ebooks for promo purposes, she is supposed to actually purchase her own ebooks from her publisher or from an authorized vendor if she wants to give an ebook as a prize.

This is certainly the case with my Mating Net which I've licensed to New Concepts Publishing, at least as regards the fact that there is such an agreement in my contract. I've always purchased all my ebooks through either Mystiquebooks or EbookIsle.net, so I notionally still have my "free" allocation.

Pirates wonder why authors (some authors) get upset about piracy. Well, that's one reason. Not only are they infringing on copyright and ripping off the author, the editor, the publisher, the cover artist... they are doing something that the author is contractually unable to do herself with her own books.

Rich, isn't it?

Facebook and privacy. Did you know...?

2010-07-31T15:19:00.000-04:00

Sort rant of sorts.

I've just discovered that if I click my cursor on the photo /avatar of a friend on Facebook, I can transfer it to my desktop? It wouldn't have occurred to me to try (and of course, I've deleted the proof after conducting my experiment), except that someone challenged me as to why I don't accept the friendship requests of anyone whose avatar is an image of a small child.

Why would someone want the photo of someone else's small child? I've no idea.

Anyway, be careful what you put on the internet. If you didn't know that anyone can snag your profile image from any of your friends' pages, now you do.

Authors Guild on Wylie

2010-07-26T08:39:00.001-04:00

Thursday's announcement that the Wylie Agency, through its new publishing arm, Odyssey Editions, has a deal with Amazon to exclusively distribute at least 20 books in electronic form has shaken the industry. The 20 books include many important 20th century American works, including Invisible Man, Lolita, Portnoy's Complaint, Updike's Rabbit novels, The Adventures of Augie March, The Stories of John Cheever, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat. These works are all in print and all, apparently, governed by old publishing contracts in which the authors didn't expressly grant electronic rights to the print publishers.

Random House, which holds the print rights to many of these titles, reacted Thursday afternoon by disputing that authors retained electronic rights to these books and saying that it would not do business with Wylie for English-language works "until this situation is resolved."

This is the most important development in electronic publishing since Apple entered the market offering publishers an "agency model" for selling e-books. Several aspects of the Wylie/Amazon/Random House entanglement merit comment:

1. Authors retain e-rights in standard publishing contracts unless they expressly grant those rights to the publisher, as we've consistently said and as a federal court held in Random House v. Rosetta Books. It's fine and proper for these authors and their heirs to exercise those rights, and we applaud the Wylie Agency for finding a way to make it happen.

2. That said, when an agency acts as publisher, serious potential conflicts of interest immediately come to mind. The most obvious of these is the possibility of self-dealing to the detriment of the agency's client, the author. If, by acting as publisher, the agency receives a higher percentage of the author's income than it would normally be entitled to, or if it receives other benefits that the author doesn't share in appropriately, then a conflict seems unavoidable.

Our understanding is that Wylie, as agent and publisher, is taking no more than it would as an agent. That is, Wylie/Odyssey is limiting its total compensation to its rate for commissions. If our understanding is correct, then our concerns about conflicts of interest are considerably eased. Other literary agencies contemplating similar deals should be aware that even non-monetary provisions in e-book distribution contracts could create conflicts of interest. A clause binding the agency to not sign exclusive deals for any of the books the agency represents with other e-book distributors, for example, would present a clear conflict of interest. (We have no reason to think Odyssey's contract with Amazon contains such a clause. From what we know, it appears that Wylie has avoided any conflict of interest.)

3. That the Wylie/Odyssey agreement is reportedly exclusive raises many questions and concerns. Authors should have access to all responsible vendors of e-books. Moreover, Amazon's power in the book publishing industry grows daily. Few publishers have the clout to stand up to the online giant, which dominates every significant growth sector of the book industry: e-books, online new books, online used books, downloadable audio, and on-demand books. (That Random House, by far the largest trade book publisher, has retaliated against the powerful Wylie Agency but not against Amazon, which must be equally culpable in Random House's view, tells you all you need to know about where power truly lies in today's publishing industry.) Adding to Amazon's strength may yield short-run benefits, but it's not in the interests of a healthy, competitive book publishing market.

