Hellooo, everybody!
This video is gonna be different from my usual content. I feel like this topic is
really important to discuss especially because it has become a recurring issue
for a lot of writers. My book was pirated. Honestly, that in itself
is really common. I think all of my books have been pirated at this point. The difference is,
this time my book was pirated on Amazon. It's one thing to find your book on a pirating website.
It's a whole other thing to find your stolen book not only on a mainstream retailer site,
but the most popular booksellers site in the country, or potentially the world. It's scary to
have your work hijacked and sold through a major retailer, especially when it's being presented as
if you are the one selling it. Fortunately, I was able to get this book removed from Amazon,
but it took a lot of effort and help from my friends. I am making this video today to warn
readers about this problem and to help any writers who experience this down the line,
so they know how to get it taken care of. If you're worried about theft, that's what we're
talking about today and I hope my experience can be helpful for you. Let's get to it.
(The sound of a pen scratching. LOGO.)
A quick announcement, I am super honored to announce that the folks over at Fictionary have invited me to speak on
their platform. I will be giving a talk all about writing romance and fantasy. This is
a topic I am super passionate about, and excited to dive into. This talk is going down on Tuesday,
so if you wanna stop by, definitely do just that. I've got it linked below. Be there or be a pear.
Don't forget to subscribe to my channel. I post new videos on Wednesdays,
and if you wanna be alerted AS soon as I upload, you know what you gotta do, you gotta ring that
bell. It really helps me out with the YouTube algorithm. So yeah, get to it. Do it, do it,
do it. If you are looking for a step-by-step guide to writing your book from start to finish,
check out Shut Up and Write the Book. It is a number one bestseller. You can get it in ebook,
paperback, hardback, and audiobook, and it's available at all major retailers. I got it
linked below. If dark fantasy romance is more your vibe, check out the first two books in The
Savior Series, The Savior's Champion and The Savior’s Sister. And you definitely want to
check them out now because The Savior's Army, its sequel, is well on its way.
Now I am breaking down my experience of having my book pirated and sold,
so that hopefully it can help you if this ever happens to you.
Let's start with the basics. What is book pirating?
If you're a millennial, you'll probably remember platforms like Napster or Limewire,
where you could download free music. Book pirating is the same deal. It's websites that illegally
upload ebooks, usually PDFs, and then make them available for free download. You can usually tell
if a website is a pirating website, because it's not a major retailer, and also the books are free.
I am not going to list any examples of pirating sites, because I'm not trying to give them free
publicity. Obviously the appeal of downloading pirated content is that you get the book for
free. The negative side is you are supporting theft, obviously. Additionally, these PDFs are
usually of very poor quality. The formatting is off, sometimes the books are really tiny on the
page or much larger, they can be blurry, sometimes they're not compatible with certain e-readers, the
lines and spacing are usually totally fucked up. It's like downloading pirated movies. Sure you're
getting it for free, but quality is gonna be shit. A lot of writers take huge issue with pirating
sites for obvious reasons. Their books have been stolen, they're losing money. Some authors support
pirating sites because they believe that it gives them greater exposure, and thus helps
them attract more readers. I fall somewhere in the middle of these two camps. Is book pirating
on the surface fucked up? Absolutely it's hard to deny that. But a lot of these platforms are hosted
internationally, which makes it very difficult to bring forth any legal action. Additionally,
research shows that people who use these platforms to download free books, often come from one of two
camps. Number one is book lovers and buyers. A study from 2021 showed that people who download
pirated books actually buy more books than the average person. Not only that, but they're more
likely to buy books in multiple formats. So it's possible that after downloading your pirated book,
they may go ahead and buy it, which is a good thing. Some authors argue that this data is false
and misleading. I am honestly not well versed enough on the topic to tell you who's right and
who's wrong. I'm just relaying what I've read. And number two, we have people from the global south,
who don't have great access to books. Books are priced differently all over the world,
and in developing countries books can be insanely expensive. Because of this, for people in those
countries oftentimes pirated books are the only realistic option. In this case, the morality of
the situation is a gray area. Stolen work isn't great, but a single book costing fifty bucks isn't
great either. Coupling this with the fact that there's very little writers can do to press legal
action against pirating sites. When I find my work on a pirating site, I just think, “Well, shit.”
