Charles Ardai

Charles Ardai, the publisher for Hard Case Crime, the publisher of Stephen King’s latest book Joyland which King elected not to release as an e-book yet, has been in touch with Mediabistro’s AppNewser about potential piracy of the e-book. All in all, he doesn’t seem too bothered. The book would have been pirated no matter [...]

The post Joyland publisher not too worried about e-book piracy appeared first on TeleRead: News and views on e-books, libraries, publishing and related topics.

When Stephen King announced that his latest novel, Joyland, would be published in a print-only edition with indie publisher Hard Case Crime, the move seemed to demonstrate support for his publisher, some faith in traditional publishing, and a savvy publicity move.

Almost as soon as it was released, however, the book was available online as a pirated ebook, along with a wide variety of King’s other titles.

A 15-year-old Charles Ardai wanted to interview Isaac Asimov for a magazine article about a new videogame based on the latter’s novel Robots of Dawn. Ardai called up the science-fiction writer’s publisher, Doubleday, and said, “I’d like to interview Isaac Asimov for an article about his new video game.”

“That’s great, but we can’t give out his number,” the Doubleday employee replied.

“No, no, he gave me his phone number,” bluffed Ardai. “But something got spilled on it and I just can’t read it.”

As the founder of Internet service provider Juno, Charles Ardai knows a thing or two about making a big splash on the Web. When Ardai sold his company in 2001, the entrepreneur and writer, then all of 32 years old, decided to pursue his dream of reviving the pulp-fiction genre by starting his own publishing company, Hard Case Crime. He knew from the beginning that success would require good online-selling tools. “It’s a pretty popular genre,” Ardai notes, “but it is a genre, and there is a certain fan base that loves this stuff. If you can find one of those fans, the