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#I'm an indie author who literally lost thousands in revenue last year to book thieves and I will never not be heated about this
breelandwalker · 9 months
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Witchcraft Books Aren't Free. Pay Your Writers.
Since it seems some people still need telling , this is your regularly-scheduled reminder that it’s not okay to illegally download and distribute free copies of recently-published books from a niche market where the authors depend directly on monthly royalties to pay their bills.
Books are a luxury. If you can’t afford a title, save your pennies or check out a copy from your local library. There are plenty of free resources and public domain texts available in the meantime.
It’s worth mentioning that plenty of authors in the witchcraft and pagan markets make a point of providing free resources and advice to the community on a regular basis, myself included. To take that information and then turn around and steal from us on top of it is not only petty, it’s cruel, especially considering the financial hardship we’re all facing in the current economy.
I see so many witches complaining about the lack of good books out there, but if authors aren't going to be paid for their labor, what motivation is there to write books for publication? Creative labor is still LABOR and writers should be properly paid for their published works, especially in limited markets like witchcraft, paganism, and occultism, where every single sale counts not only for paying the bills now, but for the possibility of being able to publish material in the future.
If you claim to be supporting the witchy community but you're doing so by distributing stolen digital copies of witchcraft books still under recent copyright, you are stabbing your fellow practitioners in the back. If you want to actually support the community, PAY THE WRITERS and encourage others to do the same.
Download overpriced textbooks and public domain titles, not witchcraft books.
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