Piracy

 Sitrep:

  I've been struggling with my income for some time, it's dropped a lot. I thought it was due to a lack of advertising and other factors. I thought that by trying something new with the videos I'd get some attention for my books. It didn't do much. 

  I knew piracy was still an issue (I get reports every week on it) but it's gotten out of hand again. Paul pointed it out to me. I've had issues with them before, but it depressed me to see them still at it. It sent me into a funk and I had issues finishing Shelby 4 for a few days.

  One website in particular has stopped accepting take down requests from the law firm representing me and is blatantly giving away my books. All of them. They have multiple domains all over the world and no longer care if they are stealing a person's work. 

  That is a serious problem for me and others like me. Unlike some authors I don't write as a side business or hobby, this is my career. This is my only form of income. I don't have a publisher, I do it with the help of a couple of Betas, Rea my editor, and Goodlifeguide for formatting.

  Searching for a Needle just came out last month as you know. I looked at the stats. I sold 47 the first day, and then the stats dropped to 10 a day. The day it was pirated the sales dropped to 2-3 a day. 

  Usually I sell 300 copies of a new book a day, and that lasts for a couple of weeks. If it is a good book, a month. That money I get in 60 days and use to pay for editing and models and stuff, plus my usual taxes and bills. Usually I also sell 1 copy of each of my other books (minimum) per day. Those have been at or near zero for a while. Even books that came out this year are at zero sales.

  So, I did the math and noted that I'm effectively working for less than minimum wage at this point. I write 8-12 hours a day, 7 days a week until a book is done. I then spend 2-3 days on the cover art, then get caught up on various editing issues and other things. I then take a week off (yeah right! I'm always doing something!) and then dive into the next project.

  In the past 4-5 years I've seen my income drop by 2/3rds and my savings drop by 1/3rd in the past 3 years. That trend is accelerating so this is no longer a sustainable career long term.

So, what does that mean for the future? I'm not sure. 

Not anymore.

  I just finished Shelby 4 Parabellum, Shelby 5 Juggernaut has been blocked out, and 4 other books were added to the schedule. There are 21 books there. Honestly, I love to write! I do. I've been poking at stories in Multiverse 5 over the past 2 days, and floating story ideas for the next PRI and Bootstrap books. I've got all sorts of things to explore!

...

But, if the income isn't there, I need to think of something else, preferably before my savings run out.

  I am pretty frustrated. My family has suggested I explore other career options. Some have said I should stop cold turkey, they see me writing all the time, practically chained to my desk. (I admit, I don't have much of a life) 

  A half measure is that I start exploring other things as a part time business and ease into it. That is sorely tempting. I am a maker, I like making stuff. I have done some research before, it's... tricky.

So, that is what is going on for that front.

  If you want to help, please don't support the pirates! Do something about them! Report them, get others to do the same. This sucks!

  In other (better) news, Jethro 7 has been sent to Rea yesterday. The video is more or less done, I'm just waiting on my niece to provide her voice acting skills. I'm hoping we can release it a day or 2 before the book is published. I'll post here when we're close with the usual snippets.

  Shelby 4 as I mentioned is roughed out and in the hands of the Betas. The cover is done, I'm puttering around with adding various snippets and making corrections. 

  So, yeah, that's me. Fun.