Heads up to Harlequin authors. An anonymous source forwarded me a link (which I am so not going to republish because why should they get traffic?) to a site illegally offering free eBook copies of Harlequin novels. The site has multiple listings of a month’s worth of books in one file, and fields requests for books by title.
If you’d like to email me, I can send you the link so you can look for your book there. If an author finds that her book is being offered illegally, she needs to report the individual title to Harlequin.
The original email came from an author’s loop and the author of the original message suggests a rather sharp and brilliant method for tracking potential piracy: create a Google:Alert for the title of your book, and for your name or pseudonym. Google will email you daily, or as frequently as you wish, any search results that match your alert terms. Unfortunately, I do not know who wrote the original email that I received, but whoever you are – that’s a damn smart idea for any author published in eBook format, so mad props to you.
And good luck to any Harlequin author who finds her pirated eBook offered illegally.
UPDATE: RWA National just sent out a members-only alert about the issue.
