Sweet, BitTorrent Users - Pirate My Book Please!
Written by enigmax on October 17, 2008Dan Morrill, Program Director at City University of Seattle, who has appeared in previous TorrentFreak articles, has written a book entitled “Selling Books On Amazon, Tips and Secrets”. In true BitTorrent style, he’s not selling his work, but asking people to please pirate it, courtesy of Mininova’s CDN.
Sweet…Pirate My Book Please
Guest post: Dan Morrill, Program Director at City University of Seattle
BitTorrent needs to do things to survive the lawsuit roiled atmosphere that is happening world wide. There is no argument; there is a lot of stuff on BitTorrent that literally belongs to someone else. BitTorrent however is part of the landscape; it is something that we all have to deal with, both in terms of a legitimate and non legitimate content distribution channel.
With the permission of my publisher, and in talking to some of the best people in the world when it comes to helping people generate buzz, I uploaded my book into BitTorrent to see what would happen. For me this is a marketing decision, and not something that I am overly worried about, because I am giving the eBook away for free anyways, this allows me to control the release and gather good stats on the process. Mininova offers that opportunity, so my marketing person and my publisher both agreed that this would be a grand experiment to see how well BitTorrent equates to additional sales if any.
I am not worried about the sales, what I am interested in is how the data is distributed using BitTorrent as a CDN (Content Distribution Network). For bands, for new publishers, for eBooks, using BitTorrent as a CDN makes sense, especially if you have marketing goals in mind. Does it matter if it generates additional sales? No not really. Does it matter if you want to build buzz around your book, definitely.
If you own the copyright, Mininova’s foray into using Bittorrent as a CDN can power a lot of good things. The biggest one is helping generate buzz, most small bands, most small publishers who are doing eBooks or music do not have a global network to distribute their goods. Access to the global network is going to be spotty; you have the choice of ITunes that has cross border licensing issues or Google searches, which are not always going to be effective. Here is how the data breaks out though:
The above picture is the global distribution channel for the book in the first 24 hours, with some 691 downloads. What makes me particularly happy is the picture below.
The reason this makes me happy is that Africa is one of those places where knowing how to run an ecommerce shop, or even in alliance with a larger ecommerce site can help a person raise themselves out of poverty. You can track all the stats on the book right here if you want to.
While the book is written in English, and aimed right at American business and business law, the basic principles apply universally. Have something that someone wants, and price in a range that people can afford to buy at. This works regardless of local or international borders, and seeing the book being downloaded in chronically economically depressed regions is very good to see.
The pie chart below also shows how the country distribution breaks out overall, while I am not surprised by the American stats, what is interesting to me is to see outside of the country. The book is not distributed globally; no one has global rights to the book outside of me. Seeing the UK, Canada, and Australia downloads coming in at 18.2% is also good. The book can help them out as well. India is the surprise at 5.2%.
Overall, with the number of downloads, this has been amazingly successful as a way to generate marketing buzz, and the potential to reach an international audience. The book is too pricy for people living on less than a dollar a day, but if sales should pick up internationally, or even locally that will be an interesting thing to see. Sales in the last 24 hours have remained the same as they have been since the book came out. It is at least a steady seller.
Overall I would have to rate my experience with Mininova over the last 24 hours as highly satisfying, and something that people who do not mind using BitTorrent to distribute their free eBook, or other digital good should check out. While it has yet to equate to sales, what is has done is build buzz, as a marketing process, this cannot be beat. As a survival mechanism for Mininova, this can be their saving reasoning, because they are offering a valuable service, not everyone has access to a CDN.
Download ‘Selling Books On Amazon, Tips and Secrets’ from Mininova, and please take the time to leave a comment for Dan.
Dan’s blog can be found here.
Previously: Anti-Pirates Wipe Out Movie and TV ‘Fansub’ Sites
Next: New Zealand First to Adopt 3-Strikes Law for Pirates
23 Responses
Heck! Here’s someone who is actually “with the times”! Maybe there’s hope yet!
Good job Mr.Morrill, I wish you all the success you deserve x 10!
Great work!
“please pirate it”
Would sound better if he said please share it.
Interesting idea… So how to you feel if someone who “pirates” your book (or partial content) at your invitation publishes and sells it? Did you just giveaway your rights?
The fact of the matter is that an ebook is much less satisfying to read than an actual paperback book. I can coast through a 300 page paperback in a few days of off and on reading. Reading a 300 page ebook would be killer on my eyes. As far as giving away ebooks vs games, music and movies is that there is a noticeable difference in quality in a PDF document so I can’t say there is much of a parallel when comparing it to other content. If I like a an ebook I’m more likely to buy the paperback that I would a movie or a game I got for free.
