Commentary: Online book-selling scams steal a living from writers

American authors are hurting. Surveys done by the Authors Guild show that the median income of authors from writing has declined 42% in the last 10 years. Well over half of full-time, published authors now earn below the individual poverty level from their writing.

While there are many reasons for this, one factor is the surge in book-selling scams: counterfeiting, author "doppelganging," title cloning, ebook piracy, cut-and-paste plagiarism and other rip-offs - many of which