This particular article and the study it mentions are kinda dubious in conclusion. They just didn’t generate enough data, imo.
But, that’s whatever.
Anyone want some anecdotal shit followed by an opinion? If so, read on. If not, well, don’t.
So, I’m a writer. Not a successful one in the usual sense, but I have a pretty good sized body of work, and I actually have a few fans.
So, I got published years ago, back in the oughts. Didn’t sell for shit. Couldn’t even talk family into buying copies. Total flop, but part of that was the small publisher and lack of support marketing.
So, fast forward to maybe ten years ago? Maybe fifteen, can’t really recall. Point being that I was reworking the old books, writing new stuff, etc. My homie, Spider, wanted to read my stuff, so I just passed him epub versions. Dude moves them into his books folder that grts shared via soulseek.
Now, it was at least a decade since the published books were out. But. A few weeks after he tells me he “fucked up”, I start getting emails from people that actually read my shit, and wanted to read more.
Some of those people actually bought a different book via amazon. I got more sales to pirates than I ever got through normal methods.
My opinion? The zone in which piracy is going to hurt an author is narrow. When you’re small enough, even a 1% conversion of pirates to paying fans is awesome. And, when you’re big enough, even 1% loss of paying customers is a drop in the bucket you’ll never notice.
But somewhere in the middle, there’s a range where the lack of sales that would otherwise happen can be the difference between writing for a living, and not making a living at it.
But I’d still rather piracy exist, because I hold the same philosophy as that game dev that said culture shouldn’t only be available to those who can pay for it. That’s a paraphrase, and I can’t remember the guy’s name. But it’s the same reason I gave copies of my print books to libraries in the area I live. I would rather people be reading, have access to material, than make a little extra.
Fwiw, I barely made enough off of any of the traditional published books, or Amazon sales, to equal about two weeks pay at my job as a CNA. Total, over years lol. I made some damn good money doing custom fiction, and research & reporting back in the day, though.