Ebook Protection?

Has anyone ever published and sold an ebook?

I know about watermarking and turning editing off of the PDF file. I’m not sure what else I need to do. I see some programs online but idk if it’s worth it.

Don’t know about publishing, but I’m an ebook consumer. I don’t think I’ve ever read or will read a book with watermarking. And basically can’t use PDF on my 6” ereader.

PDF is only read-friendly on large ereaders and iPads, if formatted well, if those are part of your target market. PDFs just don’t fit screens well for reading. Highlighting, links, etc. Also aren’t the most reader-friendly and frequently impossible.

Epubs auto-adjust to the screen size and are the go-to.

All of the widely used DRM methods have already been broken. The biggest problem is getting your ebook to show up high on recommendations and relevant searches. Trying to fight piracy on a software level is a losing battle.

1 Like

It’s not a novel so I don’t think people are going to use e readers. It’s a informational guide with illustrations.

I’m going to sell it on my website for download. I just don’t want anyone copying it to sell or taking parts of it and giving it out as their own content.

1 Like

We have our own platform to sell to our target audience.

Once it’s released, you won’t be able to do anything about redistribution, but if you’re lucky, there will be few in your target audience that would participate in piracy. Don’t be surprised if it shows up on another platform with a slightly altered title. The market for what you are describing is exceptionally small most likely.

I don’t know much about it (or how secure it is), but doesn’t it involve something like this? I think I’ve had to do something like that before for some online contract or confidential document or something.

1 Like

Public Key Cryptography is a good idea, I knew about having a password but not a generated public key that can’t be passed on. Thanks

1 Like

All that will do is piss off consumers and delay the pirate a few hours.

1 Like

The book will be for a very niche market of people with a very specific profession. It’s unlikely anyone is willing to spend the time to pirate it if there’s some basic safeguard. They would also have to be in this industry to find people to sell it to. I’m more worried people will pass it onto other people in the same field.

Yes, eventually someone will just capture the pages and create a new document free of protection. But if you ask people to mess around with keys, most won’t like the annoyance. You need to be very clear about this before the sale. If you aren’t, you’re more likely to get that guy whose gonna give it to all the others in the field.

1 Like

I kind of agree with wee. But as mentioned, if your book is.specific and niche (and usefull…) that inconvenience isnt that important anymore. If it serves a purpose that isnt easily found elsewhere people dont mind typing a few letters and reading directions. At the same time, just a matter of time until its free everywhere as wee says. Great for the consumer, terrible for the provider. Seems a good idea to make other ways to profit from this other than direct sales.

1 Like

The ebook will be a small part of the business. Most of what we will sell are actual products.

1 Like

How about giving the ebook away with purchases or for joining a sales letter?

Honestly, I don’t think sales letter will be the most effective way to market. The business is in the beauty industry, almost all of our clients are going to be women. They will be checking their IG for us, pictures and interaction through social media has worked very well for us building a following so far. We already give away free educational posts already, part of why people follow us.

From this, we will launch our own products and ebook.

Do you have an army of shills? Just give a bunch of women some free samples in exchange for a review.

We have an interesting problem. I won’t mention specifics of which specific beauty industry we are in. But our products are specific to people who provide a service. Think nail technicians or hair dresser. Our products can’t be used by individuals on their own, it’s for the people who provide the service.

So we can’t market really market towards people who may want the product for the service, but people who use the product to provide the service. It makes reviews rather useless unless they are from someone who has a large following from other people in that industry. So for example, a nail tech educator who teaches, her followers will be other nail techs and not people who want their nails painted.

So its probably more along the lines of a technical guide/book? If so, i wouldnt.worry about people being too lazy to type securty keys, even in the beautification industry. If they need you, they will bend over for the info. And if it compliments your products or services, sounds great. protect it, they will follow. Even social medi a drones. Perhaps also dont put every trade secret in print, create the need for your personal service and you wont be replacaeble.

2 Likes

I knew a guy who did something similar. Sold high end hair dryers to salons but not to normal buyers. I think they were produced in Da An and he often traveled between Taipei and other places for sales trips.

1 Like

Luckily, social media and the internet allows us to do direct sales easily online so we don’t have to go to place to place.

We started about 2 months ago and have over 3000 followers now. It’s not a lot but considering we started with 0 just 2 months ago, it’s going well. We are almost ready to launch the products and ebook.

Unfortunately, the thing holding us back is government paperwork and taxes. Government services are either completely down or slow here so we can’t legally do a lot of things.

1 Like