I love my readers. Really, I do. Even the ones with eye patches.
I’ve been known to download a thing or two without paying for it. I’ve got songs I’ve snagged because I bought the cassette two decades ago and feel entitled to own the material for life. I’ve “sampled” games and software before paying for them. I was a general scallywag when I was younger.
As I got older and started earning a paycheck . . . no, that’s not what happened. I could always afford these things. What happened is that I got lazy. The pain in the ass of finding a keygen and dealing with the viruses that came with pirated games or software, at some point the thrill of getting something for free wore off and I just wanted to spend the money, own the thing legally, be able to install updates and all that, and above all: support the people who code and create art and are trying to afford daycare for their kids.
When I became a content creator a few years ago, I used my own experiences as a guide. I wanted it to be easy as hell for other people to own my stuff. That meant never putting DRM on my e-books. This is the digital rights management protection that makes it difficult to convert my books, copy them around, all that stuff. I wanted to reward the buyer rather than worry about the pirate.
Some of my favorite game developers adopted this strategy a while back. No DRM at all, because they knew fans would reward them for making it easy to install and own the game. I always bought those games on the day of release. It was the model I wanted to emulate.
The funny thing is, it took the Wool explosion to even land me on pirate sites. I felt no small twinge of pride when I first saw that I was getting passed around by pirates. It’s a mark of desirability. And here’s the cool thing, tonight I got an e-mail from someone who stole the Omnibus, loved it, and sent me more than the retail price through Paypal. And they wanted to let me know that they couldn’t find FIRST SHIFT: LEGACY on any of the pirate sites. So I fired up Calibre, converted one of my .mobi Kindle files to .epub, and sent the pirate a copy.
How cool an exchange is that? There’s a ton of little software programs that I use daily, like VSO Resize and WinRar that I love to support. There’s probably a dozen or so apps like this that I’ve paid for after years of using them for free. Some have trial versions that allow the free use, but once I saw how much I relied on the thing, I wanted to support the creator.
Look, I’m just delighted to have readers. Especially readers as awesome as you all. People who counsel me when I’m down, who buy me a cup of joe because they think my prices are unreasonably low, who chime in on negative reviews to let trolls know that you aren’t imaginary, who order signed copies of books they’ve already read, who make this website an active, exciting place to visit, and who pay for the books they steal . . . because they liked them that much.
Arrgh, everyone. Arrrgh. I think that says it all.
It’s sometimes a confusing issue, but I think you’ve nailed it on the head. I couldn’t agree more:
Aye!
Vetty interesting …
A merry yarn mate
Wow, you just described by outlook on pirating. Its as if I was looking into a mirror (minus the content creation part). I was interested in your book because of the reviews and I bought them because they were so cheap. It was only after I tried converting them to DRM free mobi and got an error, that I learned you don’t even include DRM with the original! Other content creators and publishers should be more like you. =D
Thanks, Guy! I’ve tried to tell people who are looking for a place to buy the epub that they can just get the awesome Kindle version and use Calibre to convert it. Takes less than a minute.
I admire your stance on piracy and have matured pretty much the way you describe. I can afford content nowadays, so I take the easy route and pay for it.
I got to this page, though, by searching for “wool epub”, since my e-Reader of choice only has very basic support for mobi files. On your suggestion, I bought Wool Omnibus Edition through Amazon, and I already had Calibre. I then proceeded to spend a good hour or so trying to figure out how to download the Kindle file to convert it.
It looks like Amazon has recently made it more difficult to get at the actual files containing purchased books. The “Download & Transfer via USB” button mentioned on the Amazon site wasn’t there. I eventually ended up using a file manager app to locate and zip the book’s 4 files (inaccessible via USB) and email them to myself to convert via Calibre. Everything’s working great now, but it was pretty frustrating, took much longer than a minute, and required some technical knowledge.
I wanted to drop a note and mention this, because it sounds like you actively don’t want readers to have this experience.
Hmm. I haven’t tried handloading anything recently. Have you tried having Calibre send it using the “send to device” button? Calibre usually updates their program to keep things working.
I may have worded things poorly. Calibre worked great. The difficulty was actually getting the kindle eBook files to convert. It’s no longer easy to download the file(s) from Amazon. I had to download them to a device, locate them (4 files with obfuscated names in a private data directory that doesn’t show up via USB connection on the Nexus 7), and find a way to get them off of the device.
The upshot is that it’s tricky to convert Wool to ePub format (though worthwhile… great reads so far). It’d be awesome if there were a way to just buy it in that format. I was trying to do that when I found your post here.
Kobo sells DRM-free epubs of all my work. Might not be available, though, if you’re in the UK or Australia.
Thanks for the info. Just purchased on kobo. As a game designer, I have a similar opinion on pirates. Glad we both get to enjoy the fruit of your labor.
