HT201183: Publish and sell books with iBooks Author

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noa.yachot

Q: I would like to give away my book to a select group of people (in .ibooks format), but sell it to other readers. Is this possible?

I would like to give away my book to a select group of people (in .ibooks format), but sell it to other readers. Is this possible?

Posted on Jul 17, 2012 1:17 AM

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Q: I would like to give away my book to a select group of people (in .ibooks format), but sell it to other readers. Is this possible? ... more

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  • by MichiHenning,Solvedanswer

    MichiHenning MichiHenning Jul 17, 2012 1:59 AM in response to noa.yachot
    Level 4 (1,350 points)
    Jul 17, 2012 1:59 AM in response to noa.yachot

    You can just email the ibooks file to those people whom you want to have it, and put the book up in the store for sale (presumably with DRM). The problem with this approach is that you have to trust every single one of the people whom you give the file to (without DRM) not pass the file on to anyone else. If even a single person does, you have a non-DRM protected copy "out in the wild", where it (presumably) will spread.

     

    If you don't want to extend that much trust to all these people, you can just put up the book for sale in the store and then use the 50 promotional codes you get to make the book available to those people whom you want to receive the book free of charge. Doing this is OK, as long as you don't charge people for the copies you distribute via the promo codes.

     

    Note that being paranoid about illegal copying is probably a waste of time because the Fairplay DRM was broken by Requiem earlier this year.

     

    Michi.

  • by heySkippy,Helpful

    heySkippy heySkippy Jul 17, 2012 9:35 AM in response to noa.yachot
    Level 1 (50 points)
    Jul 17, 2012 9:35 AM in response to noa.yachot

    I put copies of my books in a web directory and email people a link. They can surf to the file with their iPad and it'll automatically download and open in iBooks. No DRM, of course.

  • by K T,

    K T K T Jul 17, 2012 9:40 AM in response to noa.yachot
    Level 7 (23,844 points)
    Publishing
    Jul 17, 2012 9:40 AM in response to noa.yachot

    See iBooks Author: Publishing and distribution FAQ - Support

     

    Adding DRM for the store is an option.