Hey everyone!

I'm so excited and honored that so many of you have sought out (and read) the early copies of GG4.  Still, I'm going to have to ask you to refrain from posting spoilers on the internet (especially here in the comments--they won't get approved).  After all, you got an un-spoiled reading experience.  Doesn't everyone deserve that?

thanks and happy reading!

Ally

Hey everybody!

A little bit of housekeeping today to remind everyone that I am not able to take part in online fan communities.

So...if you see a post from someone claiming to be me (any post, even those claiming to be me asking other people to stop impersonating me) are, in fact, from impersonators.

Yeah, it's sort of confusing, but the long and the short of it is this: I have never posted on a fansite.  I favor no fansites over the others.  Posts here on this blog, at www.myspace.com/allycarter, and www.twitter.com/officiallyally are from me.  Posts on any fansite--now or in the future--are not from me.

And that's about it.  I'm so sorry that this keeps happening, but I know that, in general, fansites are an awesome thing and I support them fully!  It's wonderful that you guys have a place to congregate and talk and enjoy books and reading.  Fansite administrators, thanks for all you do and keep up the awesome work! 

-Ally

Hey everybody!

Just a quick post today to talk about...what else?...GG4 and, specifically, the many reports that have been flooding in from people who have seen it on shelves early.

Now, as you know, the lovely countdown widget has been counting to June 29th for weeks now because that is the book's official release date.  But the thing that not everyone knows is that there's actually a difference between "release date" and "lay down" date, and while all books have the first, very few actually have the second.

You see, a few books each year will be so highly anticipated that the publishers don't want stores to sell (or lay the books down on tables and shelves) until a certain date.  That's called having a "hard lay-down".  It keeps spoilers from leaking out and, most importantly, builds buzz and sends the message that THIS IS A BIG BOOK!

So why don't all books have a hard lay-down?  Well, it's a very difficult thing to police and an expensive sort of demand to make, so for the most part, publishers don't care if a book is out a day or two (or 10) early.  In the vast majority of cases, stores are free to start laying books down as soon as the books arrive.

Some stores try to abide by the release date.  Some don't.  Some get books in really early.  Some don't.  Some will have room on their shelves, see a box of unopend books and think "why not?".  Some will actually leave books boxed up until they get around to putting them out--even if the publication date is already passed.

I know this is sort of confusing, but the thing to remember is this: unless you're looking for a really big book--and I do mean REALLY big (like Twilight, Harry Potter, Percy Jackson big)--then there is always the possibility of seeing it on shelves early.  A possibility, I said.  Not a certainty.  And when you do, it's not something that needs to be reported to the publisher.  The store (and you) won't get in any trouble, because no one has broken any rules.  It's just something that happens sometimes.

Really I blame Harry Potter.  Before Harry people didn't think about books having a hard-and-fast on-sale date so much.  Now that phenomenon continues for a few uber-successful authors and franchises, but I am certainly not one of them.

People have also been asking me if this makes any difference to authors or not.  Honestly...it is probably slightly better for the author for stores to keep the books boxed up and put them out on the pub date just because that helps the first rush of sales to be compacted into as small a window as possible, and as you know, things like bestseller lists aren't so much about the number of books you sell as they are about the number of books you sell in a given week.

So, yeah, it's probably better for us if all of those sales happen at the same time instead of staggered out across several weeks.

But, honestly, I'm just so happy that anyone is buying my books that I don't dare complain about people buying them early.

Just thank you to everyone who has bought or is going to buy GG4.  I truly hope you like it and want to read GG5.  I know I really want to write it.

-Ally

ps...Some people are starting to ask if it's okay to ask stores to put the books out early.  Probably not.  My advice is that if you see them, feel free to buy them, but it's the store's decision when to put them out, and--like I said--ideally, all books would come out on the pub date, so if your store is choosing to do that, please respect that decision.

Almost every day I see someone posting online about reading my books for free as eBooks, uploading my books so that other people can read them for free, or actively ASKING someone else to upload the books for this purpose.

This is something, again, that I see every day.

And every day it makes me want to cry.

Of course, I've written about this before (go read this post for my in depth thoughts on the matter).

But one of the things that continues to astound and amaze me is how many people either don't know (or choose not to think about) the fact that this is both wrong and illegal.  Now, we're not talking about a technicality here.  It's not some obscure law that makes epiracy essentially a victimless crime.

When you upload a book (or any copyrighted material) for others to read for free you are taking someone's property (my books) and distributing it to people without paying for it.

I know that becuase we're talking about an electronic file that you read on a computer or iPad or something, it feels different from, say, walking into Barnes and Noble, shoving the book down your pants and running for the door...

It FEELS different...

But it isn't.  You are doing that, but worse.  You're actually potentially taking thousands of books.  THOUSANDS because for every file you upload those files will be downloaded by many, many more people.  Some of those people might post them to other piracy sites, and then things spread like wildfire.

So let's say that I get paid $1 for every book that I sell.  Let's say you upload my books to your site and then 10,000 people download it for free (a very, very conservative number I'm using here.  Actually, it's far higher.).  That's $10,000 that I should rightfully have, so there is a victim--me. 

And not just the author, but this also hurts publishers, editors, agents, bookstores, and even libraries.  (Again, go read this to get more detail.)

If you really want to read a book and you don't have the money to buy that book, I understand.  Boy, do I ever understand...

But that's what libraries are for.  If your library doesn't have the book, that's when you ask your librarian if they could possibly order it (I've met a lot of librarians in the past 5 years, and they all assure me that they always try to accommodate these requests--in fact, they love getting suggestions from readers.)  If your library can't order their own copy, almost all are hooked up to some sort of interlibrary loan system, so they can borrow it from another library for you to read.

See?  There is a way, and it doesn't involve stealing.

Just ask yourself this: would I shoplift this book from a store?  If the answer is no, then don't download it online.  And please don't upload or scan your copies for others to download.

It hurts, folks.  It hurts more than you can possibly understand.

-Ally

PS:  EDITED TO ADD...

Some people have expressed concern about whether it's okay to loan books to friends or not.  To this I say, "absolutely!"  Once a person has purchased a book it's their right to do with that book what they wish--loan it, sell it in a garage sale, donate it to a women's shelter, whatever!  Because that book is just that: one book.  If you were going to fire up the Xerox machine and crank out thousands of copies we'd have a very different situation, but the key is that book is still just one book.

It's like this...  Say you go toa diner and buy a club sandwich.  Say you only eat half of it and you decide to give the rest to your friend.  Have you stolen from the diner?  Nope.  You paid for a sandwich and you got a sandwich--who enjoys it after you is up to you.

But say instead of giving your sandwich away you break a window in the back of the diner and hang up a sign that says "Crawl through here to take free sandwiches! (But please support the diner...)" 

That's the difference.