If you’re unfamiliar, serialized fiction is when a fictional work, usually a novel, is published in short installments over the course of weeks or months or years. The practice has been around for centuries, but became particularly popular during the Victorian Era in Britain. Charles Dickens is often credited as being the first in that time period to use the format when he published The Pickwick Papers serially between 1836-37. He did, in fact, serialize virtually all of his other novels as well, and was followed by the likes of Alexandre Dumas, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Wilkie Collins, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (to name a few). In the twentieth century, authors such as Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Agatha Christie, Truman Capote, and even Stephen King published serialized novels. And, of course, in more recent times serialization is frequently found on fanfiction sites, where writers continually add to existing stories.

Because of the Internet and the ease of blogging, some modern original fiction authors have also dabbled in serialization. I’ve known several writers who’ve built amazing readerships by posting their novels on their blogs, a chapter at a time, as they write them, and then pulling them down when the books are complete and selling them to a publisher (often a small press, but not always). Some authors have earned amazing deals from big publishers this way. Andy Weir, author of The Martian, originally put chapters of that book on his blog as he wrote it. His readers gave him lots of feedback, which he took to heart and used to polish the piece, and eventually it attracted the attention of Crown Publishing, who contracted the book. And the rest, as they say, is history, including a sweet movie deal where Matt Damon played the title character.

Another method modern-day authors use for serializing their work is to post it on platforms such as Patreon, where they receive monthly financial support from “patrons” in exchange for new, patron-only content. Others occasionally sell each installment separately in ebook format through vendors like Amazon. 

There’s no doubt that for some authors this model of writing/publishing works well. I’m not an expert, but from observing over the years, it seems to me the modern authors who have the most success with it are those who are prolific and write very quickly. For them it appears to be easy-peasy to write and post a new chapter or two or three each week.

I’ll admit, I gave into the lure to serialize back in late 2018. Due to a day job that had become increasingly more time consuming, some health scares in my immediate family, and then a death in the family that pretty much consumed an entire year of my life due to grief and family commitments, I had been out of the writing game for quite a while. After years of fairly consistently having two or three or, occasionally, four new releases per year, I had a huge dry spell. My publisher had closed in 2016, leaving my books orphaned. In 2017 and 2018, as I was finally able to focus on writing once again, I was working on getting some of my older books cleaned up and re-released. But I also, desperately, wanted to write something new, something fresh and unrelated to the series I’d been working on forever, to prove to myself I could still take a book from start to finish without getting stuck in a mire. I began writing a holiday-set romance with the idea of having it done and published before Christmas in 2018. I was indie publishing at that point, so I could set my own release dates. But by the time November rolled around, I knew I wasn’t going to have it finished in time. Close, but not quite. I was bummed because I didn’t want to wait until the next year’s holiday season to publish it.

I came up with this wild idea to post chapters of it on my blog. That way people could start reading it and, even if it wasn’t finished until January or February, they’d at least have some of it during the appropriate season. Also, I felt like it was a good way to get my foot back in the door of writing and publishing. At that point it had been over five years since my last new release (not counting re-releases of my older books). Five. Years. That’s a loooooong empty stretch in the land of book publishing. I thought serializing the novel would be a good way to remind my old readers I was still around and writing again, and maybe even draw in some new readers. Plus, I had the book 3/4 finished and knew exactly where it was going and how it was going to end, so I wasn’t worried about running out of material or getting stuck.

In mid-December of 2018, I began posting a chapter a day of Hometown Hearts, and continued until I was done writing it the end of January. I kept the completed story up on my blog for another couple of weeks, so readers who’d been following along had time to finish reading it. Then, I took it all down, sent it off to my editor, and published it for real the end of March.

It was a terrific experience! I got some excellent feedback from readers that allowed me to improve a few scenes. Readers seemed to enjoy it. And when the book was released, it did okay considering it was a Christmas-themed romance coming out in the spring, not to mention my first published book in a very, very long time.

Because Hometown had worked out so well, I got another wild idea. I had been working on the fifth book in my Draegan Lords series for…ugh…years. I had gotten bogged down in the overall series story arc as it became more and more dense, with lots of characters, lots of fantasy world building, and lots of plot. The series had grown so big and complicated that after the third book I’d realized I was going to have to add in the points of view of two other main characters and write a couple of additional books to fully realize the extended story that needed to be told. So, yeah, I’d been working on the series a long damn time. And then, shortly after the fourth book was published, all of the aforementioned upheavals in life began, and from there, in spite of my best intentions and multiple attempts to write in spite of everything, I wasn’t able to do more than pick and poke at the manuscript for years. A chapter here. A chapter there. It had been painfully slow going. But by 2018, at the same time I’d been writing Hometown Hearts, I’d also dug back into that 5th series book, Dark Magick Rising. And once Hometown was finished, Dark Magick became my focus. I knew it was going to be a long book. And by long, I mean HUGE. Epic fantasy huge. At the end of 2018 I figured I was probably half finished with it. But halfway meant it was already 100K words (almost as long as Hometown Hearts was completed). Readers had been waiting so long for the next book in the series to come out, I thought, Wouldn’t it be nice to give them a taste of it now rather than wait until it’s done, edited, and published? I knew, realistically, the end was still months if not a year or more away, and serializing it would get it to readers far more quickly. I figured if I posted one or two chapters a week as I was writing the second half, I’d be in good shape and would stay ahead and finish the book. Meanwhile, readers could be following along.

It seemed like a great idea at the time, so, in February of 2019 I began posting chapters of Dark Magick Rising on my blog. It went well for quite a while. Again, it’s a ginormous book, so for seven or eight months, all was good. I started by posting two chapters per week, but eventually switched to posting only one chapter a week as I began to catch up with where I was actively writing. Still, it was mostly smooth sailing.

