I want to take a minute to clear a few things up. I published a post last night on piracy and .99 cent sales. You can read it here.
I've noticed that it has grabbed a lot of attention, both negative and positive.
Please let me explain what I meant, because I think a few things were taken wrong.
First, I sincerely apologize for using the Johnny Depp/Jack Sparrow image. I was trying to bring light to a topic that really hurts a lot of authors and bloggers. Johnny Depp photos can make anything in this world less serious. We're all too distracted staring at him to be upset. At least, I am. I've never used images (besides my own) in posts and didn't stop to think that it wasn't right. It was a completely dumb move on my part and I willing admit to being in the wrong. I removed the post and then republished it without the picture when I came home from work tonight.
Second, there has been a lot of comments about the mention of bloggers pirating books. That comes from several readers sending screen shots to some of my author friends, showing a few blogs requesting Kindle email addresses so they could send the books directly. (And later, the authors verified that they had not okayed this.) Teressa Mummert was one of them. You can read her post here. I am not accusing every blogger out there of pirating. 99.9% of bloggers are legit.
I have not had anyone come forward about my books being pirated by the blogs mentioned in the last few days. I wasn't making that personal. What I did state was this: "I've decided that for future blog tours, I will no longer have an open door policy. The last few tours I've ran, I've had several blogs signup, get the ARC, and never post a thing." That has happened to me personally, as well as other authors. That's why I said that from now on, I plan to contact bloggers I've worked with before and send in a request to see if they'd like to review future books instead of creating a Google doc for tours like I usually do.
Also, I posted this on the blog: "I hate to do this because I know there are A LOT of good blogs out there. Some of my best friends are bloggers that I've met since I started writing. But sadly, one person can ruin it for everyone."
I am not bashing bloggers. At all. I love bloggers and everything they do. Their dedication to books is mind blowing. I've met some incredible bloggers since I started writing and I'm proud to call them my friends.
Third, the part about .99 cent books. I was not telling anyone not to purchase .99 cent books. I was explaining why so many authors do not price them at that level. We put hundreds of dollars into a book before it's published and we want to at least break even. Authors aren't here to become millionaires. We write because we love it and it's a huge part of who we are.
Finally, I want to apologize if I came off as rude in the post. That was definitely not my intention. I'm sorry if I made some of you angry or if I made you think I was trying to make everyone look down on bloggers or books that are .99 cents. I can promise you that I would never, under any circumstances, do that. Authors, bloggers, and readers are a family. We all depend on each other to survive. Please never think that I don't respect bloggers. I do.
