PIRATES SUCK!

And so do the smugglers who supply them with stolen books!

I have been generous in giving away my books over the past three years ... probably more than I've sold.  I have a Google alert that notifies me if someone has mentioned my books or my name.

AFTER hearing news from one of my author friends that her book had been pirated, I got a Google notification.  Apparently, the pirates have sold over 600 downloads of Cicada alone.

On top of that, the alert also notified me of several people asking in various forums where they could get a free download Cicada, because they couldn't afford to purchase a copy. 

So, instead of them contacting me to request a copy, they stole one from me.  

Cicada took me a year to write.  Firefly took me nearly two years, and Monarch took me 14 months.  Despite what many readers think, most authors are not wealthy from their works.  We are normal folks with day jobs.  Our books are our passion.  And when they are stolen and sold by pirates, someone else is benefiting from our dream while we get nothing in return.

How did these ebooks find their way into the hands of pirates?  Who shared them with the criminals who would go on to make money from my creations?  I don't know.  I'm both enraged and saddened at the buzz I'm hearing about who the smugglers may be.  

And I'm rethinking a lot of things because of this.