Until…it wasn’t so smooth. You see, I don’t plot my books out ahead of time. I’m what’s known in the writing industry as a pantser–meaning I write mostly by the seat of my pants. I usually have a general idea where the story is going, or where it’s going to end, or maybe a few checkpoints along the way, but mostly I sit down to write and let the story unfold as the characters dictate it to me. Quite often even I’m surprised by what happens. And, usually, that’s fine. I’ve been writing that way for more than twenty-five years. It’s my process and it works for me. Granted, sometimes it works more smoothly than others, but ultimately, it gets me to the end of a book and that’s all that really matters.

Or, at least I *thought* that’s all that really mattered. It turns out, when you’re posting a novel in a serialized format on your blog, with readers following along every week…when you discover you’ve made a wrong turn in the story or you need to go back and change some things to mesh with the new material you’ve written, it’s not so easy to do when the chapters are already live. And by late fall of 2019 I knew that’s what was happening with Dark Magick Rising. Unfortunately, instead of stopping right there and saying, “Hold everything…I need to hit pause and sort out some stuff,” I decided to try to work with what I’d already posted, even though I knew instinctively I’d made a wrong turn and I *might* make everything worse if I kept pushing forward. I continued to write, albeit more slowly since I was struggling. But as the weeks passed, I got myself deeper and deeper into trouble. Finally, by January, everything had ground to a halt. And I knew why. It was because I didn’t like a lot of what I’d written for the past two or three months. Sure, there was some good stuff. But there were also big chunks that were just wrong. My storytelling senses were all tingling, and not in a good way. They were telling me, “Holy crap, ML, get this shit out of here, go back to where you got derailed, and start over!” The thing was, I hated to have to admit this to readers, and hated even more that to really fix it, it meant I was going to not only have to stop posting chapters for a while, I was going to have to pull down probably eight or ten chapters that were already online. 

But, it’s what had to be done. So, in early January of 2020, I sucked it up, admitted on my blog that I’d gone way off track, and that I was going to have to yank a bunch of stuff and take however much time was necessary to rewrite. Readers mostly seemed to understand, though I’m sure many were disappointed. I also got a couple of “hate” emails about it, but I’ve been in this biz a long time and realize you can’t please everyone, no matter what you do or don’t do. I’m only human, I make mistakes, and all I can do is own up to it and try to fix it.

I began by cutting several of the last chapters I’d written out of the book and only retaining a few, which got rewrites. And then I began writing new material where I’d gone so badly off track. In February, I reposted a couple of chapters I’d pulled that had been reworked, and my plan was to continue to do that as I had revised chapters or brand new ones ready. 

And then March arrived, along with Covid-19. Like most people, as I was locked down in my house with my husband, who was (and still is) working from home, and both of my twenty-something kids, life became fully about the pandemic. About trying to track down toilet paper and hand sanitizer and Clorox wipes. About worrying constantly, and making plans for what we would do if one of us got sick. We cooked every meal at home, we started an indoor garden, we got our groceries either delivered or did curbside pickup for them once a week, and other than that, we never left the house. And it was stressful as hell. My anxiety disorder that had mostly been under control for years decided to rear its ugly head again, and is still giving me fits. I know I’m not alone in dealing with this kind of thing because this pandemic has affected all of us across the world. Fear, anxiety, depression, uncertainty have become most people’s constant companions. 

Like many creative people, trying to stay creative during those initial weeks of the pandemic was nearly impossible for me. Writing was the last thing on my mind. When I was on my computer, I was reading news articles, watching in horror as the Covid cases increased around the world, trying to find the groceries I needed from the various stores in my area that delivered. And when I wasn’t fully focused on pandemic-related things, I was trying to drown it out by rewatching my favorite, comforting movies and TV shows. (It’s how I cope when things go to hell.) I’m pretty sure I didn’t even open a single manuscript file for more than two months. But, eventually, the urge to write crept up on me, and so, in May, I started reading, revising, and writing again.

Right around that time, I got an email with a Google alert about Dark Magick Rising. I discovered DMR had been posted on a pirate website. The bottom fell out of my stomach. I was furious and hurt, with a strong undercurrent of feeling betrayed.

Here I had this partially completed book that I’d been working on for literal YEARS already posted for free on my blog, but some jackass decided it’d be fun to cut and paste every single individual blog post/chapter, mush it all together with shitty-ass formatting, and then put it on a pirate site. First of all, this is MY WORK. MY INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY that someone helped themself to. Second, it was a work in fricking progress. Not a finished novel. Not even edited. Certainly not something that needed to be spread around to the masses anywhere except on my website where I had creative control over it. I even had this exact, word-for-word statement on my blog at the beginning of Dark Magick Rising: Please remember that all written content on my website, including and ESPECIALLY any book chapters I post for you are copyrighted by me, M.L. Rhodes, and all rights are reserved. This means you may NOT post this story elsewhere, you may NOT use any part of it, and you absolutely MAY NOT pirate it. It’s already going to be free on my blog for the next few months. After that, it will be published and, yes, it will be sold for money. I’m a creator, this is a job, and I have to get paid for my time just like anyone else. So, please, read and enjoy this for free now, but don’t steal it and put it up on some other site. Not only is doing that illegal, it’s just plain crappy. Play nice so I can keep doing things like this for my readers! And yet, whoever stole the book off my website didn’t give a shit. Worse, the book wasn’t finished, so what the person had stolen and reposted and passed off as a complete book…wasn’t. And, yes, this was a real pirate site, not just an identity phishing one, because I was able to download the damn file.

