4 ms·

I self-publish my books. The audience is decent, I publish shortened audiobook versions for free, but frankly, I like the fact that the paper books themselves a

I self-publish my books. The audience is decent, I publish shortened audiobook versions for free, but frankly, I like the fact that the paper books themselves are copyrighted and no one can print them extremely cheaply and flood the market with them at my expense. It would have been natural, but also depressing.

surfingdino 2y ago
I stopped self-publishing my books, because as soon as I offered PDFs to those who purchased my paper books the sales of printed copies tanked. Then nobody wanted to pay for PDFs and Amazon screwed my KDP sales (banned my book). The readers felt entitled to free copies and free consultation on the subject of the book. It's really depressing how entitled people feel to other people's creative output or knowledge.
- inglor_cz 2y ago
  That is why I publish freely the audio versions (which only consist of about half of the stories within each book), but not the PDFs.
- __mharrison__ 2y ago
  Did you just stop publishing altogether?
  - surfingdino 2y ago
    Yes. I do not need another book as a CV, which is currently the most viable business model for authors of non-fiction.
    - meiraleal 2y ago
      We are probably better off without your marketing content tho
shagie 2y ago
> I like the fact that the paper books themselves are copyrighted and no one can print them extremely cheaply and flood the market with them at my expense. Amazon has a book piracy problem ( 219 points by tosh on July 8, 2022 | 120 comments ) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32026663 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32026663 https://x.com/fchollet/status/1550930876183166976 https://x.com/fchollet/status/1550930876183166976 (and via Threadreader - https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1550930876183166976.html https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1550930876183166976.html ) - also https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32210256 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32210256 ( 665 points by jmillikin on July 24, 2022 | 193 comments ) Pirated books thrive on Amazon — and authors say web giant ignores fraud - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35761641 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35761641 ( 87 points by vanilla-almond on April 30, 2023 | 79 comments ) https://nypost.com/2022/07/31/pirated-books-thrive-on-amazon-authors-say-web-giant-ignores-fraud/ https://nypost.com/2022/07/31/pirated-books-thrive-on-amazon... Amazon caught selling counterfeits of publisher’s computer books—again - https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/02/amazon-caught-selling-counterfeits-of-publishers-computer-books-again/ https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/02/amazo... Having something that is paper doesn't mean that no one else can print them cheaply and flood the market. While it might not be at your expense - it certainly isn't something that is making you any money.
- inglor_cz 2y ago
  I don't self-publish on Amazon, though. I print my books in a local printing shop and sell them using my e-shop (Wordpress for blog, Woocommerce for e-shop).
__mharrison__ 2y ago
I also self publish books. Most of the audience is decent. But there are some bad actors out there. And lots of times the biggest book marketplace appears to (intentionally) close their eyes to this problem. Piracy of my books from the dark web is one thing. Amazon pushing it is another.

surfingdino 2y ago

I stopped self-publishing my books, because as soon as I offered PDFs to those who purchased my paper books the sales of printed copies tanked. Then nobody wanted to pay for PDFs and Amazon screwed my KDP sales (banned my book). The readers felt entitled to free copies and free consultation on the subject of the book. It's really depressing how entitled people feel to other people's creative output or knowledge.

inglor_cz 2y ago
That is why I publish freely the audio versions (which only consist of about half of the stories within each book), but not the PDFs.
__mharrison__ 2y ago
Did you just stop publishing altogether?
- surfingdino 2y ago
  Yes. I do not need another book as a CV, which is currently the most viable business model for authors of non-fiction.
  - meiraleal 2y ago
    We are probably better off without your marketing content tho

shagie 2y ago

> I like the fact that the paper books themselves are copyrighted and no one can print them extremely cheaply and flood the market with them at my expense. Amazon has a book piracy problem ( 219 points by tosh on July 8, 2022 | 120 comments ) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32026663 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32026663 https://x.com/fchollet/status/1550930876183166976 https://x.com/fchollet/status/1550930876183166976 (and via Threadreader - https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1550930876183166976.html https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1550930876183166976.html ) - also https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32210256 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32210256 ( 665 points by jmillikin on July 24, 2022 | 193 comments ) Pirated books thrive on Amazon — and authors say web giant ignores fraud - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35761641 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35761641 ( 87 points by vanilla-almond on April 30, 2023 | 79 comments ) https://nypost.com/2022/07/31/pirated-books-thrive-on-amazon-authors-say-web-giant-ignores-fraud/ https://nypost.com/2022/07/31/pirated-books-thrive-on-amazon... Amazon caught selling counterfeits of publisher’s computer books—again - https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/02/amazon-caught-selling-counterfeits-of-publishers-computer-books-again/ https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/02/amazo... Having something that is paper doesn't mean that no one else can print them cheaply and flood the market. While it might not be at your expense - it certainly isn't something that is making you any money.

inglor_cz 2y ago
I don't self-publish on Amazon, though. I print my books in a local printing shop and sell them using my e-shop (Wordpress for blog, Woocommerce for e-shop).

__mharrison__ 2y ago

I also self publish books. Most of the audience is decent. But there are some bad actors out there. And lots of times the biggest book marketplace appears to (intentionally) close their eyes to this problem. Piracy of my books from the dark web is one thing. Amazon pushing it is another.