Back not too long ago, in a history back when the internet was still fairly young, a group of kids came up with a concept of sharing files, but due to internet speeds and how you'd share it, things were limited more to backwater BBS's and sharing floppy disks by hand.
Then came a revolution, Napster. The idea was not only could you download content, but you'd share it back in turn, which can be thought of as a type of torrenting.
The people who got mad were the MIAA and big successful bands like The Eagles, who already made millions off their work selling through the record company. But then many many other smaller bands would just put up their music for free, and due to sharing content got a cult following and more sales than they ever would have had they been totally unnoticed. Other content creators would put up music (on their sites or napster) for free and only request donations if you enjoyed it, and were fairly successful (
though i doubt they became millionaires).
@Lady Alexa, I'm not saying you are wrong or unjustified. But the internet has been and always will be impossible to totally regulate. When The Pirate Bay's creators were put in jail and governments and agencies tried to squash it, 2 came and took it's place, and it popped up over and over and over again, eventually they gave up. As for Napster and music, the MIAA that started going on suing sprees got bad PR, for their targets being 8 yearold children, elderly grand parents, teachers using the material as examples, college students, and even dead people. Successful lawsuits only resulted in losing hundreds of thousands in fees through lawyers as ultimately the individuals who when they couldn't get the ruling overturned, just filed bankruptcy. Play Whack-a-mole if you want, but i think that's a bad idea.
Personally? I think you should freely distribute some of your work. SOME... i don't know, 5 books? Something that gives a variety of what it is you do and whet the appetite of your users, and maybe give a book away for free every year (
depending on how fast you output them). Ask for donations, but also point people to where they can
purchase rent your works. If you have a big enough following Patreon or some other subscription may also be the way to go forward.
Another option (
That i LOATHE as it's incomplete) is to put out samples and/or chapters as teasers. In early video games, DooM, Wolfenstein 3D and others gave 1/3rd of the game away for free (
usually the first chunk), more than big enough to decide if you liked it, or see if you even got your fill; These were dubbed
ShareWare. In likeness you might do a couple chapters, or a third, or leave it on a cliffhanger... These samples would be freely distributed thought more as an advertisement. I see quite a few books from Smashwords that do the first chapter and leaves you hanging in the middle of a chapter. Not cool in my opinion. I don't enjoy demos and samples as much.
In my humble opinion, good PR is better than bad PR. And you know what is worse than people distributing your works freely? That's when no one touches your works... and you fade into oblivion. Just saying.
