F Paul Wilson and the Pirates

Public Domain Image by J.J. via Wikimedia Commons

F. Paul Wilson, author of the Repairman Jack novels, is writing a series of articles on his experiences with e-publishing.  The third and latest installment discusses his trouble with pirates, that is, BitTorrent buccaneers.  Titled "E-publishing, Part 3: E-looters 101," the piece is well worth reading.

Wilson posted his article to Byte on Feb. 7, 2012.  I wasn't aware of it when I wrote a review of his novel "The Fifth Harmonic" and published it on Triond on Feb. 9, 2012.  My article received about 25 times as many views as I expected.  At first I thought I was finally getting the recognition I deserve beyond the elite few who read my work regularly.  After all I polish my prose until it burns with a hard, gem-like flame.  Popularity, however,  is unlikely for me.  I am a page rank 0 writer.

I searched the web to see if anyone had linked to the article.  I found no link, but I found Wilson's piece in Byte.  After reading it I wondered if he hadn't sparked a scramble to find his pirated books and download them.  I suspect eager readers hungry for free downloads are drilling deep into the Google search results.  It's a more reasonable notion than the idea anyone wants to read my writing.  Triond is notorious for articles with links to pirated books, games and movies.  My review sits near the bottom on page four of the Goggle search results for "The Fifth Harmonic."  I noticed that many of the new hits on my articles were from China.  The facts point to piratical activity.

F. Paul Wilson has good reasons for his anger with digital pirates.  Nevertheless, his libertarian LaNague Federation novels won't see much circulation in China except as e-samizdat.  He won't make any money from it, but he may see his ideas spread.