It doesn’t look like the e-book industry will be applying to the government for bailout any time soon. The e-book sales statistics for July 2009 have been released by the Association of American Publishers (AAP), which collects them in conjunction with the International Digital Publishing Forum, and the growth from last July to this is jaw-dropping. Trade eBook sales were $16,200,000 for July, more than tripling July 2008′s $5,200,000. July ’09 was also the biggest single month in e-book history. The previous record holder? One month earlier! June ’09 was $14,000,000.

Think it’s going to top out soon? Not according to market research firm iSuppi. They predict that 2009 global sales of e-book reading devices will quintuple over those of 2008, from about 1 million to over 5 million. More than half of those sales will be made in North America.

As for IDPF’s figures, the true sales numbers may be even higher than the above chart indicates. Michael Smith, Executive Director of IDPF (International Digital Publishing Forum) reminds us that:

* This data represents United States revenues only
* This data represents only trade eBook sales via wholesale channels. Retail numbers may be as much as double the above figures due to industry wholesale discounts.
* This data represents only data submitted from approx. 12 to 15 trade publishers
* This data does not include library, educational or professional electronic sales
* The numbers reflect the wholesale revenues of publishers
* The definition used for reporting electronic book sales is “All books delivered electronically over the Internet OR to hand-held reading devices”
* The IDPF and AAP began collecting data together starting in Q1 2006

Richard Curtis

Is your name John Doe and are you harboring a computer that is conducting criminal activities? Think twice before you swear “no” on a stack of Bibles.

As Saul Hansel of the New York Times explains, “These days, hackers infect hundreds of thousands of computers with software that monitors their users, waiting for them to log onto a bank account. The nasty program installed on the computers of victims sends their bank IDs and passwords back to the hackers, who use them to log into the bank accounts.” Once they have someone’s password it’s just a few keystrokes before funds have been transferred.

Who are these hackers and what do they know? All you have to do is ask the banks whose servers have been penetrated. Easy, right? Easy wrong! “A number of laws protect the confidentiality of bank customers,” says Hansel. “Moreover, the banking industry has historically avoided much discussion about fraud cases. Banks argue they do not want to give away the techniques used by criminals or those meant to thwart them. They also want to preserve the confidence of their customers.”

Now what? Well, you have to sue the bank. And one way to get around those confidentiality laws is the John Doe lawsuit. “John Doe” is the name used in a lawsuit when the plaintiff doesn’t know the real name of the defendants. One company that is attempting to get hold of bank information about hacker break-ins is employing the old John Doe technique.

Though the targets of the suit are banks, the same legal ploy has been used to gain access to personal computers in order to catch spammers, music pirates and illegal file-sharers. That means YOU, John Doe! So, keep your hands where we can see them and don’t make any sudden moves – my partner is standing behind you and he’s aiming a subpoena at your head.

You can read Hansel’s article in full here.

Richard Curtis

Every Blogger owes a debt of gratitude to newspapers and magazines. This posting relies on original research and reporting performed by the New York Times.

An editor told me this story and swore it was true:

Years ago he was hired by a rich and successful publisher. When he walked for the first time into the president’s office he observed a teetering pile of royalty statements and checks addressed to authors. Some of the checks were dated several years earlier.

The publisher followed his gaze. “You’re wondering about these?”

“Yes. It looks as if they’ve never been mailed out.

“That’s right. And would you like to know why?”

“Sure.”

“I’m waiting for the authors to sue me. When they sue me, I’ll mail them out.”

I was reminded of this story when I read today that an author had launched a lawsuit against Scribd, the startup document-sharing website that claims 50 million monthly users. After coming under fire for its failure to screen submissions, it made an effort to clean up its act and began turning away content of suspicious origins. Some publishers like Simon & Schuster have expressed sufficient trust to upload some of its books or excerpts.

According to cnet News, the author, Elaine Scott, “found on Scribd in July an unauthorized copy of one of her titles, ‘Stocks and Bonds: Profits and Losses, A Quick Look at Financial Markets.’” Describing Scribd as “the YouTube for documents,”her attorneys claimed that the book had been downloaded more than 100 times from Scribd.” They went on to say that Scribd seems to believe that “any business may misappropriate and then publish intellectual property, as long as it ceases to use a stolen work when an author complains.”

There is some resonance with the current Google Settlement dispute in that Google wants to digitize books that have been “orphaned” – that is, have not been claimed by the legimate copyright owners.

Read details here
For the complete court filing, click here.

