Disturbing? Or is it just me?

[Mehreen]

OMG! Is that right? Is this ideal for plagiarisers or what?

[Nik]

I had these thoughts with various sites or sending doc files to reviewers or betas which I never actually met, but my thinking is that my books are for purchase at any given time. Anyone who wants the file can spend 4$ and convert it to whatever s/he wants.
I would thank any pirate/plagiariser, who'd make any book big, in hope I can always prove the rights are mine -:)

[Mehreen]

Tim wrote: "In their terms and conditions I found this clause, but I had to wade through a pile of crap to get to it.

d) not violate rights of third parties, particularly copyright and ancillary copyright, t..."
My supervisor plagiarised from my thesis and put a sentence in his book. I'll never forget that pain.

[Segilola]

Nik wrote: "I had these thoughts with various sites or sending doc files to reviewers or betas which I never actually met, but my thinking is that my books are for pruchase at any given time. Anyone who wants ..."

My thoughts exactly . . . feel free to make my name a household one . . . there are more books in me (I hope)

[Segilola]

Mehreen wrote: "Tim wrote: "In their terms and conditions I found this clause, but I had to wade through a pile of crap to get to it.

d) not violate rights of third parties, particularly copyright and ancillary ..."

did you report him?

[[deleted user]]

The best thing to do, I believe, is to not use that site and to warn others to stay away from it.

[Annie]

Sooo...

I use Calibre to convert my books and when I receive pdfs (ewww!!) for review, I always ask the author if I may convert it to mobi/epub instead. I've never been asked not to. Also, when I receive a "raw" ebook without the cover, I'll actually add the cover myself cuz it bugs me to not have one on my Kindle/iBooks app haha!!

Anyhoo, I CAN change the name of the author and title IF I want to, not that I ever do!! Well, actually, I have received books where the title is in all caps and yeah, I change it to normal so it matches my library.

*shrugs*

If someone wants to steal your stuff, they can guys. Too easy.

Not-too-worried-hugs,
Ann

[Ian]

I agree with Annie that if anyone really wants to plagiarise, there isn't a lot you can do to stop them. Nevertheless, I would not use that site.

[Nik]

Tim wrote: "If we just release a little at a time, we are back in the driving seat so to speak, that is if we can attract an audience awaiting the next instalment..."

Indeed, the drawback is many 'ifs', but on the positive - it's so easy to try different variations

[Alexa]

Tim wrote: "Anyone come across this Word doc to Mobi converter site. I thought great when I found it because I want to be able to offer a free Mobi formatted book to potential reviewers. Then I noticed an opti..."

This is crazy, thanks so much for sharing :/ It's unfair how easy the internet makes it for people to steal our hard work!

[Alexa]

I wanted to add to what Annie said. It's true, if someone wants to plagiarize our work they can. But when/if they get found out, don't forget you/us as authors have the real copies - with dates & times stamps on them, and even the paper versions. No thief can take that away :)

[Annie]

Well, I gotta say, Miss Alexa is right. The internet makes it ridiculously easy to steal our hard work.

Then again, the internet also makes it ridiculously easy for us to share our work, connect with readers, and promote to the masses, sooo...

*affectionately hugs my wi-fi*

Hugs you guys too,
Ann

[Mehreen]

Segilola wrote: "Mehreen wrote: "Tim wrote: "In their terms and conditions I found this clause, but I had to wade through a pile of crap to get to it.

d) not violate rights of third parties, particularly copyrigh..."

No. I was only a lowly graduate student then.

[Graeme]

I also use Calibre as part of the conversion process to Kindle. It is more reliable to convert from MS Word to Calibre to ePub to Kindle then it is to go from MS Word to Kindle using Amazon.

Better management of format across kindle platforms.

[Graeme]

I'm not worried about plagiarism at this point - I just want readers.

[Eldon]

I have to agree with Tim here, that is disturbing how easy it would be to have your work stolen. As to using that site, I guess the old caveat holds...buyer beware.

[Eldon]

Annie wrote: "Sooo...

I use Calibre to convert my books and when I receive pdfs (ewww!!) for review, I always ask the author if I may convert it to mobi/epub instead. I've never been asked not to. Also, when I ..."

Annie, how do you add covers to files that don't have them?

[Nik]

Graeme wrote: "I also use Calibre as part of the conversion process to Kindle. It is more reliable to convert from MS Word to Calibre to ePub to Kindle then it is to go from MS Word to Kindle using Amazon..."

My own feeling is that Amazon improved immensely in that field. Two years ago we needed to struggle with converting and formatting files, but recently I upload Word files directly to Amazon Kindle and don't see any of the problems that were in the past...

[Michael]

Please tell me everyone is protecting their work and registering their copyrights with www.copyright.gov

and are trademarking their titles when they can.

As an IP attorney I can honestly say that content creators are usually their own worst enemy when it comes to piracy.

You can register your own copyright fairly easy but I would suggest hiring an attorney for a TM. That is not a DIY filing, and you probably shouldnt use Legal Zoom either.

[Annie]

Eldon wrote: "Annie, how do you add covers to files that don't have them?"

With Calibre. Same way you'd add your own cover.

Michael wrote: "Please tell me everyone is protecting their work and registering their copyrights."

You betcha.

[Eldon]

With Calibre. Same way you'd add your own cover.

I keep hearing good things about Calibre...gonna have to check it out myself :)

[Ian]

For compiling, I use Jutoh. Yes, that costs a bit, but it does just about everything you could ask, and reasonably effortlessly, and you get technical support. When I self-published my first scientific book, they actually created three revised versions, just for me, to get over the problem of equations. You still cannot use LaTeX with them, because that involves code too alien to most others, but you can get around that without any real difficulty by creating .png images of the equations and inserting them. As for novels, easy. The cover is automatically inserted, and if there are no errors in their vetting process, it automatically passes Smashwords autovetter, which is a bit of a nightmare with Smashwords compiling many documents.