Ebook Piratey: What Can You Safeguard Your Ebook? -

Last updated: 5 Oct 2022

You may have spent several months or even years on the ebook. After that, you've published it to huge excitement, into every corner of the globe. It's made a few revenue ... though it's not as large as you'd prefer.

Then, one day, you search your ebook's title, hoping that you will find an article or even tweets about the book. But to your horror it turns up on websites where it is possible to download the book at no cost.

Your eBook was stolen. All your hard work is given away at no cost on a shady website.

It's an upsetting moment to any writer. Your first instinct, of course, is probably to figure out how to prevent pirates from taking over your work. It's possible that this listing could be just the tip of the of the iceberg.

But what do you do? (And do you actually have to do anything?) The following information will help you be aware of to safeguard your eBook.

What does it mean to Ebook Piracy?

Your ebook can be pirated if allowed without permission.

It comes in a variety of types:

• Someone buys your ebook and distributes it to their acquaintances or acquaintances. This may be carried out in a manner which is unintentional (they aren't aware that they shouldn't be sharing the ebook) or maybe even in a deliberate way.
• The book you write is uploaded to the internet so that people can download it. This is what many authors are thinking of when they consider ebook piracy. There's a multitude of websites out there - though (as we'll discover further!) they often boast that they have an ebook on offer, however they're not.
• Your eBook is offered for sale by another user ... with or without your approval. They're taking all profit from it. It's not as prevalent as other types of piracy but it's definitely been reported to be happening.

Others types of Ebook Theft

The second issue that could be an issue is copying work from you and using it as your own. It's not what people refer to as "piracy" but it can cause a lot of damage. Also, it is a violation of the law, since it is a violation of your copyright.

There is also the possibility of someone stealing part of your writing and integrates it in their own work with no permission or naming you as the author. This is considered plagiarism.

If you do there is a legal rights. You may find this, but you don't have to do in that direction. Simply telling that people not to do something and threating legal action may be sufficient.

Combat Ebook Piracy With DRM (Digital Rights Management)

What can you do to stop ebook piracy?

Another choice that is increasingly popular is to employ DRM (Digital Rights Management) devices to protect your data. There are a variety of ways to accomplish this, such as stopping users from sharing or forwarding your book.

It can definitely stop pirates. It's particularly effective in stopping people from purchasing the book and exchanging it with friends.

DRM's negatives and drawbacks

Unfortunately, DRM isn't bulletproof. Some pirates may be capable of evading it in either way. No matter what your eBook's security level is, nothing could stop someone from accessing it on one device, and then retyping that same information onto another. This is obviously a lengthy process which is one reason pirates would not have any problem with it.

Another problem that comes with the use with DRM is that it could hinder the usersas as for organizations who do not support DRM for reasons such as D.B.D.. If you have a legitimate customer who has bought your book might find it hard to download the book and use it in the way they'd like to. That's certainly not something you'd prefer to happen because this could deter them from buying from you later on.

Hugh Howey, a bestselling self-published author of science fiction discusses his views about DRM as follows:

I would like it to be simple for other users to access my work. That meant never putting DRM on my electronic books. It is the protection provided by digital rights management which is a hindrance to change my books' content and copy them elsewhere and all the rest. I was hoping to give buyers a reward without worrying about pirates.

Using DRM for Social DRM

Social DRM is the process that permits customers to have the ebook printed, or watermarked, using data that includes the buyer's email address and date of purchase. This is possible for PDF documents. This doesn't adversely affect the users, but it could discourage pirates (as it's obvious who used the document).

What can I do to ensure the safety of my work?

Another way to help make piracy harder - again without affecting your readers by any means is limit the ways you let your book be downloaded by your customers.

The software also stops users from sharing their download URL in a public forum.

It's best practice to allow individuals to download your ebook at minimum three times. If you let them download it once there is a risk of problems if they lose the file they downloaded, or download it to several devices (instead of simply copying it across).

An effective way to satisfy the needs of users and prevent pirates is to establish a limit of 5 downloads. This is the default option when you use .

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The Best Way to Respond when someone steals your Ebook

How do you respond to someone who provides an eBook for free, thereby which is denying the author any revenue?

If you're the victim of copycats The following are the options:

• Get in touch with the website (if the site has contact information). In some situations asking the pirates to take your book off their shelves could suffice. They might not be willing to engage with you any further.
• Create to send a DMCA notification to the website hosting provider (you will find this information at whois.net). DMCA is known as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. There's no formula standard to follow for a DMCA notice of removal the copyright, however it should include specific elements.