Richard Curtis

Army Wives is in its third hit season on Lifetime, and that reminds us that we have a wonderful novel about servicemen and the women who loved them – or just spent a few hours with them to fill their loneliness.

In Stage Door Canteen Maggie Davis has reconstructed the famous World War II recreation center where a furloughed serviceman could set his cares aside for a few hours and dance with a pretty girl before returning for duty. Sometimes stars of stage and screen would offer to serve as hostesses, giving GI’s not just a dance but the memory of a lifetime.

In this E-Reads Original, Maggie Davis has created a cast of men and women unknown to each other, whose lives intermingle on a dance floor illuminated by the fires of war. When a man stepped out on that floor he didn’t know if he’d be holding in his arm the girl next door or an exquisite movie star. Or a German spy…

If you like Stage Door Canteen you will certainly enjoy other E-Reads books by Maggie Davis.

– Richard Curtis

In judging people it’s often helpful to divide them into dog people or cat people. Can you characterize corporations the same way?

Since you probably haven’t read Google’s Code of Conduct you will not be aware that Google is a dog company. The preface to the Code’s dog policy states,”Google’s affection for our canine friends is an integral facet of our corporate culture.We like cats, but we’re a dog company, so as a general rule we feel cats visiting our offices would be fairly stressed out.”

Though you could argue for hours about the natures of cats and dogs, animal-lovers instinctively understand what Google means when it says it’s a dog company. Most of us think of domesticated dogs as friendly, sociable, trustworthy and happy to serve mankind. For that reason, when Google declares “Don’t be evil” as its guiding principle we’re inclined to give it more credence than if it were the slogan of a company that behaved more unpredictably and deviously – a cat company, in other words.

Wicked?

It must be deeply distressing to Google’s management to be characterized by its critics as wicked. That epithet and variations on it have recently been alleged in response to Google’s aggressive initiative to digitize the world’s inventory of out of print books. “Years after cracking the very code of the Web to lucrative ends,” writes the New York Times‘s David Carr, “Google may be in the midst of trying to conjure the most complicated algorithm yet: to wit, can goodness, or at least a stated intention not to be evil, scale along with the enterprise?” Carr’s article is entitled How Good (or Not Evil) Is Google?

Note that Carr distinguishes between a mandate to do good and one not to do evil. The two are vastly different from one another. Hippocrates drew the distinction in his instructions to physicians: “As to diseases, make a habit of two things — to help, or at least to do no harm.” There are also two strikingly contrasting expressions of the Golden Rule: one is “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” The other: “What is hateful to you, do not to your fellow man.”

Google’s mission is phrased in the negative: Don’t be evil rather than Do good. Why? One reason might be credibility: we tend to doubt the probity of do-gooders. But the struggle to avoid evil is universal; everybody roots for those who strive to resist temptation.

The Code

Just what does Google mean by “evil”? I’m reminded of a story about President Calvin Coolidge, a notoriously taciturn man. One Sunday as he left church a reporter asked him what the minister’s sermon was about. Coolidge said “Evil.” “What did the minister say about evil?” the reporter pressed. “He was against it,” Coolidge replied.

It’s easy to be against evil until you’re asked to define it. But here’s the interesting thing about Google: it does defines it. It defines it in the 15 single spaced pages of its Code of Conduct.

Here’s a statement from the Preface:

The Google Code of Conduct is one of the ways we put “Don’t be evil” into practice. It’s built around the recognition that everything we do in connection with our work at Google will be, and should be, measured against the highest possible standards of ethical business conduct. We set the bar that high for practical as well as aspirational reasons: Our commitment to the highest standards helps us hire great people, who then build great products, which in turn attract loyal users. Trust and mutual respect among employees and users are the foundation of our success, and they are something we need to earn every day.

Among the provisions of the Code are positions on integrity, respect, privacy, freedom of expression, drugs and alcohol, co-worker relationships, gifts, expenses, anti-bribery, confidentiality, insider trading and yes…dogs. The spirit of the document is not unlike that of the honor codes of some colleges like Haverford College or West Point. Employees are expect to read the Code thoroughly and not only to be aware of its requirements but to make sure vendors, licensees and others adhere to them as well.

Because the Code of Conduct is educational, entertaining and even inspiring, from time to time we’ll excerpt some of its provisions and discuss them.

Is Scale Sinful?

