Ebook Piratey: How Can You Protect Your Ebook? -

 Updated: 5 October 2022

Perhaps you've worked for months or several years, writing your book. It's been released, with huge excitement, into all the world. There have been some profits ... though perhaps not quite so many as you'd have liked.

A few days later, you type in the title of your book, hoping you might find some review or even tweets regarding the book. To your dismay there are websites that offer the book for free.

Your ebook is being pirated. All your hard labor is given away at no cost on a shady site.

It's a traumatic moment for any author. The first reaction, naturally, is probably to find out what you can do to stop pirates. There's a chance you're concerned that this listing may only be the tip of the iceberg.

But what do you need to do? (And do you even need to do anything?) Here's everything you need to learn about protecting your book.

What exactly is Ebook Piracy?

Piracy of your ebook is made available without your authorization.

This can take several different shapes:

• Someone buys your ebook then shares it with their acquaintances or friends. This may be done innocently (they don't realize they shouldn't use it for sharing) or in a deliberate manner.
• Your book has been uploaded to a website for other people to download. This is what many authors are thinking of when they think of ebook piracy. There are a myriad of websites out there - though (as we'll find out in the future!) they often say that they offer an ebook, but they really don't.
• Your ebook is being distributed by an individual ... without your permission. They're taking all profits from it. It's not as common as the other forms of piracy, however this has been proven to happen.

Other types of Ebook Theft

The other issue that can be a problem is stealing your work and using it as their original work. This isn't exactly what people refer to as "piracy" however it could be extremely damaging. This is also a violation of the law since it violates the copyright you have.

Another possibility is the possibility that someone steals a portion from your writing and integrates it into their personal work without permission and not recognizing you as the author. It is plagiarism.

If you're in one the above scenarios the law provides legal protections. You may find however that you do not need to take it that far. Simply warning people to stop or threating legal action might be enough.

Fight Ebook Piracy With DRM (Digital Rights Management)

So what can you do to stop ebook piracy?

A popular option is to employ DRM (Digital Rights Management) tools to protect your data. There are a variety of ways this can be done, such as by restricting users from sharing or forwarding the ebook.

It can definitely deter pirates. This is particularly useful in stopping people from buying your ebook and forwarding it on to acquaintances.

Drawbacks of DRM

Unfortunately, DRM isn't bulletproof. Determined pirates will be able to get around it in one manner or the other. However well-protected your ebook is, there's nothing that could stop someone from opening it up in one device before retyping it onto another. Of course, that could be time-consuming and therefore, most pirates don't bother.

Another big problem in DRM is the fact that it can hinder your customersas well as groups that are against DRM due to this reason, like Defective By Design. The legitimate customers who've purchased your ebook may find it more difficult to access and to read as they would like to. It's not something you'd want to do since it may put them off buying your products in the future.

Hugh Howey, a bestselling self-published author of science fiction, describes his approach to DRM in this way:

I would like it to be simple to allow other users to have my work. It meant not putting DRM on my e-books. DRM is the digital rights management security which makes it hard to convert my book, copy them around, all that stuff. I wanted to honor the buyer rather than worry about pirates.

DRM for Social DRM

Social DRM is the process where the customer's ebook is marked or watermarked with information including the buyer's email address and date of purchase. This is possible for PDF documents. It doesn't negatively affect customers, and could discourage piracy (as it will be clear who shared the document).

What else can I do to protect My Job?

A simple way to hinder piracy but without negatively impacting customers - is to limit how you can allow your book to be downloaded by customers.

It also prevents users from sharing their download link with others.

It's best practice to allow individuals to download your ebook at minimum three times. If you only let them download the ebook once, it may cause problems in the event that they delete the downloaded file or if they want to download it onto several different devices (instead of simply copying it across).

A good way to satisfy the user's needs and preventing piracy is to set a limit of 5 Downloads. This is the default setting when using .

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How to Handle a Situation When someone steals your Ebook

How do you respond if someone's giving the ebook away, depriving you of any revenue?

If you are the victim of a copycat If someone copies your work, you are liable:

• Get in touch with them (if their website contains contact details). In some instances, asking the pirate to take down your ebook could be sufficient. They may not want the hassle of dealing with you for a long time.
• Make  Issue a DMCA notice to the website hosting company (you can find this through whois.net). DMCA is the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. There's no set formula to use for the creation of a DMCA takedown notice, but it should contain specific elements.

