Should i choose drm

It is important to note that once you publish your book, this decision regarding DRM cannot be changed. The main advantage to enabling DRM on your eBook is that is adds an extra layer of protection to prevent unauthorized sharing of your copyrighted work.

However, enabling DRM will not stop all piracy. There are ways to strip the DRM from the eBook. For some authors, enabling DRM on their eBooks is one way they can protect their copyrighted work. They do not like the thought of someone stealing from them and will do anything they can to prevent it from happening. Unfortunately, what often happens with DRM is that it penalizes the customers of your book. Many readers like to have access to their digital books on multiple devices.

However, DRM can prevent them from having access to the book they bought on non-Kindle devices. This can be annoying to the customer and may even result in lost book sales as some readers will refuse to buy books that are DRM enabled. I want people to be able to read my books as easily as possible, and DRM is a potential barrier to that. Piracy is a separate issue. But look. I'm an obscure writer of short fiction who got drunk enough and pompous enough to self-publish an anthology one rainy weekend in Absolutely no one cares enough about my work to 'pirate' my book.

And I suspect that applies to most of the other authors here. And amazed. Jan 23, AM. I used DRM on my novel and first collection of short stories. My second collection, two novelettes and a short-short, is DRM-free.

The reason? One of the novelettes is a small part of my novel, and, although a complete story in itself, refers the readers to the novel if they want to know more about the character. So it's part entertainment, part advertising, and any pirating of the book just spreads the word.

Jan 23, PM. Karl wrote: "I remember when Terry Pratchett was the most shoplifted author in the UK; he was asked about it in an interview and his answer was that he was proud of the title because it meant so many people wan Piracy websites have no problem getting around it, so why bother? B You don't lose sales from e-books being pirated, because the people who visit piracy website are not interested in paying for e-books.

C On the off-chance that someone finds one of your books on a piracy website and likes your work, they can either wait for the rest to be pirated or simply buy your books. Either way, you don't lose sales, but you stand to gain sales. I don't condone piracy, but I know when it's fruitless to waste any effort on countering it.

Especially using worthless protection like DRM. Pick your battles. You will lose sales if you book is only available on Amazon. Not everyone has, nor wants, a Kindle. Is that theft? I have paid for my copy of the book, does it really matter what device I read it on? Judging by your comment, you don't want people with other devices reading your book? People who pirate books will continue to pirate and those who insist on paying for content will continue buying books.

I love that the information age makes so much available to me to read, learn, and grow. As an author, I write for myself. If my work benefits others for the better, then my writing has done it's job two-fold. If someone wants to pirate my book and read it, then they are welcome to do so.

Popular books, no matter how they got that way, are still the most popular books! Jan 24, AM. Nameless wrote: "This is idiotic! Explain to me again how that is 'idiotic'? Nameless wrote: "What???

If my story is stolen and is on a pirated website and a person is not interested in paying for my e-book? Yes I have lost a sale! Whether a person reads it or not! That is my personal property and it has been stolen from me! If your book would not be pirated, do you think the person who cannot download your book from a pirate site would go to Amazon and buy your book? Not likely. People who like free stuff don't like to pay for stuff, unless they have a good reason to do so. If you check my profile, you will see that I have three books and three short stories for sale.

Two of the short stories are available for free. They cost me just as much as the paid short story writing, editing, formatting, cover , but I give them away free. It's called a 'loss leader'. I accept the loss of income on the free stories so people can sample my work. If they like my free stories, they might read the samples of my paid books, decide that I'm worth reading and buy my books.

For the same reason I offer free review copies of my first novel, Reprobate: A Katla Novel , so if someone spots my book and wants to review it anyway, they can read the book for free. Because the value of a well-written review far outweighs the price of the book I don't work for 3. Instead, the reviewer might get interested in the other books and buy them, and their reviews might bring me new readers.

That's called marketing. If you call that 'idiotic', you clearly have no idea about the difficulties of getting noticed with 40, new books being published every week.

Nameless wrote: "I want my story sold on Amazon, and only available on Kindle. I could careless about other ereaders. OR publishing on Smashwords. The DRM bugs the people who want to steal the story. You might not care about other e-readers, but that means you disregard readers who don't want to read on Kindles. It's your prerogative, but by offering your work only on Amazon and putting outdated ineffective digital right management software on the ebooks, you're only screwing yourself.

And you might want to notice something about my post: I can reply to your insults with a civilized response. You might want to try curbing your outrage and exclamation marks. Your strident posts only show your immaturity and lack of business acumen. DRM bugs people who actually bought the story. Those who want a pirate copy know how to make one easily, or where to get one easily. Or they're just not interested, and wouldn't buy the book anyway.

