BRAINPAN LEAKAGE

You know, I had reconciled myself to just forgetting about the fact that my books are being pirated on the internet, thereby placing any continuation of the Rowan Gant series on shaky ground. I mean, I can’t blame the publisher. If the books aren’t selling because someone is distributing them for free, then why bother? If they can’t even recoup their investment then it really doesn’t make much sense for them to continue throwing money at it.

At any rate, like I said, I figured I’d just not get any more upset over it than I already had. I have plenty of crap going on in my life right now, plus I need to finish another manuscript for the pirates to steal. Things were going along fine. I had put it into the back of my mind (since there was nothing I could do to stop it) and I was coping.

Then, I went to an event.

At said event I met several folks who were terribly excited to make my acquaintance. They were huge fans, had read all of my books, and simply couldn’t wait for the next one. Major ego boost here. Gotta love that. Then, they dropped the other shoe. Actually, they kicked me with it. Seems that none of them had ever purchased my books. Nor had they borrowed them from friends or libraries.

No, they had downloaded them via one of the pirate torrents…

Oh, but it gets better… After reading and enjoying them, they proceeded to email the files to all of their friends, who in turn did the same…I got to meet some of them too…

I politely explained to these folks that neither the publisher nor I had received payment for those pirated books. I politely told them that since I wasn’t getting paid, it made it hard for me to pay my bills, which meant I might have to stop writing and go get a different job. Hence, no more RGI novels, which would be sad for the fans, me, and the characters who have taken on lives of their own.

They blinked. Then they asked if I knew how soon they might be able to download my upcoming novel.

I think I’ll go scream into a pillow now…

Murv

So… Have any of you read any of the Rowan Gant Investigations e-books? You know, the electronic versions of the book. In particular, I believe these e-books are in convenient PDF format.

If so, good on you! I hope you enjoyed them. Now, let’s settle up-

For each Rowan Gant e-book title you have read, you need to send $3.95 (the average price of an e-book) to my publisher, WillowTree Press. The address is as follows: WillowTree Press, PO Box 142414, St. Louis, MO 63114-0414. Make your check payable to WillowTree Press. Please include a note listing the titles for which you are paying.

Why?

Because, there are NO Rowan Gant e-books… Yes, there ARE some PDF files floating around out there. I just found out about it today. Apparently, they have been floating around for a while now. In fact, long enough that they have been downloaded thousands of times. Illegally.

Yeah. ILLEGALLY.

And guess what? My publisher hasn’t seen a dime. Know what that means? I haven’t either. Yeah… they didn’t get paid, so I didn’t get paid.

Now… If you are one of the e-book readers, the address is listed above. Send your money in so that my publisher can pay me. If your excuse for downloading them is that you wanted to sample my books before buying, well, that’s what libraries are for. If you don’t have a library card, well, you know, there’s also a chapter sampler on my website available for download. That would have given you a sample…

You’ll have to excuse me, but I’m pissed right now. People seem to think authors are flush with cash and that we don’t need the royalties. Well, here’s how it is… It’s our friggin’ paycheck, people. How would you like it if I stopped by your place of employment on Friday, picked up YOUR paycheck and put it in MY pocket even though you did the work?

Yeah, wouldn’t be so nice now would it?

For those of you who have NOT pirated my books, and actually purchase them legally, I’m terribly sorry you had to listen to this… Please know that I truly appreciate you.

But, for now, I’m one pissed off Murv…