Blog Archives

Hey everyone! I’m back home again after traveling to the wilds of, er…Omaha for a library visit (or two) with the awesome people there. Gordon and Lindsey were the two librarians who won a visit from me as part of the Sill Sucks to Be Me launch contest. I had a great time seeing the sites (like Old Town and the Henry Doorly Zoo) and we even took The Max to his very first hockey game (the Lancers, who, sadly, didn’t win). And, of course, the visits with the teens (and adults) who came out to see me was pure awesome too.

On Friday, I hung out with a bunch of teens and Gordon & Lindsey at the Bellevue Library and we all made a felt batty!! That was Gordon’s idea (he’s crafty!) and it was SO much fun. The Max (and the hubster) even got involved. The Max, in fact, made an entire army of bats AND had his first experience using scissors.

Making Bats (should've taken this pic before ppl started to leave, so this shot is missing some of the awesome bats)

On Saturday, I did the main author visit. I talked (for prolly too long), did Q&A kind of stuff, a writing workshop, and signed books. Everyone was great and we all (I think) had a lot of fun coming up with a new story (involving blue-haired mermen and a search for a long-lost parent) as part of the exercise. I hope everyone had as good of a time as I did.

Me, Gordon & Lindsey!

On Still Sucks to Be Me in Spanish!

Now, in other news, it seems that Still Sucks to Be Me is nearly here in the Spanish version! Looks like it is coming out on November 9th! Looks also like they changed the name up a bit to just Más Confesiones de Mina Smith (Vampiro Adolescente). And the cover is radically different than the first Spanish cover (Ser yo es un asco). Check it out…

I have to admit that my first reaction was pretty much just “Whoa!” and “Dude!” It’s just SO different. It’s cool and kind of reminds me of a Beautiful Creatures type of thing. What do you think? The only qualm I have is that it doesn’t look like a funny book. So I hope people don’t pick it up and then get a shock. Anyway, I can’t wait to see it in person!

On Piracy

And in final news…I actually got a nasty shock today. I’m signed up for Google Alerts (as are all authors, I’d wager) and got one this morning. I clicked through and found a download site with an illegal copy of Still Sucks to Be Me on it. This isn’t, honestly, that unusual (as depressing as that is) but what made this one particularly horrifying is that it showed the download count and OVER 20,000 COPIES HAD BEEN DOWNLOADED. On just this ONE website. And I know that it’s also out there on other sites. How many more pirated copies are out there?

I could cry.

To put that in perspective, the initial print run of Sucks to Be Me was around 20,000 copies. Actually, let me put this even more in perspective for you…my first statement for Still Sucks didn’t have 20,000 sales on it. I haven’t gotten my next statement yet (though I should soon–I get statements 4 times a year, unlike many authors who get them only twice or even just once), but it could conceivably be LESS than the number of copies that have been illegally downloaded (though I do hope it’s more!). I am not (at this time, though I certainly have aspirations) a NYT Bestselling Author. I do not sell millions of books. Every one of those pirated copies directly hurts me.

If those 20,000 people had actually bought my book I could just about guarantee you that I would be sitting here actually writing book #3 rather than waiting to see if my publisher will want it or not (note: I am not remotely upset with my publisher that I am still waiting to hear on whether they want book #3 or not. I know that this is a business. I know that the economy is tough. I know my editor would love to work with me on it. They just have to see if they are able to.).

So not only have those people potentially stolen a bunch of income from ME, they are also stealing from YOU. All of my awesome, incredibly wonderful fans (many of whom email me every week to ask when the third book will be out) may not get a third book. It won’t be because I didn’t want to write it.

Like I said, I could cry.

I know that there have been arguments made that people who illegally download a book aren’t the kind of people who would actually purchase one anyway, so it’s not “really” hurting authors. Well, maybe those people would have borrowed it from a library in times past, in which case, it would still be helping me rather than hurting me. And maybe some of them actually would have bought it. If even 10% of them had bought it instead of stolen it, it would have helped me out.

And I know I’ve been told that it’s useless to bother posting about this stuff (in fact, some people say you should just keep quiet), but my (probably naive) hope is that just one person may change their mind about illegally downloading something.

I can hope.

EDIT: Found this great post from another author of the costs of piracy to both authors and readers. Read it.