A View of DRM and Copy Protections

By NPL Publishing Consultants

A straightforward opinion from an ‘under 30’ customer of eBooks as to his view of DRM and copy protections… We were having a discussion in the family and my middle son, who is 27, Masters Degree, reads many books every month… was commenting on our issue of not being able to complete copy protect a new eBook coming out. Here are some excerpts… they may be of value when thinking about this conundrum for publishers…

Unfortunately, it's almost impossible to "protect" your eBook. Also, you have to balance that with your customers. I can't [easily] find a copy of (book) online for free, so it's safe to assume your customers aren't sharing that way. They are probably printing multiple copies, or copying chapters for use, or whatever. So you don't want to put DRM on the eBook, since that assumes you don't trust your customers and will encourage them to pirate more.

Read-only file is ok, but then you have to specify that in the ad copy, because people expect to be able to print it if they want, and they have that right. You have to think about the most honest customer, and if you're hurting them, then you're hurting the most important base of readers you have. One-time print also has the same issues.

Imagine if you bought an eBook, because you wanted to read it mostly on your computer and it's cheaper. Then, you drove to the library and wanted to print out a chapter for reading, and suddenly you couldn't. Wouldn't that encourage you to find a [possibly illegal] copy of the book that DOESN"T have silly limitations on it? There is a famous story of a guy who bought a legitimate copy of Office, for five hundred bucks, but his activation key didn't work. He contacted support, waited weeks, etc. etc. but got nowhere. Finally, he downloaded an illegal key generator, which worked, so that he could use his purchased, legitimate copy of the software. I think on the whole, it helps to trust your readers and give them open access when possible, but also you should make it clear that this isn't a huge selling book, so illegal copying does hurt the author.

Some interesting remarks and a very honest point of view. Yes, we all suffer losses from illegal copying, downloads, and ‘lending’ digital copies to others… but if we all look at our customer base as reasonably honorable people, then there is a middle ground to take when marketing eBooks.

Martin Foner

NPL Publishing Consultants, 1080 Military Turnpike, Suite 3,

Plattsburgh NY 12901      800-675-6146

Useful Information

This came across my desk, and I thought it was important enough to pass on. NPL Publishing Consultants Helping Publishers Achieve Their Goals