Seeing that you know a thing or two about the seven seas, you should write a pirate sci-fi tale for all us land lubber’s. I know u got a full plate, I just want u to write all the books I read. Color me greedy.
ARGH!!! And I mean that in a good way.
piraterobot, don’t distract him. He needs to finish the zombie book before he moves on to pirates. Which would be awesome.
Don’t forget ! Mark your calendars. Arrgh!
Funny, I generally have the reflex to search for pirate websites; reflex that I got as yours when I was a kid and had no money. But books, especially at this price was no-brainer! (So I bought them all btw to reach kinda normal price ^^)
Thanks for the book. It’s good already. Hope you enjoy the coffee in much the same way, albeit shorter.
Media distributors finally making buying books, movies etc easier will make pirating a lot less necessary. If only they would accept Paypal.
youre going to have a great time and meet wonderful people in NY. I wish I was closer so I could come meet you too! But many of us will be there in spirit. Regarding thepirate-ini of the world. You have exactly the right take, I think. Now if they would just share their millions with the content creators they make from selling ads and memberships… har, get it, member SHIPS. Argh back atcha.
drcpe.
I always pay for content. But even if I didn’t have moral qualms about stealing whispernet just makes downloading too damn conveinient to bother with all the piracy silliness.
I agree with Ryan.
Zombie Pirates!!!!
and I have actually bought multiple copies of Hugh’s stuff. That’s how much I like it!
kindle copies from amazon, solid copies from… well, here. I have 3 co-workers at the record store I work at, and currently 2 of them are reading wool. In fact, about 15 of my facebook friends are reading wool right now. When something is that good, I will not only pay for it, but be an unpaid publicist. sorry if I rambled a bit there, it’s also the long islands talking tonight. 
Got my omnibus in the mail today. Thanks again Hugh!
Hugh, I applaud your attitude on this subject and i have no doubt that this bread upon the water will return to you many times over. As a matter of fact, I’ve actually purchased EVERY thing that you’ve written, a function of my desire to quickly get into your catalog and of your reasonable pricing. Don’t get me wrong, I have sources and I’ve downloaded plenty for free… the way it usually works is that I DL to sample and then, eventually spend real money to support – you got ahead of that curve because of the tremendous buzz and your rock-bottom pricing. Kudos to you. My idol on this subject (all things DRM-related) Is Cory Doctorow. He has made all of his material available under the Creative Commons License and goes on at length about how positive it has been for him. I started by downloading his CCL works and then really wanting to repay him for his faithfulness to his readers – so I bought. Treating your biggest fans as criminals will never profit you. Basking in the light of free publicity and unabashed adoration, however, will take you to unimagined heights. So rock on Hugh, I salute you!
Thanks, John. I love what Cory does. He’s a shining example to all artists.
That was an interesting read. But in the end it all depends on how appreciative your readers (those, reading pirated books) are.. or maybe how educated. Not sure how strongly those two things correlate to each other.
I mostly support your attitude nonetheless! And thank you, very much, for the stories your shared with us!
Wow, this is so dead on. The part about slowly becoming too lazy to extensively pirate stuff as you got older and growing to appreciate the impact of monetary support on content creators (especially emerging ones, such as new authors and, say, Android application developers) struck close to home.
Your attitude is great and you should feel great.
I know this post is quite old, but I have to comment. I found the post by searching for a pirated copy of First Shift… It was one of the google search results – oh the irony. Full Disclosure: I pirated the Omnibus collection. However, your honest and sincere words moved me. Maybe I didn’t go as far as the gentleman in the story, but I did immediately delete my Omnibus copy… and purchased it from Amazon – along with First Shift. I’ve only read Wool 1 and part of 2, but I have been raving about them for days and it’s only right that I pay for such excellence… can’t wait to read the rest. Thanks for posting this… I wish more artists/content-creators were this honest with their fans.
I agree 100% with your comments on pirated stuff. I use a lot of free software such as Ubuntu Linux and all of the free software that comes with it. But my son has recommended your books. He is also an author, but just starting out; C.P.D.Harris, Bloodlust: A Gladiator’s Tale. Although he has also given his book away through ‘free days’ on Amazon, he is also very scrupulous about paying for stuff, so to honour him I will actually buy your ‘Wool Omnibus’. The price is too small to quibble.
All the best
George
I just finished Wool (omnibus), which I purchased from online from Barnes and Noble. I just wanted to let you know that it was one of the better books that I have read in awhile and I read a lot. It was literally impossible for me to put down. I am now going to read Legacy. I have never left a comment for an author before but I just wanted to let you know that I admire your talent. I’m also to lazy to be a pirate, plus I like to reward artists who share their ability and I want them to continue. Thank you.