I love Bittorrent but I’m just being honest that it’s not an apt comparison.
I think this is more about looking at using Bittorrent as a Distribution Model. As opposed to using it as a method of downloading copyrighted works.
Every time someone does this it highlights the true power and legitimacy of P2P.
The more people who continue to use P2P as a legitimate way to distribute electronic material (Games, books, Music, etc…) for their own purposes is a good thing. In turn it continues to weaken the argument that P2P is just used by Pirates (arrrrrhhhh!).
My 2c.
I’ve downloaded it and I’ll keep seeding. The funny thing is I’ll probably never even read it but I like to support stuff like that. Torrent distribution ftw!
Ill download it as well, but never read it most likely. I am a voracious reader of both pdf and paperbooks, although I haven’t read any pdfs in a while. A couple of years ago, I downloaded Robert Jordans Wheel of Time series, Books 1-10 as a single pdf and read all 4,000+ pages in a month. This was me reading all day every day and I think I went a little bit insane afterwards
well he blocked anyone from calling him a tool.. hence the shirt.
See no one wants to do what hes doing because he said it right there.. hes not doing it for the money.
Hes doing it for the buzz, for the sheer sake of someone in africa reading it..
His palms arent itching although he wouldnt mind some greenbacks of course im sure.
Its safe to say that anyone who DOESNT do this, is greedy. You may think that thats a pretty outlandish statement, but if you think about it, its true. People dont want to share, they only want to sell.
The argument that people would probly not buy it anyway so no lost sale… doesnt work with them, since they rather you have nothing at all.
Sharing leads to happiness.
Selfishness leads to loneliness.
Well, it would have been much better if the author had chosen a Creative Commons license, instead of putting it on BitTorrent with the “all right reserved” statement. Anyway, seeding it and not only on BitTorrent… :)
sharing is caring.
Dan welcome to reality.
I’ll download and help distribute your book ! artists/ writers etc who use this technology deserve the attention because too many dont seem to get the nature of bit torrent
Free Distribution, Free Promotion, Free advertising.
I will support any artist who uses bit torrent to distribute their product for free. BTW a side note your statistic grabbing software isnt exactly accurate. most savvy bit torrent users are blocking that junk through different techniques.
If he is giving permission for his work to be shared, then it is NOT piracy. Just becuase you use torrents for distribution doesnt mean youre a pirate or even that you support illegal filesharing. It only means that you are aware that the technology can be used for legitimate purposes. If anything you’re an anti-pirate, using the technology for its original intended purpose.
Me hook is caught.
Can not turn ye page.
Argh!
Well i guess some people can read ebook for a long time. Im one of them. While it is easier to read a physical version there are many e book reader devices and even modern phones u can read these from.
Reading on the PC is a bit tougher but still possible. I do it a lot.
It just takes practice i guess
Great idea actually! I would do it too.
Greetz Bob - http://www.torrentbug.com
Bob; excellent move. This has to be the way for publishing to go. People will get it in time. The publishing business is one of the most conservative on Earth, but the way the booksellers are going, things have to change.
Downloads don’t hurt booksales any more than libraries do.
I wish you success.
really really great idea!
@2
yes it sounds way better that way.
please share it.
better than please pirate it.
There are good pirates and bad pirates you know.
Congrats, somehow you hit reddits front page :)
get it from here
http://gpirate.com/search?hl=en&gpirate=src&q=Selling+Books+On+Amazon%2C+Tips+and+Secrets&btnG=Search
oh well, i would never have bought the book, but since you’ve asked me to download it here it goes. I might have a look at the table of content and if I like it enough who knows, maybe I’ll buy it next time i’m in an airport. At least i’ll recognize the book and remember your name as the “cool writer dude who pirates his own book”. Nice marketing trick. Is it in the book or do I have to buy the hardcover second edition at a premium? :)
what are you doing Dan? releasing a book to become rich from sales or releasing a book for yourself because you believe what you say can change the world for the better?
that is the difference between Dan and the MAFIAA
the MAFIAA is only for profit
the author has some other idea
DROP THE MIDDLEMAN
http://www.h33t.com where there is more man than middle
Yeah, I recently put my own novel up on Mininova, Demonoid, and The Pirate Bay.
I figured that, if anything, it couldn’t hurt sales and, more likely, it might help me develop some kind of miniature fan base that actually gives a damn about my writing.
It has become a hell of a promotion tool, even if only 1 in 100 is going to read it and purchase it or even be interested in anything else you do.
But I guess every little bit helps, especially in such an oversaturated market.
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