AUGUST, 2010 - Publishing Newsletter AUGUST, 2010 – PUBLISHING NEWSLETTER As always, our e-newsletters are brought to you, the publishing professional, as a free and educational source of information about the parts and pieces that make up the world of publishing by NPL Publishing Consultants Corporation, offices in Plattsburgh NY and Montreal QC. The views expressed in this newsletter are to be used as a general guideline and jumping off point to acquire additional specific information as it relates to your own situation and should not be taken as legal or accounting advice. Such advice should be sought out from your own consulting professionals who understand your operations and goals and how the laws and rules relate to them. Should you wish to pursue further discussion on these topics, feel free to email Mr. Martin Foner, principal of the firm, at: mfoner@nplconsult.com. Should you wish to have your email address deleted from future mailings of this kind, simple send an email indicating the address at which you receive this e-newsletter, and we will delete it. Hello, Everyone! Welcome to a new edition of the newsletter. A lot to cover, much of it simple and short. Another newsletter will be in your Inboxes around the first of the month with more in-depth articles… * * * Finally, a new website.  www.nplconsults.com .  Yes, just added an ‘s’ to the end of the original one. It is long overdue. Some of the features that are coming… still under construction but wanted to give everyone a good look at it… Expanded For Sale Listings… Not only will there be a basic informational listing, but I will be adding a detail page to each one, with reasonably detailed information so you can make a much better informed decision to even pursue an opportunity and contact me. Currently, I have added two or three brand new listings, and there are another two or three to come after September 1st… so do plan to come by weekly and have a look around. Bookstore Section… Will have a number of titles, eventually, in both hard copy and in eBook, video, MP formats, and downloadables. There will be BOTH material to purchase AND a fair amount of free content on publishing and business subjects of interest. Again, for now, just a few titles, a series I edited, a few books on Non-Profit operations, and one on Public Speaking. This section will change weekly as well… ***If you have related publishing titles, business books for owners, etc., let me know. I am not going to choose too many “outside’ titles, but will select some based on how relevant they will be to our readership. eBooks are equally welcome here… and if you have some interesting and relevant free content… I would consider it. Blog Section… I have added a few new ones… and yes, I kept the half dozen or so best from before on there. As I keep writing weekly, or more often, the older ones will hit the Archives… so plan to read the Archives and keep up. Newsletter… the current newsletter will always be available here. In case you think you missed it, or it got eaten by your spam monitor (why aren’t I whitelisted?) stop by here to read the latest. *** Speaking of… now you will need to add nplconsults as an approved domain for receiving emails and materials. I will keep mailing under the nplconsult email address, to keep things simple for your spam filters, but do as the new domain. Why a new website? Well, there is so much information I would like to share…white papers, eBooks, links, some audio seminars I am working on, and some video pieces as well… There has to be a place for all of it. And to catalog all the listings for sale and wanted to buys… not a truckload now, but as things do not improve economically in the next 6 months, I –sadly— believe that many, many, more publishers will be ‘taking what they can get’ and getting out of what is a rapidly changing, and much more difficult to be profitable in, business… that maybe changing too rapidly for them. If you have any thoughts, ideas for more materials, a forum maybe to answer questions, whatever might improve the presentation, DO let me know! This is still under construction and likely always will be a work in progress… so I am open to making the site useful, not just pretty and self promoting (as most sites are). * * * The Demise of Bookstores I won’t bother linking you to about a half dozen articles I have read since B & N decided to put itself up for sale… all writing the obituary for the bookstore business. Look, I wrote mine in 2007 (see blog: 2010 review of my 2007 essay) and seriously questioned both distribution and retailing as viable long term revenue streams for publishers in the future. Well, most of these articles are focusing, of course, on the financial and business aspects of why bookstores are kaput. And for the most part, they are right. The structure, the model, is broken, Severely broken to the point where Humpty Dumpty’s men won’t be able to put it back together. And… the Author’s Guild going around screaming about bigger royalties for authors for eBooks… as though authors are now business partners with publishers… continues to reflect a complete lack of understanding of the process and the ‘brokenness’ of the system. Unfortunately, it is all too little too late. I am not interested in debating if they will survive, what the model needs to be, who is going to control or take over, if Amazon has some secret ‘lock’ on things… My sole concern is explaining what it means to you and the best way to deal with any of the above potentials. With all due respect to my friend Jed Lyons… the James Brown of publishing… hardest working man on the stage… boom, yeah! … If the number of bookstores and related retail outlets is going to fall by 50% or 90%...or altogether, having a distributor is going to be of some, but limited, value in the new world order. In Jed’s model, from what I understand and see… it is the service aspects, the digital markets, the help, the leading small and mid sized publishers into the Electronic world, that is and is going to be the reason work with them. And if retail is going to mean, Amazon plus 4-5 onlines, like an online B & N, or whatever… then you had better start planning to have your own online retail focus and execution. OR… you had better have a multi-pronged Strategic Plan of attack on ALL possible markets in ALL possible formats and ALL possible delivery venues. It sounds funny, but it is true… Be creative or be extinct. Monetize EVERYTHING… and NOW. (If you need some assistance in strategizing how to accomplish this universe altering plan, let me know. I am doing this work now every week.) * * * E-Readers… = Control? No, not really, but media and the companies who own them think so. It won’t take but six months to turn Kindle v.3 into yesterday’s old news by anyone with some money and a better idea. iPad did it almost instantly. The ‘next great innovation’ in e-readers will do it all over again. …Like e-Paper? Yes, the player with the most e-readers out there will get to keep more book download revenue, But this, believe it or not… is a win/win for publishers! I can remember a year ago getting email after email decrying Amazon’s monopoly on eBook sales and distribution… and their restrictive $9.99 pricing policy. What should a publisher do? I said simply… WAIT!  And lo and behold, the universe abhors a vacuum… and now roughly THIRTY different e-readers are on or close to being on the market. As a publisher you will be able to negotiate deals with a dozen different companies for your eBooks, with great deals with some, and mediocre deals with others. I’ll get into this topic in more depth in future newsletters… But choice will now be in YOUR ballpark. Be ready and be swift. Oh, and stop complaining! Get out there and figure out how ELSE to sell your books! * * *           What Is Going On in the World IS Important to You My new ‘no economic, no political rant’ policy being in force… I won’t go on for pages about what is about to happen. Those of you living under a rock, will just get pounded; those of you wearing blinders, will stay blind. For the rest of you, just a little advice in advance… the numbers don’t add up in what the government is telling you. You know in your own business, deficits cannot expand forever. The US can’t fight what is about to become a third war, a full scale war domestically. While the media is busy telling us how great things are… more people are becoming unemployed, foreclosed upon, and homeless and hungry. How long do you think this will last? This was forwarded to me from my wife, of all people, with a tag line of “So It Begins”.  