Book people,
As with many authors, I was disheartened to when I read the Atlantic Article about how Meta’s AI used, among others, known book pirating websites to train their model. I used the third-party tool to check my books (not wishing to go to one of the sites myself) and was disappointed, though not surprised, to find that one of my books had been pirated as well.
So, what to do about it? I’m more upset that my work is feeding the machine that is stealing author’s voices than I am that someone could take my book without paying. After all, someone doing so was likely not going to pony up a single cent anyway. In other words, I don’t think I lost a reader.
I’m taking a different approach. There are a few different ways you can get my books. (1) You can go to the bookstore or order print versions from several distributors. (2) You can also get an e-copy, which is currently only through Amazon or on Kindle Unlimited. And (3), I keep at least one of my books in e-format available for free for those who sign up for my newsletter. This is known in the indie author world as a “reader magnet.” Now that I know “Riddled Worlds” my apocalyptic YA adventure has been pirated, I have switched it to be my reader magnet.
So, if you are interested in a copy, or just to stay up-to-date on what’s going on, check out my newsletter link. And, yes, I haven’t been too active on the newsletter front lately, so there is very little danger of your inbox getting filled up.
Take that, Edward Teach. -phil coleman
