I got this e-mail from a reader. She had asked someone on a book-pirate website to please post Sexiest Man Alive. This site is kinda like Napster, but for books. Someone posted Sexiest Man Alive as an e-book, and over 200 people downloaded it. When I asked this woman in an e-mail to please not steal from me again this was her reply:

please do understand i never wanted to steal from you besides i requested the book from someone i'm sorry if it hurt your sentiments.please be assured it won't happen again i am extremely sorry. i can't help but mention it i loved your book.i am from india so i could not find it in bookstores so i thought i'll request it.i apologize.



Oh dear. I truly believe that she is earnest. I don't think she has any idea she did anything wrong. After all, she trades paperbacks. Why not trade e-books? If a "friend" (a stranger on the Internet) offers her the book, isn't it just like trading paperbacks?

NO!!!! Over 200 people downloaded my book on this one site alone. These sites are everywhere. The numbers are limitless: sell one e-book for real; have tens of thousands traded for free. Really. I was reading an e-mail exchange over at SmartBitchesTrashyBooks that Nora Roberts got involved in and she figured out she was losing at least $10,000 in royalties from one book on one pirate site alone.

Don't feel sorry for Nora? Well, okay. But feel sorry for yourself if you're her "fan." If people keep stealing her books, why would she write new ones? For "fans" to steal?

For me, it's not the money so much, but the need to boost my sales. If Sexiest Man Alive sells even a few hundred more copies than Make Me a Match, my publisher is happy. If it sells a few hundred less, I'm toast. Like my books? Too bad, there might not be any more. It's simple math for the publishers: sell more or perish. Readers of illegally downloaded e-books don't get this. Even the sweet woman who wrote me the e-mail above. She could buy my book on-line, even from India. She chose to steal it. It was her choice and it affects me greatly.

To make this even more complicated, romance authors on SmartBitches and on my Grand Central Publishing private e-mail loop were chiming in to say that maybe people posting a book free for anyone to download is more like publicity. Anyway, the argument goes, why fight it as it can't be stopped?

Their logic is that it's like the music business: friends (and Internet "friends") post free music for anyone to illegally download; people steal it; hear it; like it; and then buy "clean" copies or whole albums or go to shows and buy t-shirts.

Thing is, the music business is different. You listen to songs over and over. Most books, you only read once. Plus, there's no single/album formula with a book. There's the book and they've stolen it already, so they're done. Plus, musicians are finding that even if their sales numbers on singles is up, CD sales are way, way down. Even for the huge guys. These artists are so desperate to make up the money, that even music companies are trying to get a cut of touring money, since that's the only place to truly make money anymore.

I don't think my tour is gonna pull in the big bucks. Even if I sing. Okay, especially if I sing.

A little education for readers who don't understand: it's illegal to download an e-book someone else has bought and posted to give away, because when you download my book, you are copying it. The original copy on-line doesn't go away like it would if you were borrowing a paperback from a friend. Copying my book is ILLEGAL. That's what copyright means: You can't copy it. You can't download a copy of my book unless you pay my publisher.

But to readers who don't care about breaking the law, I'd like to say this: Please don't steal from me. I am not rich. I have a day job. I am struggling to make it as a writer. I'm not even close to making enough money to make writing anything more than a low-paying hobby. If you like my books, you have to buy them. Because soon, if you keep stealing them, they will be gone.