What do you think? MOB RUSH FOR FED AID DRAWS RIOT POLICE Crowd waiting for housing vouchers gets rowdy By Mike Morris The Atlanta Journal-Constitution; 1:27 p.m. Wednesday, August 11, 2010 A crowd of people hoping to get federal housing assistance became unruly Wednesday morning with reports of fights breaking out in the crowd. Thousands of people were lined up at the Tri-Cities Plaza shopping center, hoping to apply for a voucher from the East Point Housing Authority that will give them a discount on their rent. People began lining up at the shopping center two days ago, and by Wednesday morning the crowd had grown to over several thousand people. East Point police, some wearing riot helmets, were patrolling the area. Firefighters and EMTs were attending to people who were overheating in the sun. Police from College Park, Hapeville, Fulton County and MARTA assisted in crowd control. __________________ “Give me control of a nations money and I care not who writes its laws”- Amschel Bauer (Rothschild) Imagine how happy these same “thousands” are going to be when they have to line up for food, and water, and a place to stay? And they finally figure out that fighting among themselves isn’t the answer? (Oh, by the way… look at the quote at the bottom. Google’s favorite quote. And if it doesn’t completely makes sense, consider it in the realm of “Too Big To Fail”.) What’s my point and how does any of this relate to publishing? Well, it more relates to YOU, specifically and individually. It is time…to have an alternative plan. You are a business person. You have more than the average Joe’s need to protect assets, keep your company running, and continue to live a decent, hopefully, better than decent life. I’ll only mention this one once here…and then, in the future, you’ll have to come to my private website to learn more. This is too close to my no rant policy and I want to keep my promises. But you HAVE to heed the warnings… or else repeat history over and over until you learn it. You HAVE to have an alternative country to live in… or at least to ride out the worst of the storm in. If you were at all in the middle of the 60’s riots in any particular city, you know the concept of an angry mob. Multiply that by everyone in the city with an income under 50K… so by about a factor of 5. It may come and go fast, like a hurricane, spreading immediate damage and a long recovery period… but you don’t want to skip a beat or be in the path of it. Ok, get to it already. One answer, close by, stable, and never saw the recession. Canada. I have been here now thirteen years. Safe. Quiet. Budget surpluses for 13 out of the last 14 years. Boring place, really. Exactly the kind of place you want to be to ride out some other disaster. If you decide that health care in the US is too expensive… it is FREE here in Canada and YES, even for US citizens on the right kind of short term visa. You only need to be here part of each year to qualify, and yes, there are rules to follow…but free is free. Calm, peaceful… and a vacation for most Americans who have never spent any time here. Dollar is no worse than on par, and when it is, like today, at 93 cents, you get an 8% bonus on your spending money. Run your business from here? Of course! This isn’t Arkansas or Mississippi. In fact the govt has decreed everyone in every god forsaken corner of this huge country will have high speed by the end of 2012. In the cities, you have everything you could want. Except crowds of unemployed, homeless, hungry Americans with a bad case of entitlement and lots of weapons. Not a bad book market either. Only 35 million people but a very high literacy rate and a very highly educated population. This is NOT a market to ignore. I have two identical book websites as a client…one US and one Canadian… the Canadian outsells the US by about 3 to 1, maybe more. Simple books, simple sales programs… 3 to 1, at least. Currency is strong and stable. Government is not in any upheaval, and you wouldn’t notice it if it were. Keeping an apartment or small second home here is a necessity for the long term future of your family and assets and protection. For example, banks here allow you to hold your savings in up to eight different currencies… in the US, ONE… theirs! And if there is a ‘bank holiday’, you won’t get the day off… laughing! You will still be able to access your Canadian accounts but in Canada. And acquiring gold and silver after Jan 1 2012… will still be your own business here… no govt intrusions. Ok… enough. I said my peace. If I may be of assistance in working with your business or you personally, let me know. I can help you get the right visas, follow the basic rules, give you some helpful hints as a Canadian… like stop acting like an American when you’re here and you’ll enjoy the experience ten times more. Otherwise, if you put this one on the back burner, I recommend you send me an email at either mfoner@nplconsult.com or mfoner@nplconsults.com and sign up for the new private newsletter and website service (free), if these kinds of things bother you and you need help figuring it all out. * * * Companies for Sale Go to the website  http://www.nplconsults.com/CompaniesforSale.htm  for an initial description of the following: Genealogical Publisher… get to this one quickly if you have the means to market and monetize in this subject area. Over 400 titles, “LONG TAIL” classic business, but not marketed at all. In business for years, some in eBook, most not. Priced at a reasonable valuation so the owners can focus on their primary publishing-support businesses, (non competitive). Specialized Business Publisher… still not much hard info from these folks… leaders in their niche of business analysis, with association contacts, a professional awards program, and a well regarded name. If you are interested, send me an email… as the info comes in, I’ll send it out. eBook Publisher… Storied company with the technology down pat… industry involvement in establishing standards for how long they have been doing eBooks. Marketing was never their forte and the numbers top and bottom have suffered for it. Again someone with the marketing but lacking the strong arm of technology would find this company a perfect fit. Scholarly Martial Arts Publisher… Now the quarterly publication is done entirely as an e-Magazine, digitally… and on top, there are some hardcover titles, back issues, and advertising as revenue streams. Has been around a while and track record is solid. This is not your chop and kick and movie type martial arts material… thankfully. As always, if you are interested, let me know asap. As well, there are four or five other publishers ‘coming up’ on the radar… so let me know what you’re looking for… and I’ll contact you when it comes up… A monthly newsletter and line of books on a subject on everyone’s lips every day, and even more so in the Internet age… A line of employment directories… And others… a few I can’t disclose until we put ink to paper… too well known to even give out hints! mfoner@nplconsult.com or mfoner@nplconsults.com both still work fine. * * * Wanted to Acquire 1.     If YOU have publishing interests in the Non-Profit field, fundraising, volunteers, management, legal and accounting, anything… tiny to mid size (meaning $10K up to about $1MM). 2.     If YOU have a directory or a line of directories, reference materials, online databases, or similar materials, in any field at all… that you want to monetize, then let me know! Up to about $1MM. 3.     Scientific and academic publishers in subjects ranging from current events to defense systems, in price ranges from $10,000 to $5,000,000.  Yes, I actually have a buyer with interests in science and funds to make it happen up to 5Mil. 4.     EBook and digital publishers of all sizes, educational to non fiction. 5.     Publishers with long tail backlists… non fiction preferred. * * * See you in a week or two… next issue will discuss some serious Planning issues for 2011… Strategic and Personal. Martin Foner mfoner@nplconsult.com or mfoner@nplconsults.com NPL Publishing Consultants, 1080 Military Turnpike, Suite 3, Plattsburgh, NY 12901      800-675-6146   (Email is much faster.)

