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When Writers Compete With Themselves

       Hey, everyone, and particularly those writers that read the blog. I had occasion yesterday to do a search of my own name and discovered that certain places on the web were offering my books as a free and paid download. Places that I didn't know existed.
     For instance, one return on the search was for "The Centaur Series" on megashares.com. Another return on the search was from an outfit called filestube. Another search return comes from firstload.com.
    To get to the actual web pages on some of these I guess you have to be signed in to a user account. On one of these sites, I clicked a box that stated 'report abuse'. I then read through a long statement of legalese designed to scare away complainers.
      I found it interesting that on one of the search results, it was specifically mentioned that it was a kindle edition. Fascinating. So, do they buy one ebook off Amazon and upload it to one of these sites, selling it and keeping the profits? Or post the books for free, then use them as a scam, a come-on to steal user data? The threats on the legalese statement are designed to make you wary of filing a complaint without a lawyer, knowing a certain percentage of folks don't have the money for a lawyer, so they go on their merry way.
    I read Mark Coker's posts, over on the Smashwords site, and I've heard him mention things of this nature, but it was an eye opener when I saw it with my name. In a very real way, it appears that I am competing...with myself.
   The bottom line of this story for those of you who write: do a search for yourself, you may find surprises.
    I'm CE Wills, and my books are really available in a lot of places.

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