Why emerging writers such as myself benefit from piracy irrefutably.

[PhiloSniper]

Regardless of what the author intends, what matters for us when getting our feet off the ground and getting ranked. If we do not get ourselves ranked, then our books would not sell anyways. What piracy allows us to do is send it to other markets for free, acting as "free advertising" in a way, making sure that we actually get read. If we get lucky, and we often do as book pirates are some of the most fanatical readers, we are more likely to get a review, which increases the amount of the views tenfold compared to what piracy would do by decreasing it, even if that was true. Analytics are done by sales, which are governed by visibility. End. Of. Story.

I also believe that it likely helps AT LEAST some of the time at least with writers that aren't "emerging writers", but I can't prove that it offsets the cost without doing a study. But the positive effect on indie authors is absolutely irrefutable.

[NeverStopLearning]

Thank you this post. Completely agree. Not to mention there are places in the world, in 2020, that the only way ones work can reach a worldwide audience and not exist in the extremely risky underground movements. BitTorrent "piracy" is often the only true anti-censorship solution for many in countries the west considers "Free" like my home, Brazil.