Over on the Tools of Change for Publishing blog, I’ve reprinted a great exchange from the Radar backchannel addressing an author’s concerns about seeing his books gain steam on PirateBay. Here’s Nat‘s take:
Fantastic! There’s absolutely nothing you can do about it, and unless you see sales dipping off then I don’t think there’s anything you *should* do about it. The HF books work really well as books, so at best the torrents act as advertisements for the superior print product (not often you can say that with a straight face). At worst most of your downloads are going to people who wouldn’t have bought the book at cover price and who will, if they enjoy it, rave about it to others. [emphasis added]
So long as the royalty checks are strong, take BitTorrent as a sign of success rather than a problem. A wise dog doesn’t let his fleas bother him.
Check out the full exchange here.