It’s not likely that Google’s critics have read the Code, because the sin they seem to be accusing Google of – “Do not grow huge” – appears nowhere in the document. The Times‘s Carr puts his finger on it when he wonders whether goodness can be scaled up. Once a company becomes big can it any longer do good? Or is there one rule for large enterprises and another for small ones?

It might help to look at a small one that does the same thing as Google, Project Gutenberg. Project Gutenberg has been digitizing out of print books for decades. Employing volunteer labor, financed by contributions and offering its editions free or at low cost, it has functioned without raising an eyebrow since its startup in 1971. It boasts a catalog of nearly 30,000 free books and tens of thousands more available through partners and affiliates. Has anyone accused Project Gutenberg of overweening greed or untrammeled ambition?

Nobody that we’re aware of.

Google on the other hand has scanned and digitized a staggering number of books, somewhere in the millions. The sheer dimension of the enterprise provokes anxiety, suspicion and jealousy. And, unlike Project Gutenberg, Google is doing it to make money, which only magnifies the hostility toward it.

So – is it possible that evil is simply a function of scale? Can Google continue to do good when, to use Shakespeare’s phrase, it bestrides the world like a colossus?

How Big Is Colossal?

Those who think that iniquity is a function of size will find plenty of ammunition when they take Google’s measurements. According to the investor relations page on its website, Google’s 2008 gross revenues were $21.795 billion. Using statistics provided by the World Bank, that placed Google ahead of the gross national product of 90 other nations including Bolivia ($16.674 billion), Jamaica ($15.068 billion), Afghanistan ($10.170 billion) and Bermuda ($5.855 billion). In fact, Google’s gross revenues were higher than the gross national products of the bottom 28 nations on the World Bank’s list combined!

With resources like that at its command, a corporation bent on evil could wreak a great deal of havoc. It could finance militias, undermine governments, build arsenals. The news gives us no assurance that corporations are benign. How many companies brandish meaningless mottoes while exploiting, plundering and corrupting? It’s easier to be cynical about Google’s intentions than to believe that they are sincere. But – is it possible that just this once, a capitalistic behemoth will put its money where its mouth is?

E-Reads has no corporate ties to Google. But we are heavily dependent on them, and we’d be amazed if you were not as well. I certainly would feel better knowing that the company that brings me gmail, Chrome, AdWords, Picasa, Android, Blogger, Google Maps, and YouTube is not evil. Wouldn’t you? Read Google’s Code of Conduct and reflect.

Richard Curtis

Every Blogger owes a debt of gratitude to newspapers and magazines. This posting relies on original research and reporting performed by the New York Times.

Norman Invasions: the creator of E-Reads’ bestselling Gorean fantasy series delivers a wide-ranging story collection, all previously unpublished, with a handful of directly Gor-related pieces and several more stories that involve Gor-like female slavery and submission.

Many of the stories are philosophical monologues which play with existential and phenomenal ideas by discussing their philosophical underpinnings and their relation to the real world as observed with a philosophical mind-set. They are often without dialogue or even characters, merely thoughts, descriptions and speculations. Some could almost be lectures given narrative form.

Some stories are science fiction, some horror, some have “mainstream” settings. Among the characters in the various stories are a couple of talking frogs, a couple of independently-thinking computers, a fair number of philosophers and a number of clinical psychologists or psychiatrists, often analyzing or counseling computers or intelligent alien lifeforms.

For a free sample story, The Bed of Cagliostro, click here. And to learn more about John Norman and his works, visit gorchronicles.com.

The collection is available both in paperback and download.

The e-book edition of Steven R. Boyett’s Ariel is now available for download from Fictionwise. Over the next few weeks it will also show up in Kindle, Sony, and other e-book formats. Keep checking.

The story of Ariel and its sequel Elegy Beach is every bit as amazing, as magical and fantastic, as the novel itself. But first, the novel itself…

It happened five years ago: the lights went out all over the world, cars stopped in the streets, machines stopped working and magical creatures, out of myth and legend, appeared. Pete Garey survived the Change, living by his wits and trusting no one but himself. Then, one day he met Ariel, a unicorn who became his friend, supporter and ally and who helped him come to terms with the upheaval and find the new purpose of his life.

Steven R. Boyett’s twenty-five-year-old novel is a legitimate lost classic, out of print for many years and finally brought back with restored scenes plus a new afterword and notes. It fuses elements of post-apocalyptic science fiction (the disappearance of electricity and the worldwide collapse of technological civilization) with those of fantasy (mythical and magical creatures roaming the depopulated Earth).

