Ahoy, mates! Avast and argh-h!

Here’s Wikipedia’s photo of “Cap’n Slappy” and “Ol’ Chumbucket”, dudes who founded International Talk like a Pirate Day in 1995 (!) They’re celebrating today – are you? Check their site: http://www.talklikeapirate.com/

Ready to rock your accent on September 19? There’s over 100 days to practice, so don’t slack. Put the task on your list. Buy an eye patch, britches, boots, and a wig and you’ll be set for Halloween!

I adore accents, especially emerging from a firebrand’s mouth. Remember Raylon and Boyd, the rivals of Justified?

Oh boy! Let’s return the accent to the point of this post:

I’m contemplating books for free, a marketing play many of my indie peers adopt. I’ve not entered this probable quagmire of unpromised return, though others swear by it – argh! During an online course I noted more than one savvy author state that, as a reader, they only ‘purchase’ free… Apparently a dedicated fanbase follows and eventually boosts sales…of the next book.

But I also heard another author report multiple piracy of a story she posted long ago… Argh! Who does this? An English student who copy-pastes to achieve an easy A? That’s not snowflake behavior, that’s entitlement, plagiary employed rather than work.

Whatever happened to Earn? is a driving theme of my work. What do you say, fellow Boomers? Did we do it to the kids, like Bannon postulates?

It’s suggested that one shouldn’t be morally outraged when intellectual property rights are abridged. The principle matters, but it might not adversely impact book sales… there is the magic of the cover that, in the case of STASHES, my first book, is a signed work of art.

Further, the real enemy of authors is obscurity, not piracy.

Where do you sit on this pot, Constant Reader? (Steven King’s term, how daring of me to ‘pirate’ his term) Has your book sold 10,000 copies? 50 – 500 to family and friends? What did you earn?

Have you given away, allowing readers to taketh for free? What treasures or ticking clocks hast thee beheld?