Before I began the serialization of Hometown, I did consider the possibility it could be pirated, but I decided it wasn’t worth being concerned over because, after all, I was already going to be offering it on my blog for free, so who would want or need to pirate it? It was also on my blog for less than two months from start to finish, so I figured it’d be there and gone before anyone unsavory noticed it. Dark Magick Rising was different because it was going to be there much longer by virtue of how big it is, which led me to be more concerned about e-piracy. That’s why I put the aforementioned notice on it. Still, it was there for free and it was incomplete, so I hoped for the best, hoped people would be honest and respectful. Nyeahhhhhh, in retrospect, that was obviously naive, and now that naiveté was coming back to bite me in the ass.

I sent a takedown notice to the site, and the download page disappeared, but I knew that was a temporary and mostly futile solution. Pirate sites and pirated copies of books are like cockroaches. For every one you see, there are dozens more scurrying about behind the wall. Thanks to pandemic anxiety, I didn’t have the energy to go hunting for more at that time. I did, however, consider pulling DMR off my blog to stop any more pirates from taking it. I hated to do it and was torn over it, so I chose not to take action at that time, hoping like crazy it was a one-time incident (though I knew it probably wouldn’t be). But lemme tell ya, that incident sure didn’t make me want to get back to work on Dark Magick Rising. Nothing like having someone steal your writing right out from under you to make you lose interest in actually completing that writing. It’s pretty damned disheartening. So, once again, I set the book aside.

However, as always happens, the urge to write began to return, so in mid June I dug out the manuscript yet again. Then, lo and behold, almost on cue, guess what happened? The end of June I got yet another Google alert about DMR. Yep, another pirate site. Different from the first. And this time, I still felt sick with hurt and betrayal, but mostly I was fucking pissed. Admittedly, I was pissed at myself, too, because I hadn’t taken the book down in May like I should have. This time, I didn’t delay. I pulled Dark Magick Rising off my blog. I’m sure some of my readers have already noticed the big empty spaces where the chapters used to be.

It makes me sad that it has to be this way. But, as an author, I have a right to protect my intellectual property to the best of my ability. And having someone pirate my book when it’s not even finished, allowing people to download and read it, people who probably have no idea they’re getting an incomplete book, and who will then leave bad reviews saying “it felt incomplete” or “it ended on an abrupt cliffhanger” or “there were character arcs and plots that were never resolved” is obviously not good for me.

This has certainly been a learning experience. I was jazzed at how well serialization went for Hometown Hearts and wanted to coast on that goodness. I’m glad I posted Hometown on my blog. I have no regrets about doing it. And, looking back on it, I realize it probably went well because it was short term–meaning I was able to post a chapter a day and it was up and done in a matter of weeks. Also, it helped immensely I was almost finished with the book before I ever started posting it.

Dark Magick Rising is a very different kind of book. Not only is it the 5th in a dense fantasy series, it’s a really long book with a lot happening in it. It not only has to tell its own tale, it also has to fit into the overall timeline and story arc for the series, as well as properly set up the 6th book that will follow it. Series, even under the best of circumstances, are tricky to write. And, because of my writing process, I know generally where this book is going to end and the next one begins, but when I started blogging the book, I didn’t know what was going to happen in the second half of it. A plotter would probably be able to pull off serializing even a huge book because they know ahead of time exactly what’s going to happen, often in meticulous detail.

Though it’s been a hard pill for me to swallow, I’ve come to the realization that serializing is not a great thing to do for a pantser who constantly tweaks as she goes and circles back to rewrite. Like I said, my process has always stood me in good stead. I’ve always said that I’ve never written myself into a corner. And that’s true. What I didn’t realize is that I’ve never written myself into a corner because I’ve always had the freedom and flexibility to go back and change things as I’ve needed to, as new paths present themselves. But posting chapters for public consumption, setting them in stone as I go, is a whole different ball of wax!

Still, I was committed to finishing the book online, despite the writing issues I ran into. And then…pirates. I’m so damned sick of ebook piracy. Half the small press and indie authors I know are going broke in part from piracy, and it’s infuriating. But having a book stolen that wasn’t even finished yet, that I was already offering for free anyway, was the straw that finally broke me. It broke me so much, I spent most of the first week in July writing a detailed and, admittedly, fairly scathing article about ebook piracy. If you haven’t already read it, it’s here. And, yeah, when you get to the part where it says I’ve had to make some recent decisions about my own work…obviously I’m referring to Dark Magick Rising.

So, now what? What’s going to happen with Dark Magick Rising? Will you ever serialize a book again, ML? What does “a different ball of wax” mean anyway?

Well, I can answer at least some of those questions. Dark Magick Rising will continue to be written. I’ve actually been putting quite a bit of time into it this month. Progress is being made and I’m getting closer to the end. Right now, my tentative goal is to have the book finished by the end of the summer. I’d like to put it into my editor’s hands sometime in September, and have it published by the end of the year. That said, everything in life is uncertain right now for everyone. So, a lot depends on what additional bat-shittery pops up in the world over the next several months. Let’s face it, 2020 has been one vomit-inducing rollercoaster drop after another, a lot of people are hurting for so many reasons, and, sadly, I don’t think we’re anywhere close to being out of the nightmare yet. And by nightmare, I’m not only talking about Covid-19. There is SO much wrong in the world right now. I suspect we’re all going to have to continue to be flexible about a LOT of things for the foreseeable future.

Will I ever serialize a book again? “Ever” is a long time. Things could change. But right now, I have to say no. Realistically, it’s not a good fit for my writing process. And, I can’t deny I’m feeling very burned, so my trust level isn’t super high at the moment. I think serialized fiction is a cool thing, and for some people it works. But despite the good experience I had with Hometown Hearts, I’m waving goodbye to serialization for now and walking away.

And damned if I know what the ball of wax thing is about or where it comes from. LOL! My mom used to always say it. If you know it’s origin, feel free to let me know!

