[gruez]

>The more people who pirate my books, the greater my sales across all platforms.

You think more piracy leads to more sales, but surely this is correlation, not causation? It seems far more plausible that popular books get pirated and bought more, hence the correlation.

[shakna]

I mostly sell by word of mouth. You've certainly never heard of my books before. I am in no way "popular".

Piracy creates an invested reader. Its not much different than games selling by offering free demos.

There is a _causation_ there, because the reader likely never would have discovered me, otherwise.

[thaumasiotes]

It could be pure correlation if you, personally, are a household name. If you're secretly Stephen King commenting on Hacker News, then yes, exposure isn't going to help you.

But if you're not Stephen King, then more piracy is going to make a direct, causal, positive impact on your sales.