Ebook Piratey: How Do You Securing Your Ebook? -

 The last update was October 5, 2022

You've spent months, maybe many years writing your ebook. It's now out, with huge excitement, into the world. There have been some sales ... although maybe not as many as you'd prefer.

Then, a couple of days later after that, you enter your book's name hoping you might find some feedback or even tweets about the subject. But to your horror you discover that there are sites offering the ebook at no cost.

Your book is pirated. All your hard labor is given away to anybody who comes across a suspect web site.

This can be a very difficult moment for any author. The first reaction, naturally will be to figure out ways to stop pirates. There is a chance that this may just be the beginning of an of the iceberg.

What can you do? (And do you even need to do anything whatsoever?) These are the things you need to know about how to protect your work.

What exactly is Ebook Piracy?

The term "ebook piracy" is used to describe the situation when an book you have purchased is used without your permission.

It is available in many forms:

• The person who purchases your book after which they share it with friends or acquaintances. This may be unintentionally (they don't realize they shouldn't be sharing it) or even in a planned way.
• The book you wrote was posted on an online platform for others to download. This is what writers are thinking of when they think about ebook piracy. There are many websites available but (as we'll find out more!) websites often say they offer an ebook, but they do not.
• Your book is distributed by someone else ... with or without your permission. They're taking all the profits. This isn't as prevalent when compared to other types of piracy , but it's documented to happen.

Other Types of Ebook Theft

Another problem is that someone else is copying your work , and then making it appear as their original work. The majority of people don't consider "piracy" however it could be extremely damaging. It's also against the law as it violates the rights of copyright.

Also, there is the chance that someone takes part or the entire work that you created and incorporates the work into their own, with no permission from you and not acknowledging that you are the author. This would be the definition of plagiarism.

If you're involved in one of these cases the law provides legally-enforceable rights. You may find but you don't need to take it that in the way you think. Just telling people to cease and threaten them with legal action may be enough.

Fighting Ebook Piracy With DRM (Digital Rights Management)

So what can you do to stop the piracy of ebooks?

Another popular option is the use of DRM (Digital Rights Management) tools for protecting your personal information. There are a variety of ways to do this, for instance by restricting the sharing of information or forwarding the ebook.

It is a great way to discourage pirates. It's especially effective at stopping people from purchasing the book or distributing it to acquaintances.

DRM's drawbacks DRM

Sadly, DRM isn't bulletproof. Certain pirates will be capable of evading it in one manner or the other. However well-protected your ebook can be, nothing could stop someone openly browsing it using one device and retyping the same information onto another. It's true that it could be time-consuming , and that's why many pirates wouldn't take the time to think about it.

Another big problem of DRM is that it may cause numerous problems for readersas as for organizations who are against DRM due to this such as the notorious Defective By Design. The legitimate customers who've purchased the book might find it challenging to download it and also read what they like to read. This is not what you'd want to see happen since it can turn them off from purchasing your product at a later date.

Hugh Howey, a bestselling self-published author of science fiction, describes his approach to DRM like this:

I had been hoping that it would be equally easy for other people to have access to my work. That meant I could never put DRM on my ebooks. It is the security offered by the digital rights management system that renders it impossible to convert my book , or transfer books to a different format, and all the rest. I was hoping to give buyers a reward without worrying about theft of my book.

Making use of DRM in Social DRM

Social DRM refers to a method that allows customers to have their ebook marked or watermarked with information like the buyer's email address as well as the date of purchase. This can be done in PDF files. The effect will not be detrimental to the user, but it could hinder piratey (as it is clear who downloaded the file).

What else should I do to ensure the safety of My Job?

An easy way to limit the possibility of piracy and then again, without adversely impacting the customer experience - is to restrict the frequency at which your book can be downloaded by users.

It also prevents users from sharing their download link to anyone else.

It's a good idea to allow individuals to download your ebook at minimum three times. If you let them download your ebook one time this could cause problems when they erase the file it downloaded, or should they decide to download the file to multiple devices (instead of copying it across).

An ideal way to satisfy the user's requirements and stopping pirates is to establish limits of five downloads. This is the standard when you use .

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What Should You Do If you are the victim of an illegal copyright Ebook

How can you respond when somebody is offering to give an ebook for free, thereby depriving you of any revenue?

If somebody copies your work If someone duplicates your work you're at risk:

• Contact them (if the website has contact details). In some instances asking the pirates to take down your ebook may be enough. They may not want any hassle for you later on.
• Send an DMCA notification to the web hosting company (you can find this info on whois.net). DMCA is known as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. There isn't a standard formula to use to create the DMCA notice of takedown, however, it must contain specific elements.

