Thread by @seananmcguire

Another day, another massive pirate site positively laden with my eBooks, and with the eBooks of others, including work from small presses and a variety of anthologies. Gosh, what fun.

(I don't worry that saying "this site exists" is going to trigger a wave of y'all rushing off to download its terrible wares. If you're a person who believes in book piracy, you don't need the help. If you're not, this shouldn't be enough to sway you. Thankfully.)

I've heard the justifications, over and over again--"It's not theft, you still have your books" and "eBooks cost too much" and "Really, it's nothing against you, it's because your publisher did (whatever bullshit thing somehow makes this okay)."

To these people I say, very sincerely, pay my power bill.

Also, I say:

Look. LOOK. I am anti-book theft, because authors are not creatures of gossamer and starlight, we gotta eat and we gotta pay bills and we write a lot less when we're starving and cold and miserable.

And I know not every illegal download is a lost sale. I am aware of that. But anthologies are already a tough sell with publishers. They're a lot of work for a relatively low return. When you illegally download anthologies, you make the next one a lot less likely to happen.

If you like anthologies enough to steal them, DON'T STEAL ANTHOLOGIES. I love them so much. I do not appreciate ANYTHING that makes them less likely to happen. Cut it out.

And again, pay my power bill.