There are a few emails templates in the Google Doc, for both direct contact with pirates, in addition to releasing the DMCA notice.

What Are the Signs That Your Ebook is Being Pirated

Some authors find out about illegally published books when a reader emails to inform the author of the problem.

The majority of pirates will never be reported to the user. If you want to know if your ebook is being pirated, you could:

1. Look up your book's ISBN on Google

The name of your publication and"download "download" to Google and then see what results come to the screen. You may find websites which offer (or claim to have) your book for sale.

You must be aware of what you are clicking on be sure to utilize a trusted antivirus program in active use to safeguard your system. A majority of websites that are pirated contain fake advertisements or worse.

2. Create Google Alerts

It's possible to set up Google Alerts to know when your book get mentioned on the internet. This is a fantastic way to be on top of the most recent reviews or discussion about your book. It can also assist you in figuring out whether your book has been stolen.

3. Use tools like Mention.com

Mention.com works similarly to Google Alerts. It provides advanced features, for instance, the capacity to get daily updates as well as the capability to be notified when there's a sudden rush of mentions of the name of your novel or the writer.

Commonly asked questions

These are some common questions are frequently asked by people about the piratey of books:

Do I have to copyright My Ebook?

No. In the majority of nations, your work is copiedrighted by default as soon as you've completed the writing. You don't need change anything in order to be copyrighted. The majority of authors include an acknowledgement of copyright in the middle or the end of the book. However, it's not mandatory.

The site has my book to download ... But do they really the owners of the book?

The majority of the time, no! There are many websites that offer eBooks for free, however they're not able to provide books. However, as Dave Chesson describes that they're working to get people to pay for a subscription on their website ... as well trying to distribute viruses and malware.

Is it Worth Spending My effort in fighting Piracy?

When you're a brand fresh author ... probably it won't. You could spend an enormous amount of effort fighting the problem of piracy however this won't impact your sales of your book in the slightest.

As per this report by the Alliance of Independent Authors it states:

"Chasing off pirates who likely don't violate the copyright of your business or affecting the sales of your book is not a good idea. The time and energy you spend on this is that could be better used for improving your writing, editing, your advertisements, improving description of your book, or any other activity that will contribute to the success of your business."

A good example of when it's sensible to take on the issue of pirates is when they dominate the results of a search. If sites belonging to pirates are ranking very prominently on Google, in cases like the mentioned by Tim Grahl writes about, the need to take action:

"My author friend was caught in one of those situations where the third search result for Google to search for the title of his book was a foreign site which allowed access to the PDF of the book free of cost."

Should I Be Worried About Ebook Piracy?

Also, if you're not an established author, then probably not. Being obscure is a greater threat for the majority of authors. If the readers aren't aware about the existence of your book it is impossible for them to purchase them.

There are those who think piracy can be helpful to authors, because it gets your work into the hands of a lot people ... some of which could be paying readers.

If you're a veteran author but you could be noticing that piracy could hurt your book sales. YA author Maggie Stiefvater wrote about her experiences with this on her Facebook page and shared how printed sales from the third novel in the trilogy was much greater than the ebook sales and also how this piracy affected her next book in the trilogy.

After that, the publisher told me that they had reduced the print run for The Raven King to less than half the printing run of Blue Lily, Lily Blue. It's not a problem, I know I was told by them However, the amount for Blue Lily didn't justify printing more copies.

Maggie Stiefvater was able prove the fact that pirated copies hurt sales by publishing a false pirated copy of the book's fourth edition. The four chapters that comprised the first chapter in the book were repeated. The book's printing run sold out and the book's sales were on the rise (until real copies of the book started getting pirated).

Writer Elizabeth Lennox related a similar tale which involved piracy and the sales dropping significantly:

One time I noticed my sales had reduced by half. I was stunned. It was hard to understand the cause , until my husband informed me that he'd stumbled across my books on pirate sites. After that, we got a lawyer hired to deliver remove notices. The within a day sales started rising.

It's a fact that book piratey will not disappear from the scene. It's your responsibility to decide whether it's worth it to fight it or not. Most new authors, it makes better to concentrate your efforts on advertising your novel ... and writing the next one.

If you're beginning to notice an increase in sales or the piracy sites rank extremely prominently on Google when you search for the title of your book or author's name, then it's an suitable time to act to address it. Issuing DMCA Notices are the best remedy for the issue: Keep in mind that you can check the templates that are easy to use on this Google doc.

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