On a personal note to my DMR readers… I appreciate you more than you could possibly know, and I’m sorry you can’t finish reading the book as I write it. I’m sorry I had to make this decision. I hate having to let you down. That’s part of what held me back from removing it in May when I got the first notification. For those of you who’ve been there loyally for so long, when DMR is released, I will make sure each of you who wants one gets a copy! It’s the very least I can do.

Until then, feel free to follow me on Twitter if you don’t already. And stay tuned to my blog. I’m on a roll with writing life and industry-related posts, it seems, so I may be doing more. Plus, I will certainly post updates on Dark Magick here and let you know how things are progressing. Unlike early in the pandemic, when I couldn’t even consider doing it, now, writing is becoming my escape. And that’s a good thing, I think.

Please be safe out there, friends! Wear masks. Keep your distance. Hug your loved ones. And toss a coin to your Witcher. Come on, you get the reference, yes? If not, get thee to Netflix! And then toss a coin to your fave authors by buying their books or downloading them in a legit way from a library or a subscription service like Kindle Unlimited.

A couple of last things before I go… Here’s a cool article about the history of serialized novels if you’re interested. I had no idea some of these books were serialized! And, if you’re curious to know more about how plotters and pantsers work, what their writing processes are like, I wrote a blog post some time ago about that very thing and you can find it here.

Talk to you soon!

xoxox,
ML

Unless you’ve had your head stuck in the sand for the past couple of decades or you don’t read books at all, you’ve probably heard of ebook piracy.

Hell, you might be an ebook pirate. But I really, really hope you’re not.

For those of you who don’t know, ebook piracy is when a person (not the author) or a website (not the publisher’s or an authorized vendor’s) takes a copyrighted book and puts it up on the Internet so people can download it for free.

For those of you who have heard of ebook piracy, you might not know the intricacies of how piracy works, how it affects authors and publishers, and how damaging to the book industry (not to mention authors’ livelihoods and mental health) it is. So today I’m going to give you a crash course in Why You Should Not Be an Asshole and Why You Should Support Your Favorite Authors by Buying Their Books.

Let’s dive into the churning waters, shall we?

What’s the big deal about ebook piracy, you might ask? They’re just ebooks! Does it really matter if they’re available for free on the ‘net? Why do authors get so testy about getting paid for them (or not paid, as the case might be)? Aren’t authors rolling in money?

First… Authors rolling in money?! Hahahahaha!!!!

Okay, sorry, but… Hahahahahaha!!!!

Excuse me while I compose myself. Whew. It’s just, I’ve heard that tall tale before and it never fails to make me laugh. And also cry a little. Why? Keep reading and I’ll explain.

Let’s start with the basics. Isn’t an ebook just a digital file?

Technically, yes. Same as a downloaded song or a downloaded movie is a digital file. But that’s not all they are. When people refer to an ebook, most aren’t talking about a digital file format. They mean a BOOK, whether that be a self-help book, textbook, kid’s picture book, biography, or a novel. An ebook is a full-fledged book the same as a paperback or hardback or audiobook. It has the same content, the same time and energy put into it, and is the result of the same creative commitment. In the case of fiction, which is what I write, it means characters, a plot, a setting, with dialogue and exposition, maybe some adventure and romance, or horror and suspense. The book is a rich world all its own. Far more than *just* a digital file.

Because ebooks are books, it means they were created by awesome people called authors.

You know, the ones who consume massive quantities of caffeine, spend ridiculous amounts of time researching and making notes, lie awake at night trying to sort out pesky scene problems, and swear, sweat, and bleed to get words on the page. They are the same people who also sit at their computers (or iPads or spiral notebooks) day in, day out, missing meals with their families, squeezing in writing time during vacations, holiday gatherings, while waiting for their kids’ soccer practices, and their medical appointments because, like all jobs, writing requires time and commitment to do it well. And authors get testy over being paid because they put a ton of work into writing a book. Depending on how quickly or slowly an author writes, how long or short the piece is, and how tight a publisher or self-given deadline is, it can take anywhere from weeks to months to years to finish a book. That’s right…years. Some authors, even bestselling authors, can write only one book a year or one book every few years. One single book.

To better understand the time an author puts into writing, let’s do some math.

Come on, it won’t hurt you. I’ll do the calculations and all you have to do is follow along. For the purpose of this blog, we’re going to focus on fiction writing, but be aware that the process is virtually the same for nonfiction. So, let’s say, hypothetically, an author, let’s call them Taylor, actually takes a year to write one book. And let’s say, hypothetically, Taylor tries to keep to a regular-ish schedule, averaging 40 hours per week like most people working a full-time job. That shakes out to be 2080 hours over the course of the year. 2080 hours to write one book. And before you poo-poo it, let me assure you that I personally know authors who do exactly this. They only write one book a year, they treat it as a full-time job, and they’re at their desk 40 hours a week.

In the state of Colorado, where I live, minimum wage is $11.10 an hour. Anyone in Colorado who’s paid minimum wage would earn $444 per week/$23,088 per year. Before taxes of course. So if Taylor were getting paid minimum wage for their hours spent writing a book, this is what they’d earn for their time. BUT….the thing is, people who write for a living in areas other than book publishing don’t make minimum wage. According to the website Glassdoor.com, a technical writer in Denver, Colorado can expect to earn anywhere from $42,000-87,000 dollars per year. A medical writer in Denver can expect to make $50-80K. A science writer up to $100K. A journalist up to $71K. I’d go on, but I think you get the idea. People who work in the writing industry where they’re paid a regular salary (rather than being dependent on book royalties) earn considerably more than minimum wage. Plus, most probably have full benefits, including a 401K, paid time off, health insurance, etc., which all usually add up to significantly more than the raw salary alone.

