The Darkside is comin', now nothin' is real. . .

[rolanni]

So, today's news from Google Alerts is that  a person of no melant'i, who goes by the screen-name "Hocham," asked in something called the mobilism forum for a copy of Necessity's Child by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller.  Hesheorit was willing to give 10WRZ$ for a copy, because they couldn't wait until February.  The request was posted at 1 p.m. yesterday.

At 3:20 p.m. yesterday, another person of no melant'i, this one hight "Mage" posted a link to a pirated copy of our novel, thus, one supposes, earning his 10WRZ$.

Of which we, the authors, receive not one cent, or WRZ$.  Worse, the pirated copy is now out on the web for even more persons of no melant'i, of which there appear to be quite a number, to download for free, or for the exchange of WRZ$.

May I just say that I am so very, very tired of having our work stolen?  I just, really, want to put my head down on the desk and weep.  Apparently "Hocham" is a fan of our work (I'm going by the "can't wait until February" aspect of hesheorit's post), and yet thinks it's PERFECTLY OK to steal from us.

What, I wonder, does "Hocham" think writers live on?  Mist and buttercups?  What, I wonder, will "Hocham" do for hesheorits next Liaden book if there is no next Liaden book?

We've talked about "numbers" here before.  If books don't do well for publishers -- if they don't "have numbers" -- series have been cancelled.  It can and does happen.

Will "Hocham" and "Mage" take responsibility for their actions?  Or will they just go on to their next "favorite author" and kill them, too?

Honestly, we don't need fans like this.

Authors write for a number of reasons -- and one of those reasons is to earn money.  If they don't earn money, they may continue to write, but those stories will never be published, so that's sort of a moot point.

Don't steal, for ghod's sake.  Is that so damned hard?  And don't download pirated books.

* * *

In other news, contracts arrived yesterday for the Carousel books and for the Five Book Liaden Universe® dash.  So, yanno, yay!

I hope we'll be able to see all of these published for y'all.