Today I received a '94 pb copy of Creekers. I looked online to make sure it was the same version as the Necro edition, and during my search I encountered a whole shitload of illegal Ed ebooks. It made me angry. Grrr

????

Sorry. Did that make no sense? I blame nearly three years of sleep deprivation.

This is what I meant: I ordered a copy of Creekers from HPB marketplace. The version I received was a '94 pb that I'd never seen before (the cover is a bit lame) from Zebra. I wondered if it was the same edition as the Necro publication, so I searched online and right away it brought up a pirate site with Creekers as a free download - along with a whole load of other Ed Lee titles. I was angered. Then I crawled back under my rock.

I have seen Header in ebook format. Not sure how they do that. Dont wanna know. I will wait. But I guess more and more people are doing this. Putting ebooks out there. Not sure if its the full book or what the deal is.

What is this pirate site? Because I own the rights to most of Ed's back catalogue and I'd like to see what's going on.

Later
Dave B.
Necro Publications

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David G. Barnett
Necro Publications & Bedlam Press

Sentry Squeaky reporting for duty!

sending you a pm, Dave.

Thanks for the info--shit! I will put a CURSE on that website!

Edward Lee

It's really pretty easy to scan a book's pages and put them through some OCR text recognition software. Hell, I've done it with Japanese text, so I'm sure it's a piece of cake with English. Thing is, you have to "debind" the book first, in order to be able to scan the pages. So whoever runs that pirating site is a criminal in more than one sense. First and foremost he's cutting into Ed's profits but also he's tearing apart copies of those rare books! He should do time in the slammer just for that.

It's a bit torrent site. Basically someone bought the eBook, probably the Smashwords since Kindle and BN are encrypted and uploaded it for people to download. Pain in the ass but that's the world of modern media. Digital books are now subject to the same problems movies, software and music have been dealing with for a decade.

Later
Dave B.

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David G. Barnett
Necro Publications & Bedlam Press

Dave, thanks for the update. This should unfortunately come as no surprise but it further points out the need for those digital readers to just be careful where they buy their ebooks. I recently bought a NOOK but still prefer my limited edition Lee novels and collections over the digital stuff...however, some titles in digital that are hard to find elsewhere are very cool to have in that format. You're doing an awesome job, Dave, with Smashwords and Necro and I hope the success to continue...fuck that, it WILL!

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Visit my blog:
http://horrorgasms.blogspot.com/

Just saw something that surprised me. I knew it was coming. While still in early stages, Its gonna get cheaper, better, prob automated. I have mixed feelings.

http://www.amazon.com/Ion-ISC02-Documen ... 782&sr=8-1

Damn, I could actually use that for the older Ed Lee titles we're planning on getting out here soon. But there are services that are cheaper than buying this machine. I'd love to see how well it works.

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David G. Barnett
Necro Publications & Bedlam Press

Check you tube from time to time. Sure you will see it. What are you getting ready to put out there ???

Um No. Getting rid of what I would call the "digital lock" amazon and BN takes no effort. There is Not only a free easy to use program to convert digital books to whatever format you want, (calibre) there are plugins that are free you can add to calibre that will remove the Digital Lock. So in short. Trying to lock any ebook is a waste of time. Some smart person will find away around it. They try the same thing with PC games, Gates Tries it with windows, Both methods fail.

I know I have been on a rant the last few days. But this new release just frustrated me to no end. Its the Same attitude that Killed Music. The higher ups got to greedy. You put something out that is reasonable priced, In a format that fans want. They will buy it. People wanted digital music, it took them forever to figure out. Hey sell the masses stuff on ITUNES.

You put out a book like Bullet, People will simply put it in a format they want, and share it with others. You wait and see. This new book will hit torrent sites and other places Soon. Because once again the masses are ignored. You put out a book like header 2, of course people wanna read the first one. What do you think the are gonna do? Someone will scan it, Upload it.

Piracy is not hurting sales. The very last harry potter movie is all over the net and it made something like a billion dollars!! The Movie industry is killing the Movie Industry, How many remakes and reboots are they gonna make.

Announcements and intentions need to be made. Tell the fans whats coming out soon. What they can expect. What kind of prices they are gonna pay. I am NOT trying to be disrespectful, Not trying to hurt anyone's feelings, Or make anyone upset. But Someone is dropping the ball in a big way. Taking way to long to get stuff done. You yourself said its pretty cheap to put the stuff in ebook format. By waiting so long I bet three times of money has been lost in sales. People are simply in a age of they want it now. Not 6 months or a year down the road. People hear about how good a book is, They wanna Read it Now. If they cant, and want it bad enough. Well you know what happens.

Wow. You really have a large bee up your ass about this whole digital thing. If you think someone's going to upload Ed's new releases to a fileshare site as soon as they're out what the hell are you complaining about???? You'll be able to get it free and read it way before I will!

Oh look, a squirrel....

Thats Simple. I HATE piracy. I have all the respect in the world for Lee. I dont wanna steal it. I wanna buy it. Like most other people want to. But when cant buy it, then what? Hate to see Lee or His Publisher Loose money. There is no reason for it. Its not Piracy that is killing Publishers, Its there lack of actions, Its sitting on there hands and not offering the masses what they want.

Just makes me sad, They are simply doing the same thing the Record Industry did. In the end its gonna bite them. To many will loose there job. Rumor Has It J K Rollins is gonna self publish her own ebook stuff on amazon. Many are gonna start doing that. More Profit for the author. Its just sad many are gonna be out of work in the end. It dosent need to be that way.

IMHO, I love the ebooks for the simply reason they are way more affordable. I love though the feel of the paper, illustrations that don't come with the ebooks and just looking at them sitting on my shelf. I too suffer the instant gratification bug and really want them as soon as they are out in any format I can get them. I'm really grateful for Deadite Press putting out really cheap a lot of stuff that would cost me an arm and a leg. Who else can't wait for Mangled Meat!!

I read this awhile ago and it is somewhat interesting view of piracy. I don't think that piracy could ever really be stopped and worse would be someone putting out a bootleg hard edition, that I am lead to believe is the worse of the bunch.

Writer claims Piracy boosts sales

Strange enough it was someone sharing a copy of Bighead that got me spending my bucks on everything I could get my hands on! Though it sucks I bought most of the stuff through e-bay or abebooks, so Lee isn't getting any of the money except through the original sale. There just ain't nothing like the smell of that paper! Plus I love reading them on the subway and hearing someone beside me gasp as they decided to read along.

Tym has some very interesting things to say. It is good to hear from various viewpoints. His views may very well reflect the views of a great many people.
I have read J. A. Konrath's blog on occasion and have read many of his books. Funny guy. I am not going to weigh in on this discussion because I don't think my opinion counts for shit........ Ah hell, maybe I will. Here goes.
Ereader sales will not bite into Signed/Limited sales at all. S/L will always be a vast minority of overall readers. Release new books in every format at the same time.
There is a huge potential Ed Lee audience that hasn't discovered him yet.
Tym's point about Deadite releases is a tough one to discuss. Hey Tym, these books are re-releases of old material. Deadite probably hasn't been sold the digital rights. Ed probably holds them and will eventually market these stories digitally through Necro Publications.
Tym has a point about expectations. It is, you know, all about now. Immediate gratifacation. J "poor impulse control" Pokela