I WAS A VICTIM OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY THEFT AND COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT

A grifter on SoundCloud tried to distribute my latest novel without permission or payment. I quickly took care of this, and it’s time to combat ongoing intellectual property theft by these platforms.

(This article first appeared on Substack in April.)

I recently published the fifth novel in my NJA Club Series, titled Bangkok Circles. To my great joy, it quickly became my most popular and best-selling novel; I feel like the songwriter who finally started seeing some decent royalties.

Sadly, these days, behind every artist stands a crooked grifter looking to make money, publicity, or followers, by distributing someone else’s work without permission or payment. The most notorious of these thieves are the Peoples Republic of China, most easily accomplished through TikTok, their main tool for intellectual property theft. (One of many reasons I support banning TikTok in the US.)

I have abandoned attempts to promote my work through the myriad of promotion sites and services that bombard every author with offers of best-seller status, whatever that actually means, for a reasonable price. It took me a while to figure this out, but here’s the truth: virtually none of them produce enough sales to justify using them, usually not even close. In most cases, your book winds up hidden among hundreds of others; good luck being singled out. Instead,