Rewriting is the Best!

I love to rewrite.  Writing a piece is hard work.  You have to generate new stuff from thin air.  But when you rewrite, that's when the magic happens.  That's when you can blend the odd pieces into a unified whole that can surprise even the writer.

I finished the rewrite of The Reward of the Fool today.  Originally, the book was short, a scant 176 pages.  Now it is a scant 219 pages.  Still small, but 25% bigger than before.  But the new ending creates a whole new feel.  I think it now stands up to The Last and Final King, the book to which it is a sequel.  King was my magnum opus.  Now I think I have two.  The muse was kind to me today.

Is It Done Yet?

They say August Wilson used to change his plays even as they were being rehearsed.  I think authors face that dilemma every day.  Is the piece I'm working on finished?  Or should I write more?

I recently finished a novel entitled The Reward of the Fool.  It's published.  It's out there in the world.  So I began writing another book.  I called it The Ruleless Manifesto.  50 pages into it, I realized that I was writing more of The Reward of the Fool.  So now the dilemma: Do I leave The Reward of the Fool as it is?  Or do I change it, perhaps angering folks who had already bought the old version?

Well, I decided to change it.  I've incorporated the new stuff into the old, and I think I have a much better final product.  I've given it to a few writer friends of mine to get their reactions, but I'm already sure it's going to press.  I just hope the early buyers don't hate me.

Fiction Marketing: A New Beginning

Four of us started a new fiction marketing group today.  Sam Greenlee, author of The Spook Who Sat by the Door; Paris Smith, author of Shafi Doldi; Mike Cook, author of Drums of the Night Gods; and yours truly, Larry Redmond a.k.a. Obi, author of The Reward of the Fool.

After discussing the plight of the "reading world," we've decided that all is not lost, that we can in fact get people to read books the way they did back in the day.  All we need to do is reach out.  So reach out we will.  In the coming days, we will be creating new Facebook, Twitter and E-bay accounts with the specific purpose of selling quality fiction.  We haven't formulated a plan yet.  That will be done in coming meetings.  But we've started researching foreign and domestic outlets that we might be able to tap.  We'll see how it goes