The Pros and Cons of DRM – Digital Rights Management

David Lindsay: Having just read this useful article, I’ve decided not to turn on DRM for my Kindle ebook The Tay Son Rebellion. Smashwords also sells my ebook, and they refuse to turn it on.

This essay explains why.

by Shelley Hitz

What is DRM?  DRM stands for Digital Rights Management and according to KDP it is “intended to inhibit unauthorized access to or copying of digital content files.”

This is one of the decisions you must make when your first upload your Kindle book via the Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) dashboard.  It is important to note that once you publish your book, this decision regarding DRM cannot be changed.

Now that we have covered the basics of what DRM is, let’s discuss the pros and cons of DRM and enabling it on your Kindle eBooks.

Source: The Pros and Cons of DRM – Digital Rights Management

CreateSpace Community: Creating a PDF for Print

. Creating a PDF for PrintBy Laurel, CreateSpace PrePress If you’re planning to submit your own fully-formatted files to CreateSpace for publication, you’ll first need to format your book document according to CreateSpace specifications using our online submission guidelines. Before submitting your finished documents, they will first need to be converted to PDF. Follow one of the three methods below to output a PDF intended for high-quality printing.

Make sure to save your working documents before creating your PDF files so that you may edit them later if you wish. Keep in mind that PDF is an open source file format, which means anyone can write PDF creation software programs or plug-ins. However, not all software will create a PDF for use in print applications. For best results, use programs and plug-ins from reputable software providers to create PDFs.

Option 1: Print to PDF With the native document open in the application you used to create your work, select “File>Print” Select “PDF” from the list of printers you are able to print to. If you do not find “PDF” in the list, there may be a “Print to PDF” or “PDF” button in the dialog box. Select this option if it is available. Otherwise, try the “Save as PDF” method below. Click “Properties”, “Settings”, or “Options” (naming depends on your system) to check the PDF settings that will be used to create your PDF file. If available, select “PDF/X-1a,” “High-Quality Print” or “Press Quality” from the list of presets. If your system allows, make sure the following settings are chosen. Any other settings should be left to default in most cases. Fonts and images are embedded. Specified page size matches the intended trim size plus bleed (if applicable). You may lose the bleed you included in your native document if not printed to the proper size. Bookmarks, annotations, and comments are disabled. Document security (any type) is not used. PDF/X format is used. PDF/X is preferred, but if you are submitting non-PDF/X files (for example, PDF/A), any comments, forms, or other non-printing objects could be removed during our review process. Transparent objects are flattened. Spreads and printer’s marks are disabled. Downsampling, or decreasing resolution, of images is disabled. Provide a name and location for the PDF file you are printing to (may default to the current name and location of the native document) and click “OK” in the print dialog box. Once created, make sure to open the PDF file to see that it appears as you intended. Otherwise, make the necessary adjustments in the native document and re-create the PDF file.

Option 2: Export as PDF With the native document open in the application you used to create your work, select “File>Export” You may need to select “PDF” if other file formats are available for export in the application. Provide a name and location for the PDF file you are exporting (may default to the current name and location of the native document) and click “Save” or “OK” in the print dialog box. Check the PDF settings that will be used to create your PDF file. If available, select “PDF/X-1a,” “High-Quality Print” or “Press Quality” from the list of presets. If your system allows, make sure the following settings are chosen. Any other settings should be left to default in most cases. Fonts and images are embedded. Bookmarks, annotations, and comments are disabled. Document security (any type) is not used. PDF/X format is used. PDF/X is preferred, but if you are submitting non-PDF/X files (for example, PDF/A), any comments, forms, or other non-printing objects could be removed during our review process. Transparent objects are flattened. Spreads and printer’s marks are disabled. Downsampling, or decreasing resolution, of images is disabled. Bleeds are enabled (if applicable). Click “Export” or “OK” in the export dialog box. Once created, make sure to open the PDF file to see that it appears as you intended. Otherwise, make the necessary adjustments in the native document and re-create the PDF file. Option 3: Save as PDF With the native document open in the application you used to create your work, select “Save As” from the application’s main menu or “File” menu. Choose “P

Source: CreateSpace Community: Creating a PDF for Print

Ebook Piracy Is Easy And Impossible To Stop On Google

Ebook piracy. Have your books or ebooks been pirated?

“When I released my last book , God Has Gone Fishing, I made sure not to list my new title on Google Books, due to the problems of well-known book piracy on the site.However, it made no difference at all, as the book and ebook pirates got to work very quickly without Google’s help.

Almost every book I have ever published has been pirated, BitTorrented, copied or offered under another author’s name.In an earlier post, I wrote about the problems with rampant piracy on Google Books and Google Play and how Google has taken very little action to stop the fraudulent abuse of books.

But back to more recent events, and my new book, which took almost no time at all to be pirated.I did a quick Google search for my book title and found the following sites offering my ebook on the very first search page. I didn’t bother looking any further. This was within only a few weeks of publishing my book.

Please note that I have not added links to these sites, as I refuse to give these book pirates any traffic. On top of that, going to these sites can risk getting a computer virus. Yes, they are very nasty.”

