eBooks and Digital Rights Management

If you are interested in blogs on publishing and writing, please visit www.luckypress.blogspot.com -- a new blog I've started that will focus on the world of a 10-year-old independent publisher, Lucky Press, and issues pertaining to authors. Here is some information that I recently posted on Lucky Press LLC's Facebook page.

As Lucky Press expands its print books into ebooks, and launches some titles in ebook only, Digital Rights Management, poses questions on which this publisher is musing. When we upload an eBook to a distributor, we are asked what level, if any, of Digital Rights Management should be implemented.


As the publisher of titles for writers, and as this publisher is also a writer herself, published by another company, I find myself in a "sticky wicket." The writer in me says "protect the content" and that is what we are trying to do when offered a choice, opting for "medium" protection in MS Reader. The publisher in me wants to protect LP's assets. Our titles are our assets and we (myself, my family, LP writers) have worked too hard to "give" anything away (without our permission, aka "theft"). Yet the marketer, optimistic voice in me says that "if you love something set it free and it will come back to you" (cue pan flute). Also I wonder if getting the books in more hands and more places (people only willing to purchase a non-DRM rights protected eBook and putting it on more devices that they have now or may have in the future) will perhaps be a step in the right direction.

(From a marketing standpoint: most of our books are being put on Google Editions where up to 20% is readable without purchase. All of our eBooks are on Kindle, which offers free samples. All of our ebooks are availlable in MS Reader format, but at this time moderate DRM settings are in place. FYI: When a publisher uploads a book to the distributor she must choose "once and for all" whether DRM is activated or not.)

What works for you as an author and/or an eBook reader?


Is it important to you that your purchased eBook can be read on more than one platform/device?

Wikipedia on DRM

Interesting article posted August 7, 2010:
Cory Doctorow places DRM-free e-books with Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo; Apple and Sony hold out

O'Reilly drops ebook DRM, sees 104% increase in sales

Note from Janice: This article is a must read! A (Probably Naive) Attempt to Move the DRM Conversation Forward

Amazon gives publishers easier control over DRM in Kindle ebooks

Funny graphic on DRM

@ eBook Summit: Sony’s Haber: You Can’t Make Money Selling E-Books For $9.99; DRM Is A Good Thing

DRM or not? a debate that won’t be over anytime soon
"My hunch is that the biggest authors will continue to insist on DRM and that they are sensible to do that. And that lesser authors will often be comfortable without DRM, and they are probably sensible to do that as well. But as the establishment stage of ebook adoption continues, I’d also expect that the “viral effect” of non-DRMed titles will stop being healthy for sales. This is an argument that still has a long time to run."

Digital Rights Managment vs the Inevitability of Free Content