I don’t blog a whole lot, mainly because I don’t usually feel like I have much to say. In my last blog I talked about how depressing it can be to put your blood, sweat, and tears into something only to see it sit idle. Only to see poor sales. Well, true to human nature, someone (or a group of someones) out there has shown me things can, indeed, be even worse. What can be worse than not selling my books, you might ask? Well, selling them only to have them read and returned. In other words, having them stolen from me.

Through the month of December every one of my eleven books has been purchased on multiple occasions. Good for me. I love it. What I don’t love is the pattern I saw start about a week and a half ago. A book would be bought, then, a couple of days later returned for refund. How do I know it was someone reading and returning them? Every single refund was in the order of the two series I wrote. Then they went through the stand-alone novels.

I absolutely do not have a problem with someone changing their mind and returning a book of mine. I don’t have a problem with them starting one and deciding they don’t like it, for whatever reason. To each his or her own. I know my writing style isn’t appealing to every reader out there. I also realize people hit the wrong button on occasion. Happens to me all the time. But to buy something, use it (or read it, in this case) and return it… that is thievery, pure and simple. That’s like buying a suit or dress, wearing it to a party, and then taking it back to the store.

Writing is what I want to do for a living. Which means I need to make money doing it. If these people are allowed to steal from me, to read my work for free, then I will not be able to pursue my dream. I will be stuck working a factory job for the rest of my life and writing books for them for free.

Not acceptable.