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I’m sorry, I know someone probably already used this title. I couldn’t think of any dick jokes. For that matter, everyone loves ripping off Shakespeare for their titles (I could probably write an article on Smutwriters about everyone having Shakespearean puns as titles).
If you’re new in the self-publishing world, you’ve probably asked yourself this question. I remember for my very first story, the very first time I used KDP, I looked at that little box with it’s attached warning that once you make a choice, you can’t change your mind!
I didn’t hesitate though. I opted for DRM free, and I always will. The reality is, I’m way more likely to annoy a legitimate customer than prevent someone from pirating my book. I mean, c’mon, nerds are smart. They enjoy solving problems like this and then sharing their solutions with others. I remember at my husband’s job, they blocked Gmail. He immediately figured out a way around it, and discovered that now chat was enabled, so we could discuss the grocery list while when he had some downtime (I know, married life is sexy, calm down and take a cold shower).
There’s also the ubiquity of piracy. Like, if you asked me whether I pirated anything, I would probably say no. I mean, I don’t, do I? But we all have a few burned CDs around, we’ve probably watched some free hentai online, and probably watched a pirated movie at a friend’s house.
The thing with piracy, it kind of blends into sharing. I mean, I wouldn’t expect Charles Seife to get indignant about people lending his books around to friends. And it’s not a bad thing either. When my husband and I were first dating, he lent me Decoding the Universe which I loved. I’ve since bought it as a gift for family and friends. Of course, the modern version of CD is a zip-drive. You give your friends a bunch of MP3s, and if you’re like me you probably end up spending some money on some new music.
So, part of my stance about piracy is due to my natural attitude to shrug my shoulders, and think it’s really nothing to get my knickers in a twist about. Some people might not buy my work, but they probably wouldn’t have bought it anyways. Some other people might end up buying my work, which is awesome. If they pirate half of my work, and purchase half of it, that’s still money I wouldn’t have had otherwise.
The reality is, with places like Literotica, there’s tons of smut out there for free anyways, and some of it is surprisingly good. People will give away free awesome smut. That’s not going to stop people from buying smut though. And just because you might be able to pirate my work somewhere, it doesn’t mean people aren’t going to buy it.
Antoinette M-- 