author vs pirates

[hitchhiker]

https://www.thepassivevoice.com/a-story-about-piracy/

interesting (and very entertaining) story about how one author took on ebook piracy.

Comments

[cjsmith]

Interesting. The comments add a bit of vinegar, to be sure.

[hitchhiker]

wow, yeah, i hadn't read the comments but they did get into a pretty spirited back and forth on the economics of ebooks and self-publishing

[elgecko]

That plugs one unique leak. It took a relatively short amount of time to break Kindle DRM. But really, the content is uncontrollable the very second it leaves your hands.

This technology is only going to get cheaper.

http://scannernote.com/best-book-scanner/

[hitchhiker]

sure, but authors need to try anyway.

[elgecko]

Oh, absolutely! I totally agree. I'm just saying it's a losing battle. Any business model that rests on content not getting pirated is doomed to fail. If it can't be pirated today, it can be pirated by next Tuesday.

I don't know if it's true but there's a legend that when Jobs started up iTunes, one exec asked "How do you intend to compete with free?" The answer was "Go ask the bottled water people."

[hitchhiker]

one thing a lot of people have pointed out is that, while you can't compete with free on price, your product absolutely has to be as *convenient* to get as the pirated version. that seems to have worked out pretty well for kindle books e.g.

[elgecko]

Indeed. My book consumption since the lockdown has been HEAVILLY weighted to my local library. Audible emailed to say they miss me.