Quote:
Originally Posted by Ghitulescu
Why would one buy something he can obtain for free?
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Bleh, we release all of our books for free as EPUB + PDF, and charge for the Physical book + Kindle versions.
Just because something has no DRM and can be gotten for free, doesn't mean that people won't pay for the bundle of services that Amazon provides: convenience, ease of use, syncing location/notes to a multitude of devices, etc. etc.
While you will never stamp out piracy completely, easy to use + cheap alternatives can drive down a lot of it (see Netflix, Spotify, Amazon).
I mean heck, there are lots of people who don't know how to download a book from Project Gutenberg or MobileRead's EPUB/MOBI sections, but they sure know how to purchase that sweet $.99 version off of Amazon.
I also recommend watching this video, "Michael Masnick The Trent Reznor case study". You must CwF + RtB:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Njuo1puB1lg
There are a lot of indirect benefits of giving away certain goods for free.
Quote:
Originally Posted by AnemicOak
Publishers who have gone DRM-free, notably Tor, have noted no decrease in sales since dropping DRM.
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The different formats also become complimentary goods. Instead of me paying for multiple versions of the same book, you can grab the PDF, EPUB, MOBI no problems. I just get whatever format suits me best. Similar to Amazon bundling an ebook version with a physical purchase of a book (or offering the ebook version for a severely reduced price).
Maybe a PDF can be used if I wanted to do more serious reading/referencing page numbers, while EPUB would be for more casual reading/absorbing the ideas, or reading on the go. I see each of the formats as benefiting eachother. In our case, you are free to grab the PDF and see EXACTLY what you would be purchasing with a physical copy of the book.
The more ways you can get your book out there, the more readers can read it, the better!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Arkadian
For now I have selected epub and azw3, along with the ever popular pdf.
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I think that should be plenty choice... What would you say?
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Yep yep, the market is pretty much MOBI (Amazon) + EPUB (B&N + everyone else). Sometimes if the book is complex, or has some very specific coding, the publishers will create another EPUB specifically for iBooks.
PDF will be a decent option for anyone else, although you would most likely have to sell/give that directly from your own site.
You might want to take a look at the MobileRead Wiki for a huge list of stores, perhaps you might find some minor players who would be able to handle PDF sales:
https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/E-book_stores
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ghitulescu
I wouldn't go the PDF way.
It looks fine only on big screen devices (like computers). On small devices, like eReaders and maybe smartphones, reading a non-flowable(fixed size page, eg like image-PDFs), is a PITA to read.
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I agree about PDF being subpar (at least for my preferences), although depending on how your sales setup is, you could always offer alternative dimensions of PDFs. An 8.5"x11" as a 'printer friendly version', 7"x10" or 6"x9" depending on how long the book is, something smaller with no/little margins for Mobile, etc. etc.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Arkadian
my reason for getting a pdf as well is simply because I don't expect large numbers of my readers to actually own an e-reader, so they would be able to read my e-book (whin, BTW, is there to complement my niche site) on their computer. If they owned it I don't expect them to select that option.
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You know your customers better than us. You have to decide what is best! Every situation is unique. But if you are in the US, the general advice is definitely get the book for sale on Amazon + B&N (and everywhere else that supports EPUB).