I know this sounds crazy because I’m well aware I’m not an author named King or Rice or Bukowski, etc. I’ve never been in danger of being a real household name and I’ve always been okay with that. And by many accounts, I’ve had a pretty long, successful career as a writer, particularly as a poet but also in research and other fields, though these areas have never generated money. I always joked that if I wanted to make money as a writer I would have gone into kiddie lit decades ago or some such shit, etc., but poetry, short stories, experimental stuff, populist or violent or counterculture, etc., however I’m being defined by who’s doing it at the time? No.
So by the end of the 2000s I was pretty burned out and slowing down after having published something like 15 poetry collections in about 15 years, give or take, as well as contributing to other genres and publishing a decent amount of original literary research in journals on a number of authors, becoming especially known for work on Yeats, Kosinski, Kerouac, Sandburg, Pope, Byron, Smiley, Austen and postmodern drama and literature. (Also tech, science, etc., but I’m just talking about creative writing, so to speak…)
So I may not be a household name but I’ve been published with a ton of them and have known and been friends with quite a few as well so that’s been cool. And I’ve heard and seen things. But you can’t imagine my surprise when I started finding some of my poetry collections were appearing increasingly frequently online all over the world illegally for sale and/or download way back in the 2000s. Who the hell would want to pay obscene prices for MY stuff, even if it was increasingly out of print and some books were considered collector’s items. Well, I was wrong. I started making screen shots around 2010 and did every year for 5+ years and then every few years and it’s been stunning to see paperbacks that sold at retail for anywhere from $5-$8 or $10 available online everywhere for not only often a lot more but in illegal formats! ALL of my books were only released in tactile paperback format. None were digital or anything else, hence anyone or place selling PDFs of my books or other e-book formats, and more, were doing so illegally. And I couldn’t believe seeing one of my $8 books from 1999 available as a $100 PDF 15 years later/ago by some sleezy shit factory. I just wanted to know was anyone actually buying this stuff?
It got even worse about 5-10 years ago because then I started discovering a lot of my research (literary criticism) was available everywhere, even at some alleged “legit” companies commonly found on LinkedIn, so lazy shithead students could buy my papers and substitute their name for mine, take full credit, and that has astounded and enraged me. Or it did for awhile because there’s really no stopping it outside the US (most were apparently located elsewhere), or if so, I didn’t have the time or resources so I’ve just gotten used to it. I’ve actually seen a bizarre decline in the number of pirate sites illegally selling my stuff in recent years, coincidentally while I’ve been making a “late game comeback” (someone else’s description) after having been out of sight and commission the previous decade due to serious health issues.
So I was going through Google Books a few days ago and there are a lot more things attributed to me there now, I think in part because the WorldCat database has a lot more entries for me over the past six months thanks to some university libraries increasing the number of works of my in their holdings, as well as orgs like Poets House in NYC and others, etc. (Special hats off to California State University Long Beach University Library for creating a growing Scott C. Holstad Collection over the past few months! The future could be even bigger but that’s speculative…)
Anyway, while I was checking out some new entries in Google Books, I saw a search result offsite advertising my 1995 book PLACES for sale, which I knew was almost certainly illegal unless they were used copies like might be found on eBay or one of the used bookstores. And low and behold, this company (I had to look them up and I’m not going to say this is pirated but I will say I don’t see how it couldn’t be and Wiki and other sources state they’re known for allegedly offering pirated goods on their site, but again, that’s what others assert — I’m unfamiliar with them until now.) I’ve got dozens, maybe hundreds of screenshots from the past 15+ years of pirate outfits illegally selling my work, often in unauthorized formats, and the fact that I’ve never made a dime from my creative writing despite great publication “success” while some asshats somewhere else actually could be, have been or are making money off my work still ticks me off. But this takes the cake because while I’ve seen places selling some of my books for $25, $50, $75 and a bit more, look at this screenshot! They’re offering two versions of PLACES (neither of which were ever or have been or are offered by the publisher or approved by me, so again, assumption is not remotely legal or authorized) for insane prices: a PDF version for $299.99 and an audiobook version for $499.99!!! Um, what??? WTH would pay half that for anything of mine? I actually wonder if this is just a cover for something else because while some of my books have actually maintained a high collector’s value as they’re OOP and some in limited editions, that’s for real copies of a paperback, often used and allegedly signed by me at some point.
Anyway, I’ve gone on too long so I’m going to post this screenshot and I’m going to follow with a couple of screenshots of legit online bookstores selling some of my legit books legitimately (though the prices are still shockingly high — you can get some of these for a fraction at Amazon or from me on my own website!). Cheers! — Scott Holstad
Almost certainly pirated versions of my 1995 book PLACES for sale in formats never released or authorized for utterly insane prices — $300 & $500!
Screenshots of legit online bookstores selling tactile, presumably “legit,” versions of a number of my books, some signed, some new, most for far more than you’d pay new on Amazon or from me on this website.
