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The Amazon Kindle War Against Piracy

(goodereader.com)
101 points kozmonaut | 3 comments | 27 Sep 25 06:02 UTC | HN request time: 0s | 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. gruez ◴[27 Sep 25 10:34 UTC] No.45394627{3}[source]▶
>The more people who pirate my books, the greater my sales across all platforms.

You think more piracy leads to more sales, but surely this is correlation, not causation? It seems far more plausible that popular books get pirated and bought more, hence the correlation.

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2. thaumasiotes ◴[27 Sep 25 10:54 UTC] No.45394701[source]▶
It could be pure correlation if you, personally, are a household name. If you're secretly Stephen King commenting on Hacker News, then yes, exposure isn't going to help you.

But if you're not Stephen King, then more piracy is going to make a direct, causal, positive impact on your sales.

3. shakna ◴[27 Sep 25 11:18 UTC] No.45394820[source]▶
I mostly sell by word of mouth. You've certainly never heard of my books before. I am in no way "popular".

Piracy creates an invested reader. Its not much different than games selling by offering free demos.

There is a _causation_ there, because the reader likely never would have discovered me, otherwise.