There is something magical about books; they carry the weight of hours, sometimes years, of someone’s life. The all-nighters, the rewrites, the doubts, and the joys. Being an author means pouring your heart out and hoping that someone, somewhere, would care enough to read it.
So yes, authors need to be supported. They need to be able to earn a living from what they do. However, the conversation about how we support authors has begun to feel off, especially when it comes to piracy.
Lately, I've heard book piracy discussed as if it's some kind of moral shortcoming. You hear individuals making declarations such as, "If you're not paying me, directly or indirectly, don't read my book at all." And I get it. I do. Writing is hard work. Watching your book being pirated can feel like a gut punch.
But at the same time, that stance does sound unfair. It assumes that any person who pirates a book is selfish—that they're choosing to steal as opposed to choosing to support. It doesn't consider that, to many, piracy isn't a choice of "buy or steal." It's a choice of "read or not read at all."
I mean this as a writer and as a reader. I've created something. It's not a bestseller or anything—but it's mine. And if someone messaged me and said they couldn't afford my book but wanted to read it, I'd send them a copy without a second thought. Because for real? I'd just be so happy they were interested. They wanted to spend their time with something I made.
I've seen the same sentiments echoed in places like Reddit's r/books, where people argue the ethics of piracy. Some are certain, stating that piracy harms authors and the publishing industry as a whole. And they're right. Piracy does hurt individuals.
Books revolutionised my life. And I don't think that kind of transformation has to be the exclusive province of people with credit cards. Reading isn't a privilege. It's a right.
But others bring up views from angles we might not be used to hearing—places where books cost absurd amounts of money, or where libraries essentially don't even exist. Even if you can pay for it, the book is not distributed in your country legally.
For all of them, piracy is not rude. It's about access. About survival. About learning and being able to remain a part of a world that shuts them out far too often.
And then there's that double standard that I just can't seem to wrap my head around: borrowing a book from a friend, grabbing one from a "little free library," or buying it used—none of these actions puts money into the author's pocket. And yet they're acceptable. Downloading a PDF, though, gets you labeled as a thief. Why is one way of unpaid reading okay, but the other shameful, even when the result is the same?
And let’s talk about shame for a minute. Because a lot of the anti-piracy argument relies on it. Shame won't help a poor and book-deprived person. Shame will just tell them that they are not in the world of books unless they pay the membership fee. Is that a world we truly want?
If it is indeed that we are concerned about helping authors—and we ought to be—then the conversation needs to shift. Let us talk about fairer prices. Let us build better libraries. Let us support open-access initiatives. Let us provide books more widely in more locations around the world. Let us speak less of blame and more of solutions.
Because here's the thing: a lot of those book pirates? They're readers. They adore stories. They just don't have access to them in the same way I do, or maybe you do. And that love might someday turn them into paying readers, or fans, or even writers themselves. That matters.
Books revolutionised my life. And I don't think that kind of transformation has to be the exclusive province of people with credit cards. Reading isn't a privilege. It's a right.
So if the system we have today can't allow for that, if it dismisses people just because they're poor or where they live, then maybe it's not the reader who needs to change. Maybe it's the system.
* This opinion expressed are the author’s personal views