It’s a Steal!!! However – in other news – the BBC has aced MISS AUSTEN (the TV series)!!!!

#MissAusten #JaneAusten #PrideAndPerjury #JAFF #HistoricalFiction

Everyone here will know, by now, about Meta’s immoral and illegal “scraping” of well over SEVEN MILLION books, in order to train generative language AI – without compensating a single author, out of the seven million of us concerned (of whom I’m one.)

However, it still came as a shock to me to learn, last week, that there are quite so many pirate sites out there, in just one of which my Austenesque series has suffered zillions of unpaid-for downloads!

Thanks, people! (Not.)

Not only do these pirate sites disgustingly rip off hardworking writers, but Meta/LibGen have potentially made it possible for every human author to be one day replaced by a bot. Not yet, of course – but in the not-too-distant future.  

And readers – unlike authors – are not ripped-off at the moment. All these heists are occurring not only while most books are freely accessible in libraries but when many books are also made free several times a year – for the sake of reviews and page-reads –  by authors on Amazon! 

There’s also Amazon’s KDP itself: a storehouse – a compendium – of hundreds of thousands of titles where, for roughly the price of two Starbucks coffees any booklover can zip through any number of books per month, like a kid cutting loose in a candy store!!! 

In short, there is no possible way these pirate sites have the any moral right to exist – and it’s also hard to imagine creators of any other art being taken to the cleaners quite so brutally. As for Meta, it is beyond disgusting, because Zuckerberg could probably afford to compensate each of us seven million personally.

But those readers downloading pirated books are also guilty. And so, listen up, because I will say this only once. If you get so much as a cappuccino’s amount of enjoyment out of a book – but fail to reward its author by that amount – you’re not a reader, but rather a robber. Unless, of course, you’re just messing about with a novel some lazy wannabe churned out with ChatGPT – in which case you’re self-harming, instead. Especially if you write, because bad writing is every bit as infectious as good writing – perhaps more so.

And now, what the non-writers on this site are probably wondering is: Why do writers put up with being treated like dirt – knowing, as we do, that we’d make more £ per hour doing almost anything else? After all, anyone capable of writing – not to mention formatting and marketing – a full-length novel must possess skills that they could monetize far more lucratively – and with no risk of their hard work getting stolen, either! 

Well, first, we do it for the joy of creating. Every composer, every artist, every actor knows what that’s about. Non-creatives rarely wake up thinking, “Yay!!!! I get to go work in the bank/doctor’s office/government building today!” the way we authors bound out of bed to switch on their laptop.

Second, for the joy of sharing. Have written before about the absolute thrill of being on the London Underground and seeing a guy immersed in one of my novels. I was just a puddle, after that.

Third, for the escape. If we’re honest – and I’m perilously honest – part of the allure of Austen’s work is the chance to escape to a different time and place. That sensation of being lifted and transplanted, taken straight out of the disaster-zone of 2025 into the past. 

Now every  Austen fan knows it was harsher than Austen pretends – and that, were we to have lived during the Regency period, rather than swanning about the majestic Pemberley woods in a pretty pony-cart, we’d probably have been making stew in the Longbourn kitchen, exploited in some mansion or other as live-in governesses, perishing in childbirth or eking out a living on the London streets. Frankly.

However, despite this being a truth universally acknowledged, the trials and tribulations of the Regency gentry, at least, remain perfectly pitched for escape. 

Even the BBC have belatedly cottoned onto this, as their excellent, recent (in UK) and forthcoming (May 4, in US) adaptation of Gill Hornby’s Miss Austen proved. The BBC absolutely aced this period drama. Even though the ending’s sad – spoiler alert, JANE AUSTEN DIES! SHE IS NO LONGER WITH US – her life history is still suffused with the sure and sunny allure of period costumes, period houses and period furniture. 

For those of you not yet bombarded with trailers, Miss Austen is – principally – the tale of Cassandra, Jane’s older and more sought-after sister. Though there’s loads about Jane Austen, as well. Some of it Gill Hornby admittedly made up, but even those bits mostly ring true. And yes, you too will be a puddle at the end (or your money back!)

Jane’s impish nature is perfectly acted – in contrast to the more mature and selfless Cassandra – and it makes for a gripping four-part series. The acting, the direction, the costumes, the pacing and (especially) the casting, is just so right… It isn’t glamourised, it isn’t dumbed-down… Austen herself would have approved, imho. 

And so, here’s my toast. To Austen, after 250 years, and to the BBC, of which each of us in the UK should feel proud. And also – to escape!

Alice McVeigh’s latest book, Pride and Perjury, which was a finalist for the UK Selfies Book Awards at the London Book Fair, is currently a finalist for Foreword Indies’ “Book of the Year”, as well as Chanticleer International’s Book Awards (for short story collections). Link if interested: https://books2read.com/u/mdaw1l 

Alice writes a lively monthly newsletter, with giveaways of books and book swag. Sign up to receive it here: https://www.alicemcveigh.com/newsletter/