There must be consideration for this exclusivity, of course, and we can only speculate as to what it is. Though we'll keep our guess to ourselves, we think the consideration wasn't monetary: we doubt that there was an advance paid for the rights or that Amazon has agreed to pay Odyssey more than 70% of the retail price of the e-books, since that might trigger most favored nation provisions in Amazon's contracts with other publishers.

Regardless of the exclusivity issues, any direct agreement between a literary agency and Amazon is troubling. Amazon has, time and again, wielded its clout in the industry ruthlessly, with little apparent regard for its relationships with authors or publishers or, for that matter, antitrust rules. Any agency working directly with Amazon may find its behavior constrained in unpleasant and unpredictable ways. Agencies should proceed with extreme care.

4. To a large extent, publishers have brought this on themselves. This storm has long been gathering. Literary agencies have refused to sign e-rights deals for countless backlist books with traditional publishers, even though they and their clients, no doubt, see real benefits in having a single publisher handle the print and electronic rights to a book. Knowledgeable authors and agents, however, are well aware that e-book royalty rates of 25% of net proceeds are exceedingly low and contrary to the long-standing practice of authors and publishers to, effectively, split evenly the net proceeds of book sales.

Bargain-basement e-book royalty rates will not last. Low e-book royalty rates will, as e-book sales become increasingly important, emerge as a dealbreaker for authors with negotiating leverage. Publishers will, inevitably, agree to reasonable royalties rather than lose their bestselling authors to more generous rivals and startups. We suspect publishers are well aware of this and are postponing the unavoidable because it seems to make sense in the short run. We believe this is short-sighted.

A major agency starting a publishing company is weird, no matter how you look at it. This sort of weirdness will only multiply, however, as long as authors don't share fairly in the rewards of electronic publishing. Publishers seeking to manage this transition well should cut authors in appropriately. The sooner they do so, the better. For everyone.
---------
Feel free to forward, post, or tweet. Here is a short URL for linking: http://tiny.cc/f9et5

And a PS (which is also rather fascinating)

We don't know the details of the Odyssey-Amazon agreement, but we can make some informed guesses. The agreement is most likely under the agency model, with Amazon paying Odyssey 70% of the retail price of the books. Wylie and Odyssey are together taking a typical agent's commission as compensation: 10 or 15% of the 70% received from Amazon. In round figures, this means that the author receives 60 to 63% of the retail price of the book.

For comparison, a typical contract with a traditional publisher pays e-book royalties of 25% of net proceeds. If the e-book is sold under the agency model, the author's share is 25% of 70%, or 17.5% of the retail price of the book. After the agent's commission, the author receives roughly 15 to 16% of the retail price of the book.

For a $9.99 book under the Odyssey-Amazon agreement, the author would receive royalties of $5.94 to $6.29 per book, net of all commissions. For a $9.99 e-book under a typical contract with a traditional publisher sold under the agency model, the author would receive royalties of $1.49 to $1.57, net of all commissions. The difference is about $4.50 per unit, a 300% increase in author income.
------
Feel free to forward, post, or tweet. Here is a short URL for linking: http://tiny.cc/d5uhn

With a fan like this, who needs enemies!

2010-07-26T07:37:00.000-04:00

Maybe I am mistaken. Maybe Sandra Brown and Katie Allen and Stephanie Meyers and Sarah Dessen truly do work for PayPal and for Yahoo and for Freebiemaster and are happy with a secret cut of the $2.00 per download that Freebiemaster charges for the "freely available", "free" books they "share".

I don't know. I cannot think that the authors' cut will be much after PayPal deducts its $0.40 minimum out of the $2.00, and Freebie Master takes his share. I wonder who pays the agents and the publishers.

FreebieMaster is within the law. He has a disclaimer:

Please note that we are not the 'hosts' of these books, neither did we upload them to any hosting provider. We simply find links to books, that were freely available on the web and share our findings with our members!

Pointing at ebooks and advising people to take them is a lot safer than pointing at money in a till.

Anyway, all these wonderful books come with a review. It is possible that the reviewer's copyright has also been infringed, and that the pirate site snagged her reviews illegally, along with the covers which were presumably posted without permission, and the ebooks themselves which are almost certainly not intended to be free, and may be assumed to have been posted in violation of the authors' copyright.