Taylor, on the other hand, does NOT get paid regularly. There’s no guaranteed weekly or biweekly or monthly paycheck coming in to help Taylor pay rent or buy groceries. There are no medical or dental benefits. No paid time off. No retirement fund. So where does Taylor’s potential pay come from? As I suggested above, Taylor gets paid from royalties earned on book sales. If Taylor signs a contract with a publishing company, Taylor might be given what’s called an “advance.” Bestselling authors with a proven track record and a huge following can earn a massive advance. The thing is…the vast majority of authors are not bestsellers. Not even close. Even if an author writes for a big, well-known publishing house, if they’re a new author or they write in a niche genre or they have a so-so track record for previous sales, their advance is going to be toward the small side. Maybe $1000 or $5000 or, if they’re really lucky, $10,000 – $15,000. (If you’re interested, you can find a little more info here.) Advances are typically paid out in two or three or four payments. Probably part when the contract is signed, another part when the manuscript is turned in to the publisher, and/or at some stage of the editing. It can vary, but in whatever way the payments are broken up, the author typically receives all advance monies prior to publication.

Sounds great, right? Sure, but keep in mind that an advance is exactly that…an *advance.* It’s not free money. It’s not a bonus. It’s more like a loan. It’s an advance on future royalties based on how many copies of the book the publisher hopes will sell. This advance, like a loan, is supposed to help an author “get by” financially while they finish writing the book and/or until the book is published and begins to make sales. So, if Taylor’s publisher gives them a $10K advance, for our purposes and in order to keep it simple let’s say Taylor would get $5K when the contract is signed and $5K when the book is turned in to the editor. But before you get excited for Taylor about their $10K advance, keep a couple of things in mind. First, if Taylor has an agent, as many authors do, especially those who write for big New York publishing houses, that agent will automatically take a percentage share of all of Taylor’s earnings. A typical agent fee is 15%. So $1500 of Taylor’s advance will immediately go to their agent. Also, author earnings are taxable, so it’s not like Taylor’s going to pocket the full advance (what’s left after the agent cut). Taylor will have to pay taxes on it.

It often takes as long as a year (or sometimes a couple of years) from the time a book is turned in before it’s finally released. In Taylor’s case, a year passes by where the book goes through several rounds of edits, where cover art is created, a blurb is written, and all the usual pre-publication bits and bobs happen. During that year, remember, because of how it was paid out (half on signing, half on turning the book in) Taylor isn’t paid anything else. But, finally, it’s release day. Let’s say Taylor’s book comes out in January. Each publisher has its own timescale for paying royalties. Some might pay twice a year, some quarterly (every three months), some monthly. In Taylor’s case, we’re going to assume this publisher pays quarterly. So the publisher will track Taylor’s book sales from Jan, Feb, and Mar, and then will pay out first quarter royalties at a later day, maybe around the end of April or so. Let’s say Taylor earns $4000 in royalties that first quarter. That’s great. But Taylor won’t receive a dime because Taylor was already paid a year ago, when the publisher gave them an advance on royalties. Okay. Well, how about the second quarter of sales? Let’s say in the second quarter (April, May, Jun) Taylor earns $3000 in royalties (the book is no longer “new”…it’s been out a while and sales are already dwindling). Taylor still won’t see any money because the $4K they earned in the first quarter and the $3K they earned in the second quarter only amount to $7K total. And the publisher gave them $10K in advance. (The publisher doesn’t care that 15% went to Taylor’s agent, by the way. Taylor’s book still has to earn out the full $10K before any further royalties will be paid.) So, the third quarter rolls around and Taylor earns $1000 in royalties (because the book’s creeping up on nine months old at this point, and lots and lots of new books have come out since then, so Taylor’s book isn’t getting much attention). In the fourth quarter, Taylor only earns $500, bringing their total royalty earnings thus far to $8500. Meaning Taylor still hasn’t earned out the advance and it’s now been TWO YEARS since Taylor was last paid.

Some authors earn out their advance quickly, within the first royalty period or two, which is awesome. But many…don’t. It can take a while. Sometimes years. And, unfortunately, some authors never earn out their advance during the contract life of a book. If that happens, luckily an author is not required to pay back the advance, but it doesn’t bode well for their future with that publisher. A publisher would need to think long and hard when deciding if they wanted to invest in a second book with an author who didn’t even earn out their advance on the first book.

For the sake of simple illustration, let’s say Taylor’s book never fully earns out during the contract period. That means Taylor’s original $10,000 payment was all Taylor will receive. If we break it down, that also means Taylor earned a measly $4.80 per hour (remember, 2080 hours of writing) for their year of work on the book. That’s less than half of Colorado’s minimum wage. Not remotely enough to pay rent on even the cheapest studio apartment. Plus, Taylor received that $10K two or three or however many years ago. Hopefully Taylor has continued to write and during the year they waited for the first book to be published, they were busy writing a second book, which they then contracted, thereby earning another advance. But there are no guarantees. If the first book doesn’t sell fabulously, the publisher may not even contract the second book.

Now, let’s backtrack a little.

What if Taylor contracts that first book with a small press that doesn’t pay advances? It could still take six months to a year for the book to be released, and Taylor won’t make a penny until after the first sales are in. But small publishing companies, in general, also tend to have waaay less sales across all formats (print and ebook) than big publishers. Big publishers have the financial wherewithal to promote and distribute books much more widely than smaller pubs. Taylor’s book at a small press might only earn $3-4K over the course of its life. Or it could earn far less. But if Taylor did manage to pull in $4K in royalties at a small press, that’s what? Not even $2 per hour for the year’s work when Taylor wrote it. By the way, if Taylor decided to self-publish the book, it would be very similar to the timing and types of sales Taylor might have with a small press. Some indie books have amazing sales if the authors are particularly adept at promotion or the author has a lot of books and a large following. But most indie books earn fairly small sales.

