How to Sell Books That Are Good Enough To Steal - Book Business

Panzer was tootling around in the Catosphere when he heard snickering and giggling in the distance. Following all the low-key noise took our brave kitty to the Book Business site. It didn't take any digging at all to find the post causing all the tee heeing.

In his post Caleb Mason says writers and publishers must produce books that "are good enough to steal." Mr. Mason begins with a story about when he mistakenly left a bench full of books outside his bookstore employer's building all night. What happened? Nothing. Nobody stole any of the books. So, he put up a sign with "Not Good Enough To Steal" and the books started selling. Another time Mr. Mason tried to give away a free book. What happened? Nothing. Nobody would take it. See where all the snickering and giggling was coming from? These personal stories (and others) are Mr. Mason's lead-ins to publishers (and authors) use of DRM for their ebooks. If the publisher/author thinks their book is "good enough to steal" they lock it up with DRM. Mr. Mason includes a lot more information about DRM in his post.

Pffft. I don't steal anything anyway.

Panzer says, "Makes sense to me. I wouldn't steal a book even if it was free. I'd just write a new one I liked better myself."

Note: This is a l-o-n-g post. You will need two cups of tea and two muffins for today's reading selection.

To read the post, tootle over to books good enough to steal