When we hear the word piracy we automatically assume; bad for the publisher, good for the consumer. But what if we’re wrong?
A common misconception with piracy is that every download is a missed sale (Sechi, 2012), but Hugh Howey, author of Wool, understands the benefits of piracy, confessing; ‘I love pirates, I get money from them all the time’ (Greenfield, 2013).
In fact, O’Leary found that the technical book imprint O’Reilly Media had increased book sales after their book had been pirated, noting its cause as readers sampling the content before purchase (Misener, 2011). It is widely believed that the quality of e-content is of a lower standard than print (SFU, 2013) so is it so bizarre that customers want previews to evaluate their investments?
The truth of the matter is ‘‘if people are exposed to your work and enjoy it—even if they originally pirated it—they will eventually buy your work’ (DiSalvo, 2012).
Though it is bound to hinder best-sellers (perhaps due to pricing), Reimer states that starting/ little-known authors could ‘benefit from the additional platform’ which becomes a ‘promotional tool’ (Ernesto, 2014) gaining them market presence.
Biggest threat?
E-piracy victimises all genre’s and authors, but considerably Young Adult fiction as its market audience have grown up as the “digital generation” where illegally downloading is regular, even normal, and kids believe it is their right to have content for free. Nancy Messieh supports this, finding that the types of pirated e-books in the Android App Market are limited to ‘pop culture titles that are likely to be in demand, particularly amongst a younger audience, with many users happy to download them qualm-free’ (Messieh, 2011). Furthermore, the Association of American Publishers suggest that such publishers ‘lose $80 million to $100 million annually to piracy’ (Springen, 2014).
How to tackle it?
Anti-piracy methods, such as takedown notices, found an ‘increase in e-book sales by 15 percent [whereas] other book formats were unaffected’ (Ernesto, 2014) suggesting that it’s not actually free content which attracts readers but easily accessible content, given that e-books are ‘the closest substitute for online piracy’ (Ernesto, 2014).
These findings also confirm my conclusion that e-piracy holds a certain market, primarily of those who pirate to sample books they will then buy in print form, thus it can be seen that piracy has a negative effect on the purchase of e-books only.
This does show that readers are willing to pay when the content is easy to find and read, so publishers should consider – as the film and music industry before them – a subscription model wherein customers pay monthly for regular content; a Netflix for Books. Similarly, if it is the desire for free samples, publishing houses could allow readers to download free chapters, like Harlequin and Faber have done with JellyBooks (Jones, 2012). JellyBooks is an ‘e-book showroom’ (Seabrook, 2012) allowing readers to read samples and share across social media platforms thus expanding discoverability of books.
Conclusion
So to answer the question ‘Is piracy good for book sales?’ the answer is yes – depending on the author (whether new or best-selling), genre and quality of the content. ‘The challenges around piracy are huge, but so are the opportunities’ (Misener, 2011) and in a digital age in which free, unlimited, pirated copies are easy to find, publishers are best off finding new ways to replicate this style to attract readers away from piracy and towards their own limitless, free sample and/or subscription based models.
Word Count: 550
Bibliography:
DiSalvo, D., 2012. Is Piracy The New Advertising? Forbes [online] 15 March. Available at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/daviddisalvo/2012/03/15/is-pirating-the-new-advertising/
Ernesto, 2014. Piracy Takedown Notices Increase E-Book Sales, Research Finds, Torrent Freak [online] 6 June. Available at: https://torrentfreak.com/piracy-takedown-notices-increase-e-book-sales-140606/
Greenfield, J., 2013. Does Piracy Hurt Digital Content Sales? Yes, Digital Book World [online] 16 January. Available at: http://www.digitalbookworld.com/2013/does-piracy-hurt-digital-content-sales-yes/
Jones, P., 2012. JellyBooks Grows Range With HMB Titles, The Bookseller [online] 8 October. Available at: http://www.thebookseller.com/news/jellybooks-grows-range-hmb-titles
Messieh, N., 2011. Does e-book piracy really matter? The next web [online] 24 June. Available at: http://thenextweb.com/media/2011/06/24/does-e-book-piracy-really-matter/
Misener, D., 2011. Analysis: E=book Piracy May Have Unexpected Benefits For Publishers, CBC News [online] 19 April. Available at: http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/e-book-piracy-may-have-unexpected-benefits-for-publishers-1.1123710
Seabrook, M., 2012. Bilbary and JellyBooks, e-Relevant Blog [online] 2 April. Available at: http://www.e-relevant.co.za/index.php?
Sechi, L., 2012. Hot Topics: Piracy, IfBookThen [online] 4 January. Available at: http://www.ifbookthen.com/hot-topics-piracy/
Springen, K., 2014. What YA Publishers and Authors Can Do To Fight E-Book Piracy, Publishers Weekly [online] 18 July. Available at: http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-industry-news/article/63357-the-piracy-problem.html
N/A, 2013. The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly: Piracy, DRM, and the E-book Issue, Publishing@SFU [online] 18 January. Available at: http://publishing.sfu.ca/2013/01/the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-piracy-drm-and-the-e-book-issue/
A common misconception with piracy is that every download is a missed sale (Sechi, 2012), but Hugh Howey, author of Wool, understands the benefits of piracy, confessing; ‘I love pirates, I get money from them all the time’ (Greenfield, 2013).