Of course, many authors write more than one book per year. Some manage two or three a year with traditional publishers. That doesn’t automatically mean they make more money. Depending on the genre, they could have only small advances and/or low/moderate sales. A few authors, especially ones writing for small presses or who’re publishing independently and don’t have the long wait time between finished book and publication, can put out half a dozen or more books in a year. These prolific authors have the advantage of building sometimes phenomenal name recognition because they’re constantly having new releases. And even if each individual book doesn’t earn a lot of money, the authors get by due to having new releases so frequently. The bigger an author’s backlist is, typically the better they do financially by virtue of having a lot to offer readers. That said, even though a few authors make a considerable amount of money in self publishing, the vast, VAST majority of indie authors are lucky to earn enough in a month to buy their family a dinner out at Olive Garden. Many might only be able to afford one grande latte at Starbucks each month. Think I’m kidding? I’m really not.

Check out some statistics.

In January 2019 the Authors Guild posted an article containing the results of their 2018 author income survey. (You can read more about it here, via the New York Times) It was the largest survey of American authors ever done. They found that authors’ earnings had fallen to historic lows. The median author income for the year surveyed (2017) was $6080. This means that half of all authors surveyed made less than this. Even at the median, that’s roughly $507 a month, which is barely enough to feed a family of four on the skimpiest grocery plan. It doesn’t even come close to covering rent or utilities or health insurance or any of the other necessities people need to get by. The Guild’s survey also revealed that roughly 25% of published authors earned $0 in book-related income that year. What this means is that most authors who try to live on their book earnings alone are severely below the poverty line and must have a secondary source of income to survive. Many have full-time “day” jobs in addition to writing. Or they have a partner who earns enough to cover expenses. Or they work more than one job on the side. In any case, only a small percentage of published authors (whether traditionally pubbed with big houses, with small houses, or indie published) can actually make a living with their writing. It might surprise you to learn that the majority of authors published through traditional large houses, even with two or three books out each year, still have to have day jobs to supplement their income.

Where am I going with all this?

I’m simply making the point that only a tiny handful of published authors make enough money from their writing to live comfortably. Most of the rest of us are down in the trenches, getting dirty and sweaty, bleeding from our fingertips and souls, to create stories and we’re getting paid a shameful pittance for it. Most of us make far less than the typical minimum wage worker. Some of us make almost nothing at all.

So, what does this have to do with pirates?

Ah, the pirates. You see, pirates–whether we’re referring to historical ones or their modern-day counterparts–as a rule, are a greedy lot. They like to let others do the work, then they swoop in and steal it. Why? Because they can. Because it makes them feel special and powerful. Because they like getting shiny things for free. Because they feel they’re entitled to those shiny things, damn it. They don’t care about the hard work someone else put into building the treasure they steal, nor do they care who their actions hurt. They just want, and woe to anyone who gets in the way. And even if they get caught, they slink off like the slippery weasels they are, only to pop back up in some new hellhole, where they carry on with their thievery.

The scallywags who terrorized the high seas during the Golden Age of Piracy–Blackbeard, Anne Bonny, Calico Jack Rackham, Charles Vane–have been romanticized in modern tales and make many a romance reader or movie watcher swoon. The pirates are charming rogues we want to root for because underneath the thievery and mayhem we like to believe that they have good souls. That they always have honorable reasons for doing what they do. That they may steal, but they’re doing it because they’re secretly saving the world or saving a loved one. History, of course, says otherwise about most of the real pirates who existed back in the day. They were murderous, self-serving criminals known for their violence and cruelty.

Sadly, the book industry has its own brand of pirates. And like the romance and movie industry pirates, the book industry pirates love to spin the tale that they’re honorable. That they’re here to help. That they only have the best interest of readers at heart. They want you to believe they are in the right and are upstanding people who are entitled to the things they steal. Namely…ebooks. They take books that authors have devoted months or even years to writing, books authors have lost sleep over, fought through depression, anxiety, disabilities, personal tragedies, and grief to write, and they–there’s no pretty platitude for it–they STEAL the book and put it up on a torrent or pirate-book website where anyone and everyone can download it for free. Hundreds of times. Or thousands. Or tens of thousands. That’s right, you read that correctly. I have seen, with my own eyes, my OWN books on pirate sites that show they’ve been downloaded thousands of times.

Ebook pirates want you to believe they’re helping out the disadvantaged who can’t afford to buy books. They want you to believe they’re no different from libraries, offering copies for free because everyone should be allowed access to books. They want you to believe they don’t harm authors or publishers because publishers have gazillions of dollars, and the authors themselves, well they’re all making a fine living and aren’t going to miss the money from a few free downloads. They want you to believe they’re altruistic and are doing the world a favor. Hell, they even want you to believe they’re doing AUTHORS a favor by giving the world free access to an author’s book or books. “It helps you build name recognition, gets your book to people who might not otherwise have a chance to read it. See, it’s HELPING YOU, AUTHOR DEAR! It’s helping everyone because that’s what we do! We have good souls and we’re charming rogues who’re only trying to save the world!”

Sound familiar? Sound too good to be true? Almost like….um…yeah…fiction. Like the fictional pirates in romance and the movies. Unfortunately for e-pirates, this is real life and facts matter.

Let’s look at some of the myths revolving around ebook piracy and compare them with facts.

Myth: “I only download pirated copies of books because I’m poor and can’t afford to buy them.”

Fact: While this may be true in some cases, a study commissioned in 2016 by tech company Digimarc and conducted by Nielsen revealed that the average annual household income of those who downloaded the most pirated books was between $60,000-$99,000. (You can read more about this here.) Remember our writer friend Taylor? Taylor would be lucky to earn $10,000 in a year for their book. But people who make 6-10 times that amount claim they “can’t afford” to buy Taylor’s book. Not cool. Not cool at all. For those readers who truly are struggling and very much want to read an author’s book but legitimately can’t afford it, many authors (including me) will tell you to drop us a note and ask if we’d be willing to give you a free copy to read.

