Possible rebranding

I have written volumes and volumes, and never worried too much about plagiarism. Most of it was on ESL-related topics, and ESL is the kind of field that needs all the help it can get, so I figured, if i could say somthing sane and helpful, just fling it out there and don't worry about it. I put much of it on the web; my only problem really was that my university kept just deleting things without concern. They would sometimes delete a page if it didn't have the right logo.

But lots of that stuff ended up out there and was copied by people, at various times for their dissertation or whatever. Even then I didn't mind, really. They were cheating, yes, but that was their problem, not mine. Having said what I wanted to, I was actually proud: my words were being passed around and read.

Then I started writing short stories (I now have nine volumes) and at least the first half, I put online also. Small wonder it was copied and passed around freely. I actually had a reputation among ESL/EFL students, because often, one free site will be passed along among dozens of people and even put on a message board where others can find it. I'm ok with that, because, by putting it on a free site in the first place, I had to be willing to have it passed around.

Now I have a novel and know that the minute I make it free, for even one day, on Amazon, it will make the rounds again. There are people hovering on that free button on Amazon, and whenever anything is free, they take it, reproduce it, and pass it along free or at minimal charge.

So much of the world is starving for something to read with no money to pay for it, that these free operators can make money even if they charge only 99 cents. But here's where it becomes plagiarism, because they have actually stolen our work, and are passing it off as their service. Their service to steal it and turn around and sell it second-hand.

It's all just words, and in a sense I'm glad I'm known in that world. It makes me happy that at least someone is reading my work. It would make my happier if someone were paying for it as well. I guess that comes after you've been around for a while.