Source: Ebook Piracy Is Easy And Impossible To Stop On Google

What Every Indie Author Needs to Know About E-Books -Publishersweekly.com

“Manuscript to E-Book

While the manuscript is getting a final proof, an author can begin taking steps to actually turn it into an e-book. The text must be formatted so it wraps and resizes as readers zoom in or out or toggle between devices, the table of contents needs to be made clickable, and in a format that works for every retailer. Authors can do this themselves with a few hours of technical self-education, or pay for a service to take care of it.

For those going the DIY route, the manuscript will need to be converted into two documents (assuming you are looking to publish across all major e-book platforms): A MOBI file for Amazon Kindle; and an EPUB file for other e-book retailers, including Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Kobo, Sony, and Apple iBooks.Authors can utilize Smashwords Direct to upload their EPUB or Word document onto the Smashwords platform, following the company’s particular style guide. While just doing this could allow authors to distribute their book to every major retailer beyond Amazon, the Smashwords “meatgrinder” automated conversion technology gives authors limited choice in how their final layout looks.

“I want my e-books to look the way I want them to look,” says LJ Cohen, author of several self-published novels as well as detailed guides on e-book formatting. “So I send the Word document to the meatgrinder, and once it gets approved in the catalog, then I upload my hand-coded EPUB file on top of that.”

To do this for EPUB and MOBI, first use a word processor program that allows for cleaning up formatting and creating custom fonts, paragraphs, and headings. A number of software programs are available for converting documents into EPUB and MOBI files. These include free tools PressBooks, Leanpub, and Jutoh (which has a for-purchase version offering more functions) for both EPUB and MOBI, or Sigil for EPUB files. The programs Scrivener and Apple Pages can export EPUB files but cost money.But perhaps the most popular conversion program in the industry remains Calibre, which converts documents to both MOBI and EPUB. It is free, versatile, and works for both Mac and PC as more than a simple e-book converter.”

Source: What Every Indie Author Needs to Know About E-Books

7 Best WordPress Backup Plugins Compared (Pros and Cons)

Creating regular WordPress backups is the best thing you can do for your website. Backups give you peace of mind and can save you in catastrophic situations when your site gets hacked or you accidentally lock yourself out. There are several free and paid backup plugins for WordPress, and most of them are fairly easy to use. In this article, we will show you the 7 best backup plugins for WordPress.

via 7 Best WordPress Backup Plugins Compared (Pros and Cons)

From Amazon- a Change That Hurts Authors – by Douglas Preston – NYT

LAST March, Amazon quietly changed the way it sells books. An obscure and seemingly harmless modification to its website has opened the door for some third-party sellers to deceive Amazon’s customers by selling books as “new” that may not come straight from a publisher or its wholesaler, thus depriving authors of royalties they should have earned from the sale of a new book.

Amazon decided to allow third-party sellers to be featured atop the primary purchase button for new books, a spot previously reserved for Amazon’s own inventory, which comes directly from the publishers. Approved third-party sellers “win” this placement through a secret algorithm that considers, among other things, price, availability, seller’s rating and shipping time. In doing so, Amazon abdicates its role as the prime retailer on its own website. The main requirement is that the books offered by the third-party seller must be “new.”

So when you, the customer, hit that main buy button, you should always expect to get a brand-new book, right?Not necessarily.To explain why, we have to take a journey into the underbelly of the book market. Have you ever asked yourself, when shopping for books on Amazon, how third-party sellers can be offering dozens of “new” books at prices way below even the discounted Amazon price? The reason is that such books could have been bought in bulk by a handful of giant online third-party sellers to be re-sold through Amazon as “new” books, when some are not.Where do these gray market books originate? There are several possible sources.”

Ouch. Here is comment I liked.

AN AMERICAN ABROAD

France 6 hours ago

As always, Douglas Preston has something valuable to say about how books are marketed — and about how those of us who write them are too often deprived of our royalties.

Those who love books, buy them. And Mr. Preston’s sharp analysis of Amazon’s behavior here can only help devoted readers make better choices.
Bravo.

• 40 Recommended

Authors: How to Get Your LCCN (Library of Congress Number) | Author U

“The wise author applies for the LCCN before the book is printed.(Library of Congress Catalog Control Number) lccn One question that most authors don’t know to ask is, “How do I get the LCCN?”

What’s a LCCN? Good question—it’s the Library of Congress number that shows that you exist, and the one that any library that you are pitching your book to wants to know you have.

The good news is that these are free (although going through the two steps to get them can sometimes be a pain in the tush.”

Source: Authors: How to Get Your LCCN (Library of Congress Number) | Author U

Google Captcha (reCAPTCHA) by BestWebSoft — WordPress Plugins

“Google Captcha (reCaptcha) plugin is an effective security solution that protects your WordPress website forms from spam entries while letting real people pass through with ease. It can be used for login, registration, password recovery, comments, popular contact forms, and other.Users are required to confirm that they are not a robot before the form can be submitted. It’s easy for people and hard for bots.”

Source: Google Captcha (reCAPTCHA) by BestWebSoft — WordPress Plugins

What Is a Hybrid Publisher? | Jane Friedman

“Over the last year, I’ve received more questions than ever—usually from journalists—asking me to explain “hybrid publishing.

”This is a confusing term to discuss, because you will hear different definitions or descriptions of hybrid publishing depending on who you ask and what their agenda is. The term has become popular among companies that wish to put a new, “innovative” face on a very common, age-old activity: charging writers to publish.”

Source: What Is a Hybrid Publisher? | Jane Friedman