It's not my favorite thing, but I'm not gonna lose sleep over it. But as I mentioned at the
start of this video, this particular experience I'm about to share was very different than the
norm. And I definitely lost sleep over it, a lot of sleep. Some background to set the stage. In
August of 2015, I published my debut novel, Eve: The Awakening. In 2020, I unlisted the novel,
which means I removed it from publication and distribution. I did this for several reasons, but
the most prominent reason was that things happened in my life that made it really hard for me to
continue working on that series in particular. Thus, it seemed really unfair to readers to have
book one available for distribution, when there was no promise or guarantee that there would
ever be a book two or three. I didn't wanna be a dick tease to my readers, so I decided
to unpublish Eve for the foreseeable future, at least until I decided to work on the series again,
if ever. Because of this for several years now, you will only see Eve available for purchase on
Amazon as a used paperback. Now let’s make one thing clear. People are entitled to sell their
used books. I have no control over the price they choose for that book nor do I receive any
of the profits. That's perfectly fine and legal. These people bought this book from me, it is now
their property, and they can resell it if they choose to. But you will not see a used ebook in
distribution, because there is no such thing as a used ebook. It is a digital commodity. But all
that changed in March. Last month I received an email from a loyal fan who excitedly told me that
they were able to purchase an ebook copy of Eve: The Awakening. My initial reaction was “Huh? Eve
isn't available in ebook. It was unlisted three years ago.” I checked Amazon and lo and behold,
the Eve ebook was available for distribution. And not only that, it was priced three times
higher than its actual ebook list price. What! At first, I assumed it was a glitch on Amazon's part,
so I checked my Amazon KDP account. Amazon KDP is the platform that authors use in order to
publish their books to Amazon. I checked my account thinking maybe Eve was accidentally
redistributed. Except it wasn't, it was still very much unlisted. So I sent to Amazon KDP an
email asking them what the fuck was going on? Why is my ebook live and available for $10, when it
very clearly shows up as unlisted in my account? While I waited for a response, I went back to the
Eve sale page to do some investigating. Under the publication information, it very clearly
stated that Eve was first published in August of 2015. It also stated that it was republished in
March of 2023, something I never approved. I also pulled up the look inside feature,
so I could see the book itself. The format was a hot mess. The lines were jumbled, all of the
chapters just ran through together, it was just an absolute dumpster fire. It became very clear that
this was a stolen version of Eve downloaded from a pirating site, and then re-uploaded to Amazon
for profit. Eventually, I heard back from Amazon KDP and they confirmed this. They let me know that
the Eve ebook was uploaded from a different Amazon KDP account other than mine, and thus if they were
going to remove it, they had to hear from THAT account holder. Can you fucking imagine? In what
universe is a pirate going to out themselves for having stolen someone else's property?
Yarr, matey! I plundered this book to make some booty. Please remove
it from Amazon as I willingly walk off the plank.
At this point I'm distraught, because not only is Amazon KDP proving themselves to be absolutely
worthless. But because this pirating situation is different than the norm. First of all, my
book is not being distributed for free. They are selling it for $10. They are profiting off of my
copyrighted work that they didn’t contribute to in the slightest. But the most frightening part about
this whole ordeal was that the Amazon page for the Eve ebook was linked directly to me. It wasn't
linked under a third-party seller. I was listed as the author. That meant that any reader who went to
this page would think that I was the one selling this book. They would be spending a ridiculously
high price on an ebook, all the while thinking they're supporting me. That's exactly what
happened with the person who emailed me saying that they bought this book, they genuinely thought
they're supporting me, and they didn't second guess the $10 price. And why would they when it’s
linked to my name. On a pirating website, you know that the copies are pirated, you know that you are
not directly supporting that author. But in this case that detail is completely hidden. Back to
the person who had emailed me, I immediately let them know that unfortunately they had purchased
a pirated copy of the book, the format was a mess, and they would not enjoy their reading experience.
