Irony Revisited: Stephen King, J.K. Rowling and the 10 most pirated ebooks of 2009

Sometimes I just want to throw my hands up in the air and give up. I’m talking about those publishers and authors who are paranoid about their books being pirated if they’re released as ebooks. This ’strategy’ is not very business smart. Why? Because when a publisher/author refuses to release a book in ebook format for fear of pirating, it gets pirated anyway. I’ve pointed this out in one of my most commented-on posts J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the definition of irony.

Now we can add Stephen King into the mix (yes, that Stephen King, the one who wrote an exclusive ebook for the new Kindle he helped promote). His newest novel ‘Under the Dome’ was released in ebook format several weeks after the print release of the book. Publishers didn’t want the lower ebook price to eat away at the higher hard cover price. Within days of the print release, pirated ebooks of ‘Under the Dome’ were circulating around the internet. In turn, this ate away at print and ebook sales.

You probably won’t find this to be very surprising, especially if you’ve been following Brad’s Reader or other ebook-related blogs. However, I did find something new that I thought I’d pass along. I came across this Teleread post Most Pirated Ebooks of 2009. From there, I was led to 10 most pirated ebooks from of 2009 on FreakBits. Judging by the list, publishers really have nothing to fear:

1. Kamasutra

2. Adobe Photoshop Secrets

3. The Complete Idiots Guide to Amazing Sex

4. The Lost Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci

5. Solar House: A Guide for the Solar Designer

6. Before Pornography: Erotic Writing in Early Modern England

7. Twilight – Complete Series

8. How to Get Anyone to Say Yes: The Art and the Craft

9. Nude Photography: The Art and Craft

10. Fix It – How To Do All Those Little Repair Jobs Around The Home

The theme of this list appears to be sex and nudity. Does this say anything about those who read ebooks? I’ll let you decide that for yourself. This list also tells me that publishers worrying about their ebook titles being pirated are probably worrying over nothing. The time and cost they spend to fight piracy is a waste.

Getting books in the hands of readers a bigger issue than piracy

Piracy tends to be a problem when consumers cannot get the books they want, in the format they want, when they want it. Like J.K. Rowling refusing to let her Harry Potter series be published as ebooks or Stephen King delaying the release of his novel for fear of diminishing print sales – both became targets for pirates because people wanted to read these novels as ebooks. If the publishers would have given consumers what they wanted, the piracy would have been greatly reduced.

Another part of the problem that publishers ignore (or seem to be ignoring) is that a book doesn’t already have to be in ebook format to be pirated. When the print books is released, people are using scanners and other technology to easily convert the printed page into a digital one.

There is not much stopping those who choose to pirate. It’s worth mentioning, however, that people who pirate books or download pirated ebooks are in the minority. Most prefer to buy their ebooks legally (I fall into this category) assuming it’s available at a reasonable price.

Again, the irony is killing me. The more publishers try to prevent piracy and keep print book profits up, the more those titles get ripped off. And, as the list of 10 most pirated books reveals, publishers are worrying over nothing.

Photo Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/valeriebb/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

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