Here are a few excerpts from a very long page advertising "free" and "freely available" ebooks. I deem these clips to be covered by Fair Use, because this is only a fraction of what is on the page, and I am using the fractions to educate, and to illustrate critique etc etc

The Switch

I have been a Sandra Brown fan from day one. Her romance novels have been some of the best I have ever read. Her early mainstream novels are better than her recent ones. If you read the inside flaps on the dust cover of "The Switch", you will basically know the story and the author does not stray far from the review. "The Switch" was a fair read but could have been so much better.
For starters this book was too long! (469 pages) This story could have been told with 100 less pages. There were few characters and the information relayed between them at times became repetitive. I did not find any surprises. The murderers are revealed at the time of the murders and the reader is aware of the diabolical plot and just tags along for the ride. By the time you are halfway through the book you should be able to figure out Melina's "dark secret". I questioned it at the very beginning. And spicy sex scenes? Ms. Brown just does not write them like she once did.
In short I found this book to be an OK read although predictable and a bit long. If you want to read one of her better novels try Charade or Exclusive. The Switch seemed to have so much potential but did not deliver for me.

Maybe that's why this reviewer is apparently doing what she can to destroy the author's livelihood

Seeing Blind

Seeing Blind was so intense, I could not put it down. Katie Allen is a great author, I cannot wait for upcoming books. Five Stars!
Cassie thought that she had escaped from the psychic abilities that had haunted her all her life. After two years of vision-free bliss living on her small farm outside the tiny town of Napping, Cassie's only worry is her secret desire for the hot local sheriff, Ty.
But her quiet, anonymous life is destroyed when murder rocks the sleepy town and Cassie's visions thrust her into the middle of the grisly mystery. Reluctantly drawn into her own search for the killer, Cassie begins to unearth the town's tangled secrets with the dubious help of Napping's residents...and the sheriff whose mere presence is enough to make her blood boil.

Piracy makes my blood boil!

One-Two Punch

With 'Breaking the Silence' Katie Allen jumped to the top of my "must buy" list, and with 'One-Two Punch', she more than seals the deal. The writing is good, the plot is excellent, the romance is tender, and the sex is hot.
Where Katie Allen truly excels however, is in her ability to infuse her characters and writing with a sense of reality. I've been sitting here struggling with how to describe the extent of her talent. It's not that the plot is so true to life; let's face it, committed relationships between buff gym owners, beautiful former soldiers, and, well, how to describe Beth(?), aren't the everyday norm. The closest I can come is to compare it to a book I once read in which the main character, an author, infused so much detail and life into her primary characters that they came to life. (They ended up moving into her apartment and causing all kinds of trouble, but that's another story for another day.) Beth, Harry, and Ky really do jump off the page at you; and not only are they realistic, but they're people that you would want to know. Like Jenny and Will, (and who can forget Christian), from 'Breaking the Silence', the characters of 'One-Two Punch' would be welcome in my world. Of course, if I could be Beth or Jenny...
Rather than dealing with my bumbling attempt at description, buy 'One-Two Punch' and 'Breaking the Silence' and meet the characters yourself. You can never have too many friends.

"You can never have too many friends"????

The reason I posted two reviews of books by the same author is to illustrate a point. Many savvy authors and publishers may give away the first book in a series, in the valid expectation that people who read the first book by an author they haven't tried before, will be hooked and will buy subsequent books.

Pirates don't buy the second book. They request it on or before release day. They go to almost any lengths to read it without paying for it. Here's publicly posted proof.

This site has Share This functionality embedded in it. So, it is public. It can be shared with all Twitter, all Facebook and 200+ more. The site invites "members" to share the page with friends and family.

Note for publishers, authors, agents.... if your book isn't being "shared" and falsely described as "free", this is bookmix 13. http://bookmaster.weebly.com/bookmix13.html

The same link with a substitution of number 13 for any previous number ought to take you to some of the other selections that have been distributed or the distribution of which has been facilitated by this commercial, book-sharing-for profit operation.

Here's your free video

2010-07-23T07:53:00.000-04:00

Normally, I don't share advertising, (and I have an agent, so I didn't watch this before posting it!) but apparently, Steve Harrison has put together a panel of literary agents who share their tips on how an aspiring author might snag their interest and capture them.

Here's your free video

Space Snark™ A blog by Rowena Cherry

Sword Master Bob Anderson has passed.