You can find some email templates to use within the following Google Doc, both for contacting the pirates, as well as for sending out the DMCA notice.

How Do You Know If Your eBook is being pirated

Sometimes, authors learn about a pirated ebook because the concerned user contacts them to inform them of the issue.

However, most pirates won't be reported to you. If you want to know the extent to which your eBook is copied, there are a few options:

1. Find your book using Google

The title of your book and"download "download" into Google and see what comes out. You may find sites which have (or claim to have! - your book available.

Take care when you click, however be sure to use a reliable anti-virus program and in use to safeguard you. Many pirate sites will be filled with fake ads or worse.

2. Create Google Alerts

It is possible to set up Google Alerts to be aware of the times when your work and you appear on websites. This is a great way to keep current with new reviews or discussions of your book. It can also let you find out whether your book has been pirated.

3. Utilize tools such as Mention.com

Mention.com works like Google Alerts. It offers advanced features, such as the ability to get daily updates as well as receive emails when there is an abrupt increase in references to your name or book title.

Frequently asked questions

Here are some questions that customers often ask about book piracy:

Do I have to copyright My Ebook?

No. In the majority of countries, your book is copyrighted automatically as soon as you've written the book. You don't need to make any changes to copyright it. Most people put a copyright notice somewhere at the start or end the book, however this isn't a requirement.

The site has my ebook available for the download ... but do they actually possess it?

In most cases, probably you won't! There are many websites that provide free eBooks, but they don't really provide them. In reality, as Dave Chesson states, they're trying to make people pay for a subscription to their website ... or they're seeking to spread viruses and malware.

Does it make sense to invest my Moment fighting Piracy?

If you're a brand new creator ... it's likely that you aren't. You could spend an enormous amount of time trying to stop the piracy problem, but it's not affecting your sales for your book in the slightest.

In this article by the Alliance of Independent Authors explains:

"Chasing the web for pirates that likely won't be infringing the copyright of your business or affecting the sales of your book is a waste. This is time and energy more productively spent improving your writing, editing, or your marketing, polishing the descriptions of your books, or a hundred other activities that contribute in a more significant way to the success of your business."

One time it makes sense to take action against pirates is when they dominate result pages on Google. If websites of pirates are ranking very prominently on Google, in cases like that one Tim Grahl shares it's time to do something about it:

"My author friend was stuck in a scenario where the #3 result on Google for the name of the book was an international site where you could get the pdf of the book at no cost."

Do I have to be concerned about Ebook Piracy?

Again, if you're an aspiring author, most likely isn't. Obscurity is a much bigger danger for many authors. If people don't know your books exist, they can't buy them.

Some people even think that piracy can be helpful to authors since it allows your work to greater numbers of people ... Some who could become paid users.

If you're an established writer, though, you may find that piracy is harming your book sales. YA author Maggie Stiefvater posted her experiences of that on her Facebook page and explained how book's print sales for the third book in her trilogy did much better than the ebooks, and also how pirates harmed her next novel in the series.

Then [the publisher] told me they had cut the printing run for The Raven King to less than half of the printing run of Blue Lily, Lily Blue. There's no hard feelings here, remember I was told by them, they just felt that the demand in Blue Lily didn't justify printing many more copies.

Maggie Stiefvater managed to prove that pirated copies were hurting sales through publishing a fake pirated edition of the book's fourth edition in which repeating the first four chapters. The printed edition sold out, with the ebook sales skyrocketing too (until authentic copies of the book started becoming pirated).

Author Elizabeth Lennox related a similar experience with piracy resulting in a significant drop in sales:

In one instance I realized that my sales had decreased by 50. I was shocked. It was difficult to figure out what was happening until my husband informed me that he'd discovered my book in pirated sites. We then engaged a lawyer to issue takedown notices, and the next day sales started increasing.

Ultimately, book piracy isn't going away. It's up to you to decide whether it's worth fighting it or not. If you're a first-time author It will be more sense to concentrate of marketing your book ... and making the next.

If you're seeing a distinct drop in sales, though it's not clear if the piracy sites are ranking very highly on Google in search of your book's title or the name of your author, then it's the right time to act. Sending out DMCA Notices are the most effective solution to the problem Be aware that you can find out easy-to-use templates within this Google document.