Birthday madness week is here!

Nice pic, eh? ;)

Okay! Welcome to my Birthday celebration madness!
This week is all about... well, a lot of things. Guest posts, my posts, GIVEAWAYS, and stuff.
Today I'm kicking it off with an important something. A guest post from Cyndi Tefft, author of Between. It's about piracy, and you should definitely read it.


Piracy Sucks!

Just last week, I learned that my YA paranormal romance, Between, had been pirated. That is, it’s been posted to a file sharing site for anyone and everyone to download as they wish. For free. And then it happened again. And again. At last count, seven places offer the illegal download of my book.

And there’s nothing I can really do about it.

Sure, some of the sites have procedures for contacting them to request the posts be removed. I’ve done that. One site’s email is defunct. Another site has no contact information at all.

Perhaps if I were a big corporation, I could try and sue the site. I’m not. I’m just an independent author with a book for sale. A book that costs 99 cents at that!

So I can’t stop them. But I can fight back in other ways. And you can, too.

Got a blog? Do a post speaking out against piracy.

Got a Facebook page? Post comments and links about this outrage.

Got a Twitter account? Tweet #PiracySucks and join the others who are taking a stand.

Got graphic design skills? Make a banner, an icon, a twibbon, an avatar, or more!

Got a few bucks? Host a giveaway like Two Chicks on Books and Unabridged Bookshelf are doing.

But most important of all? Support authors—both the ones you know and the ones you’re trying for the first time—by buying their books. And be sure to post your review to encourage others to read the book as well!

Maybe we can’t nuke the bad guys, but we can fight back by spreading the word that downloading a book from a file sharing site isn’t “sharing” or “lending” but stealing. That hurts the authors, which eventually hurts the readers, too.

So let’s keep the stories coming by saying no to piracy!

Cyndi Tefft’s debut novel, Between, is available for only 99 cents from Smashwords, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other sites. Pick up a copy today in support of Cyndi and others whose books have been pirated. Prefer print? Order a personalized copy from Cyndi directly at www.cynditefft.com.

Okay, today, due to the fact that's it's only the beginning of the week, there will be no special giveaways, but I will remind you that I have one on here that's running right now!
It's for e-copy of Bridger by Megan Curd. Bridger is a fun YA novel that involves fey and fairies, and I definitely recommend! Enter here: http://tamarasbookramblings.blogspot.com/2011/10/bridger-blog-tour.html

Okay, that's it for today, feel free to leave your thoughts about piracy in the comments and make sure you're following me on twitter, because I just might throw in a surprise giveaway here and there ;)
x Tamara