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I promised you a story and here it is. Published in 1983 by Ace Books, whose then editor-in-chief was Susan Allison, Ariel immediately seized the imagination of countless readers. It became a cult favorite and remained so long after the book ultimately went out of print. One young person whose imagination it seized was named Anne Sowards.

Flash forward to 2008 when the author informed me that he had finally yielded to the countless fans imploring him to write a sequel to Ariel. The sequel, Elegy Beach, absolutely stunned me. It was set about 30 years after Ariel (making it a post-post-apocalyptic novel) and its hero was the son of Pete Garey, the hero of Ariel. Trembling with the excitement of discovery, I phoned Susan Allison, who was still at Ace, but now with the title of publisher of the division. Susan responded after the weekend with an offer for Elegy Beach that included an offer to reissue Ariel. The editor she gave the books to? Anne Sowards, who had been so inspired by Ariel as a young girl.

Still don’t believe in magic? Well then, how about this:

Another young person gripped by Ariel was named Cory Doctorow. He grew up to become the Cory Doctorow. Twenty-six years later the grownup Cory Doctorow was invited to write something about the book. His review is the stuff that most authors don’t dare think might happen to them. Here’s an excerpt:

I’ve read Ariel a good 20 times since 1983, and it’s one of the few books I brought with me across the ocean when I moved from Toronto to London — even though my copy was broken-spined and stained, I couldn’t bear to part with it. For one thing, I wanted to read it to my daughter in eight or nine years.

Today, an expanded reissue of Ariel hits stores, and this is some goddamned great news. Boyett (who’s been more focused on being a DJ and a podcaster of late) has added in some new material and (mirabile dictu) has written a sequel, Elegy Beach, which will be released in November.

Ace Books is publishing the print editions of both novels (Ariel in September ’09, Elegy Beach in November ’09) plus the e-book edition of Elegy Beach. E-Reads is privileged to release the e-book edition of Ariel, a magical book by a magical author, and one that seems to make magical things happen.

You want one more fun fact? In an Afterword to Ariel written in 2000, Boyett stated in no uncertain terms, “I Will Never Write a Sequel to Ariel.”

It ends, get it? Finis. Show’s over, nothing more to see here, folks, move along, move along. A sequel would be a gimmick to part you from your lunch money and contribute to the Steven R. Boyett Retirement Fund. To continue that story would be cheat, a smug literary trick that cheapens what has gone before. The notion feels dishonest and exploitative.

Luckily, Boyett realized you never say never. Subsequent to this statement Boyett found the key to a sequel that is stunning and unforgettable, the very opposite of “dishonest” and “exploitative”. When Elegy Beach is published later this year I urge you to take your lunch money and buy a copy. You’ll be so glad Boyett’s “never” was of shorter duration that what we usually mean when we refer to eternity.

RC

Here are a few of the 40 five-star Amazon reviews of Ariel:

I ran into “Ariel” shortly after its publishing in 1986 or thereabouts. I was 16, a gangly adolescent who read too much. When I went to college, the book was lost. I’m 32 now and just found my copy in a box of things my mom sent from her attic — I almost cried, I was so happy to see it again.

Why? Because “Ariel” is special. It’s about a young man in modern-day America trying to navigate his world after a traumatic Change that has rendered machines inoperative, guns impotent, and electricity defunct. Nothing more complicated than a Coleman lantern works in his world now — cars stopped in their tracks, elevators fell instantly, and in general society fell apart. In exchange for these staggering losses, magic now works — and magical beasts once found only in fantasy novels now wander the earth. One of these beasts, a young unicorn, joins up with the hero, and they go wandering. Eventually they find a quest to go on and meet lots of interesting people, including a bunch of Society for Creative Anachronism members who have found adjustment to the new world remarkably easy.

The writing is easy to read and fluid; characterizations are excellent. I found the plotting very realistic as well, considering what the Change involves. The ending is not a bubbly, happy ending, but it’s realistic and something I could live with. The deft humorous touches are enough of a presence to leaven the very serious tone of the book. (Let’s face it, if unicorns did exist today, they probably WOULD like peppermint candies.) The unicorn, in particular, is a fascinating blend of the vulgar and the divine.

In short, it’s easy for me to understand why this work has such a cult following. It’s what fantasy wonks have always dreamed of happening.
By Cas (the Idaho mountains)

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I usually like to study a book when I first pick it up off of the book store shelf. I read the back first, ponder the cover art, then open to Page 1 and skim a few pages. In 1984, I found “Ariel” in my favorite bookstore, began my ritual, and ended up sitting on the floor for 1 hour, completely and utterly entranced. I was captivated by the very first sentence: “I was bathing in a lake when I saw the unicorn.”