Myth: “Downloading books from a torrent or free site is no different from checking a book out from the library for free!”

Fact: Wrong again. Libraries PAY for every copy of a book they carry in their collections. Just like with print books, where the library buys one or several copies of a hardback or paperback, and then only one person at a time is allowed to check out a copy, ebooks are handled in a similar fashion, though it’s a bit more complicated. Most library systems have deals with publishers, whereby if a library wants to carry an ebook copy, they pay the publisher a licensing fee that allows them to offer that ebook for a certain period of time (a year or two in most cases) or for a certain number of circulations (say 25 or 50 checkouts). The ebook can usually only be loaned out to one library patron at a time, and when the licensing period is up, the library can no longer offer that ebook until they pay another licensing fee on it. (Here’s a good breakdown of how the publisher/library relationship works.) So, libraries pay publishers for the licensing rights to offer an ebook and the author receives royalties on those library sales. Piracy on the other hand…no publishers or authors are paid. Someone gets an ebook (maaaaaybe the original person buys it…or not), and they then upload it to dozens of torrent or pirate sites, where the book is then downloaded hundreds or thousands of times. The author receives not a dime from all those downloads.

Myth: “Pirating ebooks doesn’t hurt publishers or authors. Publishers make millions of dollars! And authors are doing just fine. They can afford it if a few people download their book for free!”

Fact: Um…did you read the opening half of this post? I think it says everything you need to know about how poor the vast majority of authors are. Very, very few are living large. Most can’t even pay their rent. Remember, the median income for a published author in the 2018 survey was only a little over $6000. As far as publishers… According to Forbes and data presented by the Authors Guild at Book Expo 2019, publishers lose $300 million dollars annually due to ebook piracy. Three. Hundred. MILLION. Dollars. “Good!” an ebook pirate might say. “We’re gonna sic it to the big guys!” The problem is, it’s not only the publisher losing money. If publishers don’t get paid, neither do authors. Author royalty rates vary widely depending on the book format and the publisher, but let’s use an average of 25% royalties on ebooks (Literary agent Mark Gottlieb quotes this amount in his blog post in early 2019. Of course, some publishers pay less, some small presses pay a fair amount more, but for our purposes let’s go with 25%). 25% of 300 million is still $75 MILLION dollars that would, on average, go to authors if the books weren’t being pirated. Ouch. Also…the implication that only a “few” people will download the free book on a pirate site is preposterous. As I said earlier, I’ve seen some of my own books downloaded thousands of times. Better known authors probably lose even more sales to pirates. Frankly, it’s sickening.

Myth: “By giving all these people access to your book for free, it helps you build name recognition, gets your book to people who otherwise might not ever have a chance to read it. We’re helping you, authors!”

Fact: When an author’s book is being downloaded hundreds or thousands of times, I mean, yeah…okay…it is giving readers exposure to the book. But the fallacy behind that statement is that it’s going to get readers excited about our books, and then, if they like this book, they’ll run right out and buy all the rest of our books in a totally legit way. It sounds great. Especially for a series. Put book 1 into thousands of readers’ devices for free, and then they’ll automatically go buy the rest of the books in the series, thereby earning the author fans for life and also getting them paid for all the rest of the books. However, and this is a huge however…that rarely happens. People who download and read pirated books pretty much make a lifestyle of it. They might say they’re in it to find new authors who they will then financially support. But in reality, they’re in it for free stuff. Pretty, shiny free stuff like any pirate. Many of these people download and read dozens of books each month. It’s a habit. It’s how they roll. And they’re quite happy getting all their reading material for free. So, while there might be occasional exceptions to the rule, where someone reads a pirate copy first and then goes shopping for more books by that author, it’s not the norm. On the website Goodereader, they ran a poll in 2018 asking 1800 readers where they acquired their ebooks. The results were eyepopping. The poll showed that 20.94% of readers regularly got books via piracy. That was a higher percentage than any other source. Amazon came in second with a not-particularly-close 17.61%. All other vendors were far down the list, with none of them over 10%. You can see the full results here. But take a moment to let that sink in. 1 out of every 5 readers routinely gets their books via piracy. And that’s if everyone who responded to the poll was being honest. It’s likely the number is higher in practice. Most people know downloading pirated copies is illegal, so they’re not always going to be eager, even on a poll, to admit they do it.

Oh, yeah, and let’s not forget this oldie but goodie…

Myth: “Ebooks should be cheap or free! After all, it costs almost nothing to make them compared to print books.”

Fact: Wrongedy, wrong, wrong, wrong. There’s so much wrong with this I’m not even sure where to start. Actually, no, I do know exactly where to start. With the author. Remember the author? The CREATOR of the story? The person who, once again I remind you, worked their ass off for weeks, months, YEARS to write the story? This is their intellectual property. They imagined it, then they took those fantastic head-visions and translated them into words, sentences, paragraphs, chapters, and eventually a fully written novel. How would you feel if you worked on a project for a YEAR for your place of business. Forty hours a week. For a full year. And you knew you weren’t going to get paid until the project was done, but your boss has been telling you how brilliant the work is, people are excited about it, and you know that year of work is going to be worth the wait for payment. But at the end of the year, you find out someone has stolen all of your work. Snatched it right out from under you. And they’ve given it out for free to all the consumers who, previously, had been excited to pay for it. Your boss says, “Sorry, we can’t pay you for a product that isn’t selling” “But it’s not my fault,” you say. “Someone stole it and gave it out for free.” Your boss says, “There’s nothing we can do, and by the way, since this product didn’t sell, we won’t be contracting with you to do the next project.” That would sting, huh? You’d feel angry, frustrated, betrayed, and you’d also be broke because you didn’t get paid for something that took you a year to make. Well, welcome to the world of authors whose books are pirated.

