OnlineBookClub.org

I think this would be a good place to discuss file protection.

If you value your book, then you should probably only send a PDF to a very trusted friend.

Another point, if you take Kindle's 70% royalty, then people are allowed to lend your book through Kindle Lendle. While there's nothing unethical about this (similar to loaning a paperback), you the author receive no money for that loan.

Also, at the 70% royalty rate, your book can be acquired through Kindle Unlimited users (people who pay a monthly fee for eBook access on Amazon). Now, Amazon is very smooth-tongued about how much you get paid for this, but more often than not, you get paid nothing. (I'd love to see evidence to the contrary.)

To protect yourself from not receiving returns on your book being read, you may accept the 35% royalty option, which is a gyp, but what else can you do? (At the bottom of the details page, make sure that "allow lending for this book" is unchecked. It's automatically checked if your royalty is 70%.)

Obviously this bites, because buyers don't understand why a Kindle book would be priced so high. Corporate greed!!

I went down a dark road online a few nights ago and tried to find free downloads of my book on unauthorized sites. I found a few sites that referenced my book, and then when I clicked further, all of those sites led to one same site. I don't recall what the site was, but I created a profile and signed up for a free trial. Then I searched for my book by title, my name, etc., and fortunately I did not find my book. Just big name stuff--best sellers, etc.

I then emailed the site to cancel my membership, saying, "Hey, I just wanted to make sure you weren't pirating my book."

They cancelled my membership five minutes later. I guess that's the way to do it.

What I think we can discuss in this thread is file types. I'm not familiar with mobi files, for example, and what function they serve. Which file types are protected? Any thoughts or information along that line would be useful.

I am glad for you your books weren't pirating. Files types are files that can be read on different devices. Kindle uses mobi files for instance. Amazon has installed DRM on the ebooks to prevent pirating and some other selling sites do the same.

Thanks for that info!!

Just speaking from a reader's point of view, I don't like mobi files. I can read them with the kindle apps from my laptop/tablet/phone, it is true, but it always feel kind of clumsy. I prefer epub files. They can get DRM protection too, so don't worry! Then you can read them with ease on a great number of devices, using your adobe id. Which I keep forgetting, along with my password, but this is another story

So this might seem like a silly question, but would you ever consider allowing people to pirate your books as a means of marketing? I've read in more than one E-Book publishing self-help book that sometimes it's better to allow one or two books to go out for free so that people can get a feel for your writing style. That's why many e-book series have the first book free, but then you have to buy the rest in the series (because, presumedly, if you're looking for the next books in the series you're probably hooked enough to buy them). I'm sure it's different for self-publishing authors and big-wigs such as Stephen King who can allow a few to slip through the cracks, but what do you think?

i think a better approach might be a marketing campaign where you give away a few free copies to say, the first 10 readers that email you or make a facebook post about your book and link back to you, or even a twitter hashtag campaign. I do think that publicity is good, but I don't think turning a blind eye to pirating is a good thing.

gali wrote:I am glad for you your books weren't pirating. Files types are files that can be read on different devices. Kindle uses mobi files for instance. Amazon has installed DRM on the ebooks to prevent pirating and some other selling sites do the same.

Amazon's DRM is powerful. One thing you can do for PDFs is add a disclaimer inside that it is NOT a distribution copy. Then if it is put on a pirate website and you try to take action they won't have a leg to stand on. Another is watermarks (instafreebie and bookfunnel both watermark). It is impossible to keep sites from getting a book, but 90% of the time if it isn't a distribution copy they will take it down upon request.

In general, though, I would say write another book and hope that a reader who pirates might become a fan or recommend to a friend. Pirating your book 1,000 times could mean 1,000 new readers, and if the alternative is 0 paid readers then it is worth it to let them pirate.

I guess if it is part of the strategy then make sure the Paper book is also available on all Book Store. So that when the pirated go viral then those who are interested to have their Paper book instead of an e-book they can have it available.