Re: ebook security

Howard -- are you going to make enough money from the legitimate sales 
of your first two books to adequately pay for the time you spent working 
on them?

If the answer is yes, then write a third one. If the answer is no, then 
don't. End of story. The fact that people are pirating your books has no 
bearing on whether it's a rational choice for you to write another one.

Better still, do some research. How many people would have bought one of 
your books if they hadn't found a pirated copy? How many bought one of 
your books AFTER they found a pirated copy? How many people now 
recognise your name as that of an expert in the field thanks to a 
pirated copy of one of your books? Once you can answer questions like 
this you can determine whether the situation is a 'problem' or not. Till 
then all you are doing is expressing moral outrage.

Jon.

Howard B wrote:
> Greetings all --
>
> Publishing only a printed and bound copy is not a significant deterrent to
> piracy.
>
> I have two technical books that are available only printed and only from my
> websites.  They have a limited audience, but within that audience they are
> extremely popular.  There are dozens of pirate sites that offer pdf
> downloadable copies of my books -- some free, some for pay, some want an
> exchange of some other document or computer program.  If I can believe the
> download statistics on those sites, some of them are selling more copies
> than I am.  Some of the sites are asking as much for a pirate pdf copy as I
> ask for the printed copy.  Some pirates are making significantly more money
> from my books than I am.
>
> Some of the pdf copies are high quality.  It appears that the binding has
> been removed and the pages fed through a high resolution scanner.
>
> Occasionally one of the pirate copies will be posted on a civilized site
> hosted in a civilized country.  In those cases, I can contact the host and
> ask them to remove the copyrighted content, which they usually do.  More
> often, it is not possible to identify the host.  Or if I can, and then do
> contact them, my request is ignored.
>
> One friend says I should not worry.  He thinks the people who download
> pirate copies would probably not be buyers of the printed version, and some
> of them may decide the book is worth having a printed copy and buy one,
> resulting in a net gain for me.  He is also fond of telling me that any
> publicity is good, even if it comes at a price of lost sales.  I wish there
> was a way to determine if he is correct.
>
> I am (or maybe was) in the process of writing a third volume that is closely
> related to the first two.  I am now wondering if I should bother.
>
> Suggestions for dealing with this problem are welcome.
>
> Thanks,
> Howard
> www.blueowlpress.com
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
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