Mr. Boyett’s imagination hits stratospheric heights in his storytelling. His words paint a portrait so vivid that I feel like I’m right there beside Pete, traipsing all the way up I-95 and swimming with the dolphins on the way to New York. My teenage bedroom became a fantasy haven in its honor, and a huge stuffed unicorn (named Ariel, of course) dominated my bed.

The stuffed unicorn is long gone, but I still have that copy of “Ariel,” and it’s now as dilapidated as Pete’s backpack – taped, wrinkled, tattered, and laminated. And I wouldn’t trade it or get rid of it for anything. I get it out every now and then and re-immerse myself in it, just for old time’s sake.

If you are lucky enough to get a copy of this book, count it amongst your finest treasures – for a treasure it certainly is. I’ll never understand why it’s out of print. This is one story that should be back on the shelves for other readers to sit with on the bookstore floors of the world.
By Julie (Maryland USA)

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I bought this book originally back in 1983-1986, I’m not sure which printing. It quickly came to be my favorite and I was heartsick a few years ago when it was lost during a move. Recently, I was able to get another copy. The fact it had such an impact on me as a teenager only adds to the enjoyment now. I don’t think books read when you are younger should be given less acclaim than books read as an adult. I still like reading my old copy of A Wrinkle In Time, which I first read in grade school. Find a copy of this book, paperback or e-book and read it. Maybe you won’t care for it, but it just might carry you to a fantasy world of a boy, his unicorn, and their spectacular adventures. It well could become your favorite, too.
Susan B. Ferko (North East, PA USA)

Back in January we told you about app addiction. Not everybody is hooked on Apple applications, however. Some are addicted to Twitter, others to Facebook, still others to YouTube. Writers are addicted to anything that will divert them from the work at hand. You go on Google to research a fact for your book and, well, one association leads to another and pretty soon you’ve drifted far, blissfully far, away from your book.

Authors have procrastinated from time immemorial, and their excuses have evolved with the available technology. In the 20th century the usual dodge was a trip to the refrigerator or pencil sharpener. Today’s authors still go to the refrigerator, but as for pencils many don’t know which end the writing come out of now that they have spellcheck and other computerized editing tools. So they seek distraction on the Internet. And its seductions are far more addictive than anything ever offered on street corners.

“You get to your PC every morning with hours of productive time ahead of you,” writes Farhad Manjoo in the New York Times. “Next thing you know, it’s 5 p.m. and you’ve frittered the day away on Digg, Hulu, Wikipedia and your fantasy football league. And no wonder — how can anyone expect to get anything done when you’re plying your trade on one of the most distracting machines ever invented? With so much available on your PC — your friends, blogs, games and even TV shows — working in a modern office can often seem as rattling as working on the floor of a Las Vegas casino.”

If you’re highly motivated and disciplined you can govern temptation, or you can ask your spouse, boss, friend or business partner to make sure you don’t stray from your purpose. That seldom works. Any chain smoker who has given a pack of cigarettes to a friend and ordered him not to give him one knows why. But now there are computer programs to monitor or curb your obsession. There’s even one that virtually pries the mouse out of your hand and redirects it to the book you’re supposed to be working on. Manjoo, himself a victim of wandering attention, tried some of them:

I’ve been using a slate of programs to tame these digital distractions. The apps break down into three broad categories. The most innocuous simply try to monitor my online habits in an effort to shame me into working more productively. Others reduce visual bells and whistles on my desktop as a way to keep me focused.

And then there are the apps that really mean business — they let me actively block various parts of the Internet so that when my mind strays, I’m prohibited from giving in to my shiftless ways. It’s the digital equivalent of dieting by locking up the refrigerator and throwing away the key.

Of course, if you’re as clever as Manjoo – he’s Slate‘s technology columnist – you can find the key after throwing it away. You can just hack the blocker app until you you’re back on YouTube or Twitter wasting hour after blissful hour. Goodness, where did the time go!

Read Taming Your Digital Distractions and prepare to take – or download – the cure.

Richard Curtis

Every Blogger owes a debt of gratitude to newspapers and magazines. This posting relies on original research and reporting performed by the New York Times.