I asked them to please return the book while I worked on having it removed from Amazon. They were
incredibly kind and understanding they returned their copy of Eve and then went on to purchase The
Savior's Champion and The Savior’s Sister. They literally got two books for the price of that
one pirated copy. But I still had to figure out a way to get this copy removed from Amazon, and the
people that KDP were not helping at all. While I was freaking out, I was so fortunate because
my good friend Iona Wayland was doing research on my behalf. The whole time this was going on
my partner Cliff was going through a major health crisis. He suffers from a chronic pain condition
called CRPS, and he was having a major flare up. Basically, I was managing two debacles that once,
and Iona stepped in to help take the load off. Through her research she discovered that
unfortunately this issue has become prevalent in the writing community. Pirates are upping their
game, creating Amazon KDP accounts, and selling stolen PDFs. I am not the first person this has
happened to, and honestly that is scary. She also learned that the way to combat this issue is by
filing an infringement report on Amazon. This is done outside of the Amazon KDP network which is
why the KDP team couldn't help me with shit. Thanks to my hero Iona, I was able to file an
infringement report, which took quite a few steps. You have to describe the issue, share the pirated
books identification number, and offer a bunch of proof that you're the one who published it
first. It's a hot mess. But after over ten emails going back and forth with the Amazon infringement
department, I was finally able to have the pirated ebook of Eve removed from Amazon, at least for
now. So why am I sharing this story with you? Mostly to spread awareness. Like Iona learned,
this is apparently a thing that has been happening more and more frequently. And while I was able to
get my pirated copy of Eve removed from Amazon, I am positive that that was not the only pirated
book that asshole was selling. They probably have countless pirated books attached to their
Amazon KDP account, and I'm pretty confident that Amazon didn't do shit in removing any of the other
books. So writers if this happens to you, file an infringement report. I have a direct link to
the infringement center listed in the description below. And readers, if a particular book has been
unlisted or unpublished, but you see it available in ebook format on Amazon, let the author know.
Again, paperback used copies are fair game, but this is not the same thing. An ebook of an
unpublished book is very suspect. So at the very least let the author know so they can tell you
whether or not it's legit. And last but not least, a note to my readers. I know you've been asking me
about Eve: The Awakening, and unfortunately it is unpublished. It was a very difficult decision
I had to make based on multiple factors, but if you see its ebook available on Amazon, that is a
pirate. Please don't buy it and let me know so I can take the appropriate action. I hope this
video was very educational for you, and I hope I don't have to deal with this bullshit ever again.
Don't forget to subscribe to my channel. I post new videos on Wednesdays and if you wanna
be alerted AS soon as I upload, ring that bell. Shut Up and Write the Book is available in ebook,
paperback, hardback and audiobook at all major retailers. So if you need a
step-by-step guide to writing your book from plan to print, check it out. I got
it linked below. The Savior's Champion and The Savior’s Sister are available in ebook,
paperback, hardback and audiobook as well, and they are also available at all major
retailers. And you definitely wanna check ‘em out because The Savior's Army is on its way!
And be sure to follow me on social media. I'm on Instagram,
TikTok, Facebook and BookBub. And of course you can tweet me @JennaMoreci!
Yaaarr!
(Female Voice) Hey there! This is Lisa Cordileone, narrator for Shut Up and Write the Book by Jenna
Moreci. Be sure to subscribe to Jenna’s channel and ring the bell! That way you’re
alerted as soon as she posts a new video. Trust me, you don’t wanna miss this stuff.