Mating Net: First Chapter read aloud

Politicians (Wyden, Issa) and the Press (CNBC) Protect Piracy

An hour ago, Barnes and Noble emailed me (I subscribe) to let me know that Patricia Cornwell's latest book is now available for NOOK, presumably as of today, for $14.99.

Anti-Piracy Bill Battle: Hollywood vs. Silicon Valley By: Julia Boorstin

You'd Think EBay Would Smell A Rat

New Copyright Bill Targets ISPs, Search Engines | PCWorld Business Center

Twitter Help Center... Helps Whom?

Nancy Wrebb

Dear Twitter, I am reporting copyright infringement.

Whois Record

IP Information for 91.201.66.202

A Rant About Copyright Infringement

Looks Too Good To be True - Fraud / SOFTWARE PIRACY

Scott Turow On Random House (reposted w. permission)

Kindle e-book piracy accelerates | Fully Equipped - CNET Reviews

Kindle e-book piracy accelerates | Fully Equipped - CNET Reviews

Start-up hopes to profit from Kindle lending | Deep Tech - CNET News

The eBook User’s Bill of Rights | Librarian in Black Blog – Sarah Houghton-Jan

Illinois legislation impacting Amazon Associates Program? | The Whole Bird Politics

Would the Bard Have Survived the Web? - NYTimes.com

Snarking back at a pirate

How to Prevent Sex on Mars: His and Hers Spaceships? - Study: Astronauts of the opposite sex are bound to have some

The E-Book Royalty Mess, courtesy of Authors' Guild

From The Authors' Guild

The perfect mating

From Authors Guild

Feds hint at charges for WikiLeaks' Assange | Privacy Inc. - CNET News

S-3804 Why Authors And Voice Talent Need Help

How To Recognize A Pirate

Join our FREE BOOKS club TODAY!

NOTE: Don't miss out!... 'Its the early bird that catches the worm'

Due to complaints by book companies, files get deleted all the time, so join the club using the form below, and you will be notified the minute a new bookmix has been completed!

Dear Friend of Digital Freedom,

nihilistic_kid: Copyright follies

Picture This

Penny Sansevieri on MONETIZING "FREE"

For Those Who Wish To Support Authors...Support This, please

Can Nation's Power Grid Handle a Surge of Electric Cars?

EBAY - Recall This!

Upping The Ante On Nasty (a review of DRACULAS)

How Piracy Hurts.

Complimentary Books? But "compliments" of whom?

Its easy to collect all the books below for FREE!Simply click the link below, watch the advert for 5 seconds, then click on the YELLOW BUTTON (Skip Ad) as it appears at the top/right of your screen and you will be directly taken to the main book page!

Join our FREE BOOKS club TODAY!

Subscribe to freebookclub

If you want to be kept informed of the LATEST selections of books & audio books, then why not join our FREE Club

Subscribe to marketingchat

Useful Download Info

Copyright And Piracy | Publishing In the 21st Century

Guest Blog: How Do We Prevent EBook Piracy

Commerce Seeks Comment on Protecting Copyrighted Works on the Internet | Department of Commerce

Internet Policy Task Force

Copyright And Piracy | Publishing In the 21st Century

Sisters are doing it for themselves... on Tuesday

Two Cheers For Senator Patrick Leahy

"What If..." World-building with Michelle Picard

INTERNET PIRACY IS BIG BUSINESS

10 Big Myths about copyright explained

A Bootleg E-Book Bazaar Operates in Plain Sight | Publishing In the 21st Century

Compare and Contrast Blog Tours

YouTube - Meet Authors Lillian Cauldwell & Rowena Cherry

Penny Sansevieri on Book Signings Beyond Bricks And Mortar

Beware: Warranty-Expiring Scam

The Copyright Alliance Blog » Blog Archive » Limiting Copyright to 12 Months

E-book piracy costs U.S. publishers $3 billion, says study | VentureBeat

The irony of ebook piracy

Facebook and privacy. Did you know...?

Authors Guild on Wylie

With a fan like this, who needs enemies!

Here's your free video

Its easy to collect all the books below for FREE!
Simply click the link below, watch the advert for 5 seconds, then click on the YELLOW BUTTON (Skip Ad) as it appears at the top/right of your screen and you will be directly taken to the main book page!