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The Amazon Kindle War Against Piracy

(goodereader.com)
101 points kozmonaut | 2 comments | 27 Sep 25 06:02 UTC | HN request time: 0.398s | source
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buyucu ◴[27 Sep 25 07:57 UTC] No.45393947[source]▶
I just use libgen / Anna's Archive. No need to pay money to Amazon.
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ugjka ◴[27 Sep 25 08:08 UTC] No.45393995[source]▶
So how exactly pirating the books give money to the writers?
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shakna ◴[27 Sep 25 08:42 UTC] No.45394152[source]▶
The more people who pirate my books, the greater my sales across all platforms. That's not hyperboly - its something I track.

Individuals who pirate my books are also more likely to buy them in the future.

Piracy is just about accessibility and trust. If the person can't afford to take a chance, they pirate. And if you win them there, they'll buy.

(Nit: Zero of that applies to corps. Thanks Anthropic, Meta, and everyone else.)

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1. SCdF ◴[27 Sep 25 09:42 UTC] No.45394414[source]▶
I am guessing this works for you because more people reading = more people talking = more readers discovering and potential sales?

It would be interesting to see at what point of notoriety that is no longer true. Like is this still a factor for Stephen King, or at that point is it really just lost sales?

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2. shakna ◴[27 Sep 25 11:25 UTC] No.45394856[source]▶
That's my interpretation of it.

As for scale... There is only a tiny fraction of the industry that can support their life on writer's income, let alone be a household name.

It probably does become just lost sales at that point, but to reach that, you're probably already beyond most competitive forces, leaving only piracy around.