The first thing that you need to realize is that there is no way to 100% protect your ebook from being copied. There are a lot of unscrupulous people in the world who will steal your words without a second thought to all the work you put into it. However, there are some things that you can do to make it more difficult for people to plagiarize your work.
The first thing that you should do is obtain a copyright. You do this through the government copyright office. They’ve made it ultra-easy to do this online for ebooks. It only takes about fifteen minutes. It costs $35 if you do it online. You fill out the form online, pay the fee, and then you upload your ebook directly to them. It still takes weeks to actually get the copyright, but you’re protected from the date you submit it.
Make sure that you place your copyright notice in the front of the book and at the bottom of each page of your ebook.
The second thing that you should do is to place an HTML command at the beginning of your ebook file so that the search engines do not index your book. You would not like someone to be able to stumble onto your ebook without having paid for it.
The third thing you should do to protect your ebook has to do with the actual format of the document itself. You should always save your ebook as a pdf document. Almost every computer can read this format because the software to read it is free. Saving as a pdf preserves the format of the pages, no matter what settings of the reader’s computer.
If you simply save the file as a pdf using adobe acrobat, anyone will still be able to print or copy any part of the file they wish. If you want greater protection, you will need to purchase Adobe Acrobat Pro. It is simple to use (if I can figure it out in ten minutes, anybody can).
You will have the option of allowing the document to be printed. Some writers allow this option because many readers still prefer reading from paper rather than the computer screen. Allowing printing does open up the possibility that they might print it and sell it, but the risk is probably minimal. It is up to you to allow printing or not.
Adobe Acrobat Pro also allows you to choose whether to allow the document to be copied or not. I don’t suggest that you allow this. It’s simply too easy for someone to copy your ebook and call it their own.
If you follow these easy steps, you can feel confident that you’ve done as much as you can to protect your ebook.
This article was written by Julie Coan, educator and writer. Visit my website to get lots of free information on marketing ebooks. If you’ve written an ebook and you don’t know what to do next, you can find out exactly what to do to make your book a success. Learn all the secrets that successful marketers use to sell their ebooks. www.ebookMarketingMagic.blogspot.com
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