It can happen to anyone, and I'd like to say that you know you are a true author when someone steals your work, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't hurt any less. I've had work stolen from from me by other writers in my past. I have even come across a writer that was trying to get better SEO rankings by making her blog title so similar to mine that all she did was switch the words around (which is something a little different than piracy).

I'd like to open a discussion about piracy and how to protect your rights because I think it's an important topic for authors to know what they can legally do. AND I also think it's a good idea to point out sites that are pirating work so authors can keep tabs on their own works.

Today I came across a pirating site. This site promises free book downloads to their members. So far I have found one of my books on there and I am still looking into checking out my other books. The one that I DID find was downloaded a total of 525 times as of 5 PM EST today and that's very sad because not only is that money I will never see, but these types of sites cheapen the work of ALL authors-- whether they are well-known or not.

There are A LOT of author works on this site (both well-known and not so well known authors) and if Book Country allows this up-- here's the link so you can check to see if your book(s) are on there too. http://www.e-bookdownload.net/contact-us/ That link brings you directly to their copyright infringement complaint page. What you will have to do is search for your book title and/or name to see if they have your book in their data base. The search box is on the right hand side of the page.

I have formally filed a complaint using specific wording that was given to me by a trusted author friend that had the same thing happen to her. Below is a copy of the text. Feel free to use the same wording if you need it. I just hope that you NEVER have to!

Dear...
I am an author who has had her copyright infringed upon with a share link application from your site. I would sincerely appreciate your cooperation in removing this link. The following links were found on your site: (LIST URL'S & BOOK TITLES)

I am the author, publisher and sole owner of all rights to these works. It is against copyright to share these files, as stated in the front matter of my books. I have not given permission for these files to be shared. Use of the copyrighted materials described above as allegedly infringing is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.

I swear, under penalty of perjury, that the information in the notification is accurate and that I am the copyright owner or am authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.

I appreciate your assistance in removing all links to my works from your site.

(This language was adapted from a form on a piracy site which stated that without this exact language the work would not be removed. Such formal language may not be necessary for all sites, but better safe than sorry!)

Hey, Amanda.

Again, so, so sorry to hear about this injustice. It's not right. Plain and simple. Authors put months or years of blood and sweat and tears into their manuscripts. They draft and redraft and rewrite over and over until it's as perfect and polished as can be. For someone to steal and pirate their work is one of the most evil things said someone can do to an author, in my opinion.

You're so kind to share the link to this site. Other writers really need to know of it.

Thanks.

Arg! I'm so angry right now. Hang in there, Amanda. I'm standing behind you on this one. If you need to rant, go ahead. I'm all ears.

Thanks Amber! This book actually took me ten years to write, edit, and publish and it is sad that it happened BUT you live and learn.

You know, my daughter used to introduce me to her friends as a famous author. She was really little when she used to do that and I remember her saying that to an old high school English teacher of mine. My retort was, "Famous-- not rich." LOL! But all kidding aside, sites like these do this because they believe we authors make enough to take that kind of a hit in our paychecks. This, of course simply is not true. And they should be ashamed of thinking that way.

I can't speak for everyone, but there are a lot of writers I know with disabilities and some of us are writing as a form of income because we have illnesses that keep us home bound. I just so happen to be one of those writers and it's sad to think that someone believes that I have no right to royalties for my work just because I wrote a novel. It's really sad that people are like this and I don't wish this mess on anyone else! 

I hope we can add more to this thread to help writers look for piracy and plagiarism of their works.

One thing I'd like to add is that you should do what is called a "vanity check" and Google your legal name, pen name, and titles of your works to see if anyone is stealing from you. It can be a little time consuming if you have a lot of novels (and other works) out there, but it's worth it! I do my checks about once a week because I've been writing for about three decades and I have A LOT of stuff out. GEE I hope I'm not dating myself! LOL!

Thanks Robert for your insight on this! I haven't played with the words in my novel yet and I will have to do so.

Oh and as a side-- my book has been taken down from that site. It was taken down within an hour of my request so I'm sure they have been in this business for quite some time and realize what they are doing. The legal jargon on the site is just too "spot on" to be written by an amateur. And that makes me think that they are stealing more than books.

--edited by Amanda Kimberley on 3/2/2015, 7:20 PM--

Amanda, that's great they took it down--not so great you lost what could have amounted in sales. But as you said, live and learn.

Keep on writing

Amber

Thanks Amanda for posting a complaint for us to use should this happen to any of us. I'm sorry to hear that it happened to you and Robert.

Another option for taking action is to file a DMCA takedown notice. I'm a bit new to posting my work online, so I've never filed one as of yet.

I didn't think to search of sentences or phrases from my first chapter either, so I'll definitely start doing that.

-Vanessa

Can someone tell me how this is being done? Are they stealing published work off Amazon, or has it been posted somewhere for review? I'm trying to understand how a pirate gets hold of a piece to begin with, so I will be wary of certain situations.

I guess I understand how a student might steal a work, to turn it in for a grade. I don't get someone doing it for money. It's hard to make money off what we publish legitimately, with the author able to promote the work across the web, not needing to be surreptitious about it. This is very strange to me, and very disheartening. All I can think is, you guys who have been pirated must be writing in a much more in demand genre than I am.

.

Is there a trend that you can see, for instance is a large portion of the material YA? I can see how this might be a problem with YA.

People pirate and plagiarize for many different reasons. A few months back there was an article about an author who won an award for his work. I forget which award but it was prestigious enough and once the book got noticed, the original author found out and claimed plagiarism. The original author was pretty peeved, along with many other writers in the community when the award was not taken away. They claimed it was not plagiarism, because even though some rather large chunks of the original piece were taken, supposedly enough was created to be an original piece. I can't find the exact article I'm referencing, but this one from 2012 about a similar situation will do, http://publishingperspectives.com/2012/11/plagiarism-problem-plagues-150000-prize-winner-from-peru/

As for people blatantly stealing the entire book-- word for word or almost word for word-- which is the true definition of piracy-- they don't need much to steal. Many of them prey on the indie authors because indies are easier to steal from than the bigger names-- but even that isn't always true. I remember NY Times best selling romance author Jasinda Wilder being pirated not too long ago from a gal that copied her work almost word for word and slapped a different title and book cover on it. This pirate switched some things like main character names, but the basics were all still there. Jasinda actually had no idea about it until a fan brought it up and it is very common to find out from a fan.

There is a positive note to all of this, though. One, they won't steal unless the work is good to steal-- so that's kind of flattering to know that your work is that good. And two, many times you will gain some legitimate readers from piracy. Fans-- whether they get your book for a price or for free will tell others how much they liked the book. It's just human nature.

As far as what genre-- it doesn't matter. There isn't one that is more popular than the other.

Ah, crud...my book is on their site.  I filled out the infringement form and clicked "Send" and received a message saying "Failed to Send."  After trying this a few times, and then trying a different browser to see if that made a difference, I am still getting the "Failed to Send" Message. So, I've got to figure out some way to get in touch with this bozos (insert much stronger word here) to see if I can get them to remove it.

It looks like my book has been downloaded several dozen times from this site.

Janice

Ack! Another Book Country member has been wronged by that site?!

No doubt about it. I'm definitely keeping tabs on them.

So sorry to hear about this, JanPeac.

Amber

If you have a complaint about this type of issue for a book published by Book Country, definitely send us an email at support@bookcountry.com so that we can help.

Thank you!