Martyn V. It's unfair, but my bank account doesn't care about that. I wish my bank account were more understanding. I really do. Alas, this shall not come to pass. You just don't like being classified as a thief? You call me a thief while I stated that I don't condone piracy. Perhaps you don't know what the word 'condone' means, so I'll put it in simpler terms. I don't like people who steal ebooks and distribute them illegally.

I don't frequent their sites, so, yes, I don't like being classified as a thief. I don't steal. However, I'm aware that I live in a world filled with thieves.

That's why I lock my car, my bicycle, my motorcycles, and my house. However, if the only lock available to lock my book only hinders the readers but not the thieves, I prefer not to lock my book. Sure, thieves might copy my book, but at least I won't irritate my readers by putting DRM on my books. Nameless wrote: "No reviews needed if a person writes well enough. Word will get around. Pray tell me, how? I'm always open to marketing tips.

Many of the ebook distribution companies like Smashwords advise its authors not to opt for the DRM feature. However,depending on the type of subjects covered in the book and sales on Amazon, it is in your own interest to opt for the DRM feature, which you can choose at the time of uploading you ebook. In case the book is not so unique, better not to opt for the DRM option.

I think we know by now Nameless. It's an interesting statistic but you reposted the same info three times already. If you really don't want your book to end up on a piracy website, don't publish any e-books, but publish only in print. Nameless, you're coming across as someone who is very thin skinned, which isn't good as an author. You're going to be criticized and your opinions are going to be challenged and you're going to to need to be able to handle those situations well, which, from what I'm reading, you're not doing.

It's okay to have an opinion that you're going to stick to, but to be belligerent about it and not have an open mind to understand where other people opposed to your opinion are coming from, you're not going to get yourself anywhere.

From what I've gathered, from your opinions on DRM and about your readers which seems to be very poor , and your lack of ability to handle a debate without getting angry with others who are against your opinion, you're not an author I want to buy a book from.

You're the type of author readers avoid because they come across as awful people to know and they don't want to support those kinds of authors. As for my opinion of DRM, I use to not have an an opinion either way. I had never had an issue with it when it came to books and I didn't see how it hurt an author. Course, being a gamer, I should have known better. DRM with games is terrible and causes issue and I should have known just because I wasn't having issues with books I read, others weren't so lucky.

I've come to learn DRM really only hurts those who are true readers of an author's work. It punishes them and not any of the pirates because everyone know if a pirate wants something, they're going to do whatever it takes to get it for free. If you go onto google you'll find it's just that easy to strip DRM off a book. Is stripping DRM right?

Well it depends. Smaller and less well-funded retailers than Microsoft can and have closed up shop overnight. As a result, buyers can be left both out of pocket and lose their ebooks. Are you an author and publishing a Kindle book?

Anyone with half an ounce of technical ability can find DRM removal tools such as a DRM removal plugin for ebook software. They can then remove DRM from ebooks in 30 seconds for any copyrighted works. Nor will it limit the number of copies a determined ebook thief can make.

It is not much different from a print book. You have no way to control people who scan and copy your book in pdf. It is the exemption from direct and indirect liability of Internet service providers and other intermediaries.

Your rights to read it are for as long as the retailer allows you to do so. So forget about giving a copy to your grandchildren. When you buy any media file that is DRM protected, it can be taken away from you at any time.

Many UK Nook owners ended up with worthless devices. In , the Sony Reader store closed down. Remember that Sony was the company that pioneered ebooks. Sony directed all customers to Kobo. But now, Kobo has announced that it is ending all support for their Sony ebook customers. Over the years, many smaller online ebook stores have closed down.

In some cases, it meant the loss of purchased ebooks. If you own a Kindle, Amazon can remove access to ebooks you have legally purchased. Your Kindle serial number is linked to your purchases, so it is easy for Amazon to erase all your ebooks. While it might never happen to you, it is important to know that your ebooks are not yours to own. It is hardly the most reassuring thought for the next time you buy an ebook from a major online retailer.

You need to hover to get a short explanation and then change the tick box to remove DRM. Other platforms are more open. Kobo, in particular, makes it very clear in its product details that it sells DRM-free ebooks. Smashwords is another retailer that sells books DRM free. But you need to check its FAQs to find the details. Here is the relevant clause. But this only applies to the Smashwords store and its complying retailers. Are you a self-publishing author? You can try to help your readers by offering your books without DRM on your retailers.

As a safeguard, you should also make sure that you have saved copies of your ebooks in open file formats. You can do this by using Calibre to convert your manuscript into epub and mobi files. Saving your ebook to your Calibre library is the best insurance you can have.

With your Calibre files, you can offer your ebooks in many ways, including as an ebook download from your website. Unless you are enrolled in Amazon KDP Select , you are free to distribute your ebooks in any manner you wish. For ebook buyers, purchasing DRM free ebooks is the best decision you can make.