It is possible to find emails templates within this Google Doc, when it comes to direct contact with pirates, and also when distributing the DMCA notification.

How Can You Tell If your book is being stolen

In some cases, authors learn about a pirated ebook after a reader is concerned and sends emails to inform them.

But most piracy won't be disclosed to the person who stole it. If you're interested in knowing how much of the eBook you purchased is being stolen, it's possible to:

1. Search for your book on Google

The name of your book and"download "download" to Google and check what results come up. You may find websites that possess - - or claim to have! - your book available.

Take care when you click Be sure, however, to have good anti-virus software installed and active to protect yourself. A majority of pirate sites have a lot of questionable advertising, or even more dangerous.

2. Install Google Alerts

The book could be set up with Google Alerts to know when you and your book appear on the internet. This is a great way to keep current on the most recent reviews or discussions concerning your book. It can also let you determine if your work is being stolen.

3. Use tools like Mention.com

Mention.com works like Google Alerts. It provides advanced features, like the ability to receive daily summary emails, and you can also get emails when there's an upsurge of references in your name or to the name of your book.

Most frequently asked questions

Here are a few questions people frequently have about pirated books:

Do I need to copyright My Ebook?

No. Many countries accept that your book's copyright is granted automatically once you've completed your book. You don't need to make any changes to copyright it. The majority of authors include the acknowledgement of copyright in either the beginning or the end of their book. However, this isn't a requirement.

There's a website which lists my ebook for downloading ... however, do they actually have the book?

Most of the time, there won't be any! Numerous websites offer ebooks for download for free, but they don't have them. But, as Dave Chesson explains the reason, they're trying make people sign up to subscriptions on their website ... in addition to trying to spread viruses and malware.

Do I really need to spend my time trying to stop Piracy?

If you're a novice author ... probably not. You could spend hours trying to end the problem of piracy, however, it's not impacting your book sales at all.

As per this article from the Alliance of Independent Authors offers:

"Chasing off pirates that aren't infringing on the copyright of your business or negatively impacting profits of your business is inefficient. That's time and effort more efficiently spent in writing, editing, refining the quality of your marketing, polishing up your descriptions for your books and a myriad of different activities that contribute to a greater degree to your prosperity."

One time it does make sense to tackle the pirates is when they are the most prominent search results. If pirate-related websites appear to rank highly on Google in situations like the one involving Tim Grahl's posts, it's time to act:

"My writer friend was in the situation where the third result in Google in search of the name for the novel was an online site that allowed you to download the PDF version of the book free of charge."

Should I Be Worried About Ebook Piracy?

In addition, if you're new to the writing world You're likely not. The risk of being viewed as obscure is much greater danger for authors. If you are announcing your work to the world and they don't have the money to buy them.

Some people even think that pirates are beneficial to authors because the books are in the hands of a larger number of people ... Some of which might be paid users.

If you're an established author, but you could find that piracy has a negative effect on the sales of your books. YA author Maggie Stiefvater shared her experiences of this on her Facebook page and shared how her book's print sales for the third installment in the series were significantly higher than those of ebooks. She also explained the way pirates affected her next novel within the series.

After that, the publisher informed me they had cut the print run of The Raven King to less than half the print run for Blue Lily, Lily Blue. There's no hard feelings here, remember, they told me, it's just that the sales for Blue Lily didn't justify printing any more copies.

Maggie Stiefvater demonstrated that pirated books were hurting sales by releasing their own fake pirated version of the fourth volume where the initial four chapters repeated. The book was printed out of print, and eBook sales increased significantly (until real copies of the ebook started being pirated).

The writer Elizabeth Lennox related a similar story which resulted an obvious decrease in sales

One day I noticed that sales for my business had down by fifty percent. I was shocked. I was awed. It was only when my husband told me that they had found my book on pirated sites. After that, we engaged a lawyer to mail removal notices, and the next day, sales began to increase again.

In the end, book theft will not go out of fashion. It's up to you to decide whether you're willing to take on the issue or not. If you're a majority of new authors, it's likely to be logical to use your time instead of advertising your book ... as well as creating your next.

If you're noticing a noticeable decrease in sales, it's not evident if the sites selling piracy copies are ranking very highly on Google for your book's name or for the name of your writer, then it's an appropriate time to do something regarding the issue. The issue of DMCA Notices is the best solution to the problem Be mindful that you'll be able to get templates that are easy to use in this Google Doc.

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