The internet is full of free material. Some of it legitimate. Some is stolen and pirated. Everyone likes a free read, but the vast majority of readers do not want to rip off authors.

 How do you make sure the free reads you pick up are legitimate?

1)      Get it from the publisher. Many publishers, like www.loveyoudivine.com offer free reads as teasers and rewards for customers. Free stories picked up from publishing houses are a safe bet. In exchange for the free read, you might hear from the publisher with promotions, but you can always opt out of these.

2)     Get free reads direct from the author. Many authors give away examples of their work. They might do so on egroups, during chats, via forums. They might publish short stories on their homepage or blog. Ebooks are sometimes offered as prizes. If a story comes straight from the author, it’s going to be fine, however, ‘free’ does not mean ok to pass on. If you aren’t sure, check! Authors would rather be asked. Check that the name of the person offering is the same as the person who did the writing.

What are the warning signs that a site is offering pirated material?

1)      Posters of pirate material are often open about what they are doing. Motives vary. If they you they have a copy of someone’s book to share, it’s not legitimate. 

2)     If the name of the poster does not at all relate to the name of the author or publisher, be suspicious.

3)  If the focus of the site is giving away fiction by multiple authors from multiple publishing houses, be very cautious indeed.

There is a grey, hazy area on blogs and sites where it might not be immediately obvious if you are seeing a legitimate sight that an author has given material to, or a pirate site. If the site links back to author and publisher pages, the odds are it is legitimate. Equally if you got there from an author or publisher site, it’s going to be fine. Is the material offered in a way that supports the author? If it looks like a rip-off, it almost certainly is.

Piracy and book-theft hurts authors. Most writers are not wildly wealthy, but good writing depends on people being able to put it in the time. Authors need to eat too. It’s so easy online to pick up freebies without looking at the source. If you love an author’s work, please help by staying away from the pirate sites, and by letting authors and publishers know when you see them. We can get these sites taken down sometimes, and they only survive because enough people feel it is ok to support them.

There are a number of sites out there who legitimately sell ebooks on behalf of numerous publishers – kindle, ARE, Fictionwise and so forth. If you are in any doubt at all about the legitimacy of a site like this, then any publisher or author represented there would be happy to either reassure you, or thank you for alerting them to a problem – whichever turns out to be the case.

Pirate sites and forums can also be home to hackers. They are places where you run the risk of picking up viruses, spyware and such nasties – downloading a file is an act of trust, and when you take a file from a pirate site, you might well get all kinds of unpleasant things along with it.

And don’t forget to visit loveyoudivine for free and safe reads straight from the publisher.

The Devil’s Rose has set sail from the harbour of Loveyoudivine, ready to cause mayhem in the world!

Quite a few years ago, I heard a song about a cross dressing pirate woman, Mary Read. Her story caught my imagination. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Read will give you all the details. Raised as boy, she spent most of her life living as a man, and ended up on Captain Calico Jack Rackham’s ship with Anne Bonny. The song that inspired me isn’t available online but a visit to http://homepage.ntlworld.com/duncan.mcfarlane2/songs.htm will give you the lyrics – about a quarter of the way down, with an illustration of Mary flashing her tits in order to win a fight against another pirate! How can you resist a woman like that?

So I started researching pirates. While it’s fair to say that piracy was basically about stealing stuff, it turns out to be a rather more complex culture than you might think. Pirates tended not to harm crews who surrendered without a fight, and the whole idea of walking the plank is a fiction. Life on board was often less brutal than life on other ships. Escaping slaves would frequently join pirate ships because it was one of the few places they could go, and where they were often treated as equals. Race, gender and sexual preferences were not that big a deal to pirates – I think because they were so far beyond social norms anyway. They also had democracy – the Captain and Quartermaster were elected and could be un-elected! Major issues could be voted on by the entire crew. They were well ahead of their times!

There’s a wonderful tradition of pirate films and stories out there, and I’ll admit I grew up watching swashbuckling stuff… I even own a copy of ‘The Crimson Pirate’ which is very silly indeed. So when it came to writing, there was no way I could be too serious about my material. I know my reputation is more for gothic angst, dark fantasy and the such, but I’m playing this one for laughs. So there’s plenty of cross dressing, mistaken identity, verbal sparring, and other sillyness.

A short story, but a merry one (to sorely abuse that most famous of pirate soundbites).

Sign up for The Devil’s Rose, and meet the Archer siblings – playful, charismatic Stefan, and canny, sharp tongued Charlotte. They weren’t planning on a life of piracy, but having been kidnapped, it’s that, or a very long swim! Captain Claude, and Filthy Mia have designs on the pair, but nother ever goes quite to plan.

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