As more and more people realise how valuable it is to write and publish an eBook, a new type of person appears: the eBook pirate. They also know that eBooks have value and can be a good way to make money, but they also know that most eBook writers have one fatal flaw.
They don't make it hard for people to steal their eBooks.
Imagine that you are pulling a small waggon around town as you walk. This isn't just any wagon—a it's waggon full of gold coins! Everyone sees you and wants to talk to you, take their picture with you, and so on. Most people are amazed at how brave you are to walk around like that. You had to work hard to get all of these coins, and now you want to show them off to everyone.
Well, sometimes someone takes a handful of coins when you don't notice. It's only a little bit at a time, so you barely notice, and even when you do, you don't think much of it because there's still so much more.
At the end of the day, you look back and are shocked to see that there are only a few coins left!! All day long, you've been taken advantage of, and now what you worked so hard for is gone. Even worse, you see a lot of other people pulling their own waggons full of gold coins.
When you don't protect your eBook, this is what happens. Did you know that when you write an eBook, you own it and no one else can legally take it? But it happens all the time. If you only publish your eBook as an MS Word or PDF file, you're like the poor man with his waggon of gold. People can take information from these files and then act like it's theirs.
Now, what if this wagon-puller had an attack dog with him that kept people from stealing his gold? Do you think that any sane person would take any? Well, a few people might try, but they'd soon realise it's pointless. Pain is worse than gain.
eBooks are the same way. Find a way to protect your eBooks, and eBook thieves won't be able to take advantage of you!