In fact, O’Leary found that the technical book imprint O’Reilly Media had increased book sales after their book had been pirated, noting its cause as readers sampling the content before purchase (Misener, 2011). It is widely believed that the quality of e-content is of a lower standard than print (SFU, 2013) so is it so bizarre that customers want previews to evaluate their investments?
The truth of the matter is ‘‘if people are exposed to your work and enjoy it—even if they originally pirated it—they will eventually buy your work’ (DiSalvo, 2012).
Though it is bound to hinder best-sellers (perhaps due to pricing), Reimer states that starting/ little-known authors could ‘benefit from the additional platform’ which becomes a ‘promotional tool’ (Ernesto, 2014) gaining them market presence.
Biggest threat?
E-piracy victimises all genre’s and authors, but considerably Young Adult fiction as its market audience have grown up as the “digital generation” where illegally downloading is regular, even normal, and kids believe it is their right to have content for free. Nancy Messieh supports this, finding that the types of pirated e-books in the Android App Market are limited to ‘pop culture titles that are likely to be in demand, particularly amongst a younger audience, with many users happy to download them qualm-free’ (Messieh, 2011). Furthermore, the Association of American Publishers suggest that such publishers ‘lose $80 million to $100 million annually to piracy’ (Springen, 2014).
How to tackle it?
Anti-piracy methods, such as takedown notices, found an ‘increase in e-book sales by 15 percent [whereas] other book formats were unaffected’ (Ernesto, 2014) suggesting that it’s not actually free content which attracts readers but easily accessible content, given that e-books are ‘the closest substitute for online piracy’ (Ernesto, 2014).
These findings also confirm my conclusion that e-piracy holds a certain market, primarily of those who pirate to sample books they will then buy in print form, thus it can be seen that piracy has a negative effect on the purchase of e-books only.
This does show that readers are willing to pay when the content is easy to find and read, so publishers should consider – as the film and music industry before them – a subscription model wherein customers pay monthly for regular content; a Netflix for Books. Similarly, if it is the desire for free samples, publishing houses could allow readers to download free chapters, like Harlequin and Faber have done with JellyBooks (Jones, 2012). JellyBooks is an ‘e-book showroom’ (Seabrook, 2012) allowing readers to read samples and share across social media platforms thus expanding discoverability of books.
Conclusion
So to answer the question ‘Is piracy good for book sales?’ the answer is yes – depending on the author (whether new or best-selling), genre and quality of the content. ‘The challenges around piracy are huge, but so are the opportunities’ (Misener, 2011) and in a digital age in which free, unlimited, pirated copies are easy to find, publishers are best off finding new ways to replicate this style to attract readers away from piracy and towards their own limitless, free sample and/or subscription based models.
Word Count: 550
Bibliography:
DiSalvo, D., 2012. Is Piracy The New Advertising? Forbes [online] 15 March. Available at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/daviddisalvo/2012/03/15/is-pirating-the-new-advertising/
Ernesto, 2014. Piracy Takedown Notices Increase E-Book Sales, Research Finds, Torrent Freak [online] 6 June. Available at: https://torrentfreak.com/piracy-takedown-notices-increase-e-book-sales-140606/
Greenfield, J., 2013. Does Piracy Hurt Digital Content Sales? Yes, Digital Book World [online] 16 January. Available at: http://www.digitalbookworld.com/2013/does-piracy-hurt-digital-content-sales-yes/
Jones, P., 2012. JellyBooks Grows Range With HMB Titles, The Bookseller [online] 8 October. Available at: http://www.thebookseller.com/news/jellybooks-grows-range-hmb-titles
Messieh, N., 2011. Does e-book piracy really matter? The next web [online] 24 June. Available at: http://thenextweb.com/media/2011/06/24/does-e-book-piracy-really-matter/
Misener, D., 2011. Analysis: E=book Piracy May Have Unexpected Benefits For Publishers, CBC News [online] 19 April. Available at: http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/e-book-piracy-may-have-unexpected-benefits-for-publishers-1.1123710
Seabrook, M., 2012. Bilbary and JellyBooks, e-Relevant Blog [online] 2 April. Available at: http://www.e-relevant.co.za/index.php?
Sechi, L., 2012. Hot Topics: Piracy, IfBookThen [online] 4 January. Available at: http://www.ifbookthen.com/hot-topics-piracy/
Springen, K., 2014. What YA Publishers and Authors Can Do To Fight E-Book Piracy, Publishers Weekly [online] 18 July. Available at: http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-industry-news/article/63357-the-piracy-problem.html
N/A, 2013. The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly: Piracy, DRM, and the E-book Issue, Publishing@SFU [online] 18 January. Available at: http://publishing.sfu.ca/2013/01/the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-piracy-drm-and-the-e-book-issue/