Terry Goodkind has self-published a new prequel to THE SWORD OF TRUTH SERIES, THE FIRST CONFESSOR. On his website he has gone into some detail in about why he's done this and pointed out that with self-publishing, pirating the book impacts much more directly on the author's bottom dollar and requested that people refrain from doing so (not exactly a major problem for the multi-millionaire Goodkind, but the principal is sound and allegedly more of an issue for self-published authors just starting off in the business * ).

Unsurprisingly, the book has been heavily pirated. In a surprising move, Goodkind has publicly named and shamed one fan he alleges copied the book and has been distributing it. Apparently the alleged pirate quickly shut down his websites and issued an apology.

Interesting. This is either going to massively backfire on Goodkind (various copyright-hating groups might target him) or could be seen as a victory over ebook piracy.


* And no, not every pirated book equals a lost sale etc.