well, you could sell it with different password. i mean, if a user (John Doe) buys it, you generate a licence key, which you should use for password-protecting the PDF. if you find your book on the net, you'll simply find who shared it ilegally...
it's not an established thing... it just came to my mind. there are components (for Delphi, VC++, etc) to handle (including password-protect) PDFs. it would take some time to make the mechanism work... but i think it's worth it
it would be nice to find some kind of software that would do it... lost money on illegal sales is not cool
Forget it. That's it. It pays off more to invest this time on something else. PDF security is weak anyway. There are programs to remove those protections. Better protections cost money but complicate everything and our PDF will not work on a lot of platforms. People are afraid of EXE ebooks plus you narrow the readership... If your ebook is so good somebody will pirate it anyways. So it's better to put some affiliate links there so you might get some money from these copies as well.
Howdy, Last summer I asked a similar question about ebooks (actually, many of the questions I see you asking in the forum) and there was some GREAT responses from people. If I do this right, the following link will show you where the first thread started: http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=101402 Give that section a read. I can summarize though: 1) As has already been said by mickn, don't bother worrying about the security. It WILL be pirated. Focus on the quality content. Keep it fresh, hopefully keep them coming back for more. You'll lose lots of sales to theft, but you'll ultimately gain more sales by relying on the honest ones (or ingnorant) to pay you. 2) About the only security that seems to be worthwhile is to "shroud" the download link so that different people are given a different link, preventing them from just out-and-out posting the link to your ebook. 3) PDF is the way to go. Do not try to "jazz-it-up" with features that restrict it to a Windows platform (like an ebook compiler). You give up cross-platform compatibility, and it just adds complexity to your honest patrons. Read the posts carefully as there are some wonderful ideas there. I have been too involved in personal issues to be able to act on it yet...but my schedule is FINALLY clearing up. Good luck to you!
Maybe using something like http://store.digitalriver.com/servl...alms&id=ProductDetailsPage&productID=38495700 may do the trick.
Give an additional benefit for those who buy directly (like... give them access to members-only forums or give them access to some video-seminar or something). If you really want to start hunting (which might not be worth your time), tou might also get some sort of software that changes the content of your ebook a little (like... replace certain words in different versions, and then you can see who bought & leaked your version if that happens. In version #1 you could have "a marketing strategy", in second "the marketing strategy" etc. Bear in mind that this is only theoretical suggestion and just telling this since you asked. I really wouldn't bother if I were you
I couldn't agree more. I've published eBooks using security software - even selling the eBook at around $50, the tech support wasn't worth the hassle. Had all sorts of problems - from cross-OS compatibility, to firewalls, to how it restricted end users.... After we turned the eBook version into a hard copy version, we sold it for three times the price. I don't know what your time's worth to you, but at anything less than $50 an eBook I'd simply publish in PDF.