Next, let’s talk about the expenses a publisher incurs (or if a book is self published, the expense the AUTHOR incurs) prior to the book’s release. Editing is not cheap. Publishers have their own in-house editors who go over every inch of a novel and make is shine. These editors do not work for free. Indie authors have to find their own editors, but those editors do not work for free either. For an indie author it can cost anywhere from a few hundred dollars to several thousand dollars to get a book edited. Plus, there’s usually more than one round of edits. Some publishers put a book through two or three or four edits. Indie authors often use multiple editors as well. Each of those editors gets paid. Then there’s cover art. Cover artists have to be paid, whether they work in-house for a big publisher or they work freelance. This, again, can cost anywhere from hundreds of dollars to several thousand. All of these expenses must be paid for up front before the book ever sees the light of day. There are other expenses as well, but you get the picture. It doesn’t matter whether the book is in print format or digital…the primary outlay of money for any book, whether with a publisher or released independently by an author, is editing and cover art. The cost of printing for a paperback is negligible compared to these much larger expenses.

There you have it. Facts are a glorious thing. But the question now is, what in hell can be done about ebook piracy?

That, my friends, is a question authors and publishers have been trying to answer since ebooks first took off and became popular almost twenty years ago. And there is no easy answer. Trying to shut down, or even just get books removed from, a book piracy site is like playing Whack-A-Mole. Authors and publishers frequently find themselves beating one mole into a hole here, only to have it pop up over there, and there, and there. Book pirates are devious. And they’re adept at what they do. They’re used to being shut down today and opening up a whole new site tomorrow. If an author or publisher successfully gets books taken down from a site, the books go right back up somewhere else.

I have author friends who’ve spent full work weeks doing nothing else but tracking down sites that have pirated their books and attempting to get the books removed (weeks when they’re not writing new material because they’re too busy trying to stop people from stealing their previously written work). Some authors hire companies who claim to do the tracking and takedown for them. It’s an expense, honestly, most authors can’t afford, and there’s little proof it really works. Of course they’ll be partially successful, but, again, for every site from which they successfully take down books, ten new sites spring into existence. Many authors try not to think too hard about it because it’s so damned painful. Others authors have simply given up and left the business–they’ve gotten tired of fighting the battle, busting their asses to write books, only to have a skimpy handful of paying sales while the book they just released yesterday is already up on a dozen pirate sites where it’s been downloaded hundreds of times.

Just in the past week I’ve had two different author friends say to me, “I’m not sure why I bother anymore to release new books.” I’ve been there myself. I’ve recently had to make some tough decisions about my own work and how I present it due to piracy. It’s frustrating as hell. It’s heartbreaking. For some authors I think it’s safe to say it’s soul crushing.

If you’re a book pirate–someone who steals an author’s book and makes it available online as if YOU own it (or even worse, you’ve found a scam way to make money from it)–let me make this clear. You are not a charming rogue. You are not a hero. You’re a bald-faced thief and an asshole.

It’s my hope that by talking openly about ebook piracy, giving you some actual facts to chew on, making you aware of how this all works and how much ebook piracy hurts the industry overall but, more particularly, how it hurts authors, it might inspire some change. At the very least it might make those of you who download your books from pirate sites aware how your actions, whether intentional or not, are hurting your favorite authors. Because, sadly, if this kind of thievery continues, tomorrow or next month or next year, your favorite authors might no longer be writing books. And if you’re a stand-up honorable person and you only ever acquire your ebooks from a legal source (thank you!!!) maybe having more information might give you some tools to use so you can convince one or two of your friends who do read pirated copies to stand down.

As most authors have, I’ve spent years hurt, frustrated, and downright pissed off at ebook pirates. I’ve been told, “It’s inevitable.” “Pirates gonna pirate.” “Learn to live with it.’ “Try to see it as an advantage…that people want to read your books.” “Try not to think about it too much.” “It’s probably not hurting you as much as you think.” “Don’t let it get you down.”

To that I say a resounding…NO. Having that kind of attitude gives ebook pirates power. Over me, over all authors. And that’s exactly the problem. Staying quiet, “learning to live with it,” or making excuses for it is the same as condoning it. And I won’t do that. Piracy is a huge problem and I’m tired of seeing really excellent authors pack it in and leave the industry because they can no longer make any money or because they’ve been completely demoralized by greedy thieves who don’t give a crap about an author’s time or hard work. Authors have enough damn problems, including predatory publishers who can’t or won’t pay royalties on time (or at all), publishers and organizations who treat their diverse authors like shit, authors who plagiarize other authors, assholes who try to trademark commonly used terms, and so forth. No author deserves to have their work stolen. Because that’s what ebook piracy is–it’s stealing, plain and simple. And as with all theft, it’s illegal. Like, go-to-jail illegal.

So, please, let’s stand up together against this shitty practice. And if you love an author, please, please buy their books as you can afford to. Or if you can’t afford to buy individual books, then at least check the books out from a legitimate library. Or join a service like Kindle Unlimited, which allows you to pay $10 per month and read as many ebooks as you want.** Or drop your fave author a note and ask if they’d be willing to let you read the book in exchange for a review. Authors love reviews. I mean, we really, really do. And if you’re willing to leave a review, some authors would be delighted to send you a copy.

There are other options out there. Thievery doesn’t have to be one of them. Make a stand. Set an example. Talk to your friends.

Be a true hero and not a damned pirate.

** Please just be sure, if you do use a subscription service, that it’s legitimate because some ebook pirates have started running scam subscription sites where they make you pay for access, but the books you read are still stolen. This means the thief is now making money from you, when the publishers and authors still aren’t earning anything. So do your research before you sign up for a service.