Full disclosure: I don’t represent Dan Brown. Fuller disclosure: I wish I did. Final disclosure: as it’s unlikely I ever will, I’m free to chuckle at The Lost Symbol and The Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown’s 20 worst sentences, Tom Chivers’ analysis of 20 of the clumsiest phrases from Brown’s latest book as well as earlier ones.

For instance, #10 on Chivers’ list comes from The Da Vinci Code, chapter 4: “Five months ago, the kaleidoscope of power had been shaken, and Aringarosa was still reeling from the blow.”

Or another (#15), also from the same chapter of The Da Vinci Code: “As a boy, Langdon had fallen down an abandoned well shaft and almost died treading water in the narrow space for hours before being rescued. Since then, he’d suffered a haunting phobia of enclosed spaces – elevators, subways, squash courts.”

From Deception Point, chapter #17: “Overhanging her precarious body was a jaundiced face whose skin resembled a sheet of parchment paper punctured by two emotionless eyes.”

You can find these and others in the Telegraph.co.uk. (Thanks, JS, for tipping me off about this one.)

We may be giggling, but Brown is doubled up with laughter on the way to the bank, you may be sure.

RC

Caroline Reidy (right), publisher of Simon & Schuster, has e-circulated a policy statement about online piracy. Notable is a description of S&S’s relationship with Scribd, which she described as “a location where pirated works were easily found.” Scribd has made an earnest effort to become respectable, occasioning Reidy to say “Our decision to sell ebooks at Scribd came only when we were satisfied that they would both make our works more available to online consumers and also diligently and innovatively combat piracy on their site.”

S&S’s anti-piracy initiative follows on the heels of one recently announced by Hachette, which has gone so far as to engage a company to monitor instances of piracy of its books. See Hachette Hires Anti-Piracy Hammer.

We don’t think S&S will complain if we pirate its statement in full, reprinted below, but from here on in we’ll be very careful about using S&S text. We don’t want to walk the plank with Caroline Reidy’s sword at our backs.

Richard Curtis
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SIMON & SCHUSTER STATEMENT CONCERNING ONLINE PIRACY

Online piracy of digital books is a matter of growing concern. Even as Simon & Schuster explores and partakes in the many new and exciting opportunities presented by the digital world, at the forefront of our digital strategy is a firm commitment to battling piracy.

Since Simon & Schuster began publishing ebooks more than ten years ago, the security of our authors’ copyrights has been a primary concern in every digital partnership or project we have undertaken. Unquestionably, however, as the digital world has expanded and ebooks have become more popular, the rise of peer-to-peer file sharing and sites that feature user-posted content has led to a higher level of unauthorized posting and sharing of our copyrighted content. Responding to these evolving threats requires vigilance and innovation.

We work to stop online piracy as promptly as we can. The Simon & Schuster legal department acts quickly to notify site operators and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) where piracy occurs, by issuing copyright infringement notices both for electronic versions of our books and for the sale of unauthorized physical editions at online booksellers. These notices generally have the desired result with respect to materials posted and hosted on third-party sites. Peer-to-peer file sharing presents more difficult challenges, but we are working to take advantage of evolving strategies to deter this kind of piracy as well.

More broadly, we seek to combat this situation with the wide range of tools at our command, including doing everything we can to create a robust marketplace where consumers can legally purchase the books they want in electronic formats. We have, for example, recently entered into an arrangement with Scribd, an online document site, to sell Simon & Schuster ebooks at their site. This follows a period in which Scribd attracted much negative publicity as a location where pirated works were easily found. Our decision to sell ebooks at Scribd came only when we were satisfied that they would both make our works more available to online consumers and also diligently and innovatively combat piracy on their site.

We are also working with our colleagues at other publishing houses, via the Association of American Publishers’ Online Piracy Working Group, to share information and best practices on an industry-wide basis.

As long as there have been publishers, there have been scofflaws who see fit to deprive authors of their livelihood. Enforcement is by its very nature an imperfect science. But as the potential for this kind of behavior is amplified in the digital world, keeping our content secure, enforcing our copyrights, and creating a robust marketplace for easily accessible, reasonably priced content will be the pillars upon which we build our future as a digital publisher.

As we move forward in these endeavors, the help of readers, authors, booksellers and concerned citizens will be critical. We ask that if you see Simon & Schuster books illegally posted online, you please bring this to our attention and we will review the matter and take prompt and appropriate action. We will need certain specific information in order to act effectively, and have provided an online form that may be used to notify us of any instances of abuse or infringement.

We hope you find this information helpful and thank you in advance for your help.