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Old 12-20-2007, 09:20 AM   #79
Steven Lyle Jordan
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In truth, probably not.

You accurately summed up the market as-is for books and e-books, most importantly, the fact that there is a "risk" of piracy. As we've been saying around here, e-book publishers have to figure out a way to deal with and accept the expected losses that come with electronic files, just as they do in print.

If you are selling an e-book, and concerned about one purchaser sharing their e-books with too many, you may need to look into (dare I say it?) a way to secure your copies with DRM (say, using the PDF passwords function, going through a DRM-capable publisher, or tying your books to specific hardware like Sony or Amazon). However, there are other ways of trying to deal with the issue, such as adding value to the e-book to make it more palatable to buy it... issuing a "validation certificate" to each purchaser... lowering the e-book price, to remove the "burden" of paying for it...

...or, simply appealing to their sense of honesty and asking them not to rip you off.

No, none of these methods are perfect. Guess what? There are no perfect methods to remove "shrinkage" in the print world, either. In the end, all you can do is take some steps and hope for the best.

If you really feel that producing e-books will be counter-productive for you, wait. The market will get better down the road... maybe now is not the right time for you. But if you're willing to take a chance that you can figure out the best selling model for e-books, netting maximum profits and minimum losses, and coincidentally lead the way for the rest of us... go for it.
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