Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Anatomy of a Murder (and Resurrection)

...is a damn good movie. But I'm talking about one of my books.

I killed We are the Monsters last week. It was a hard choice to make because it had already received one nice 5-star rating at Amazon.

I planned on changing the cover (and I do like the new cover much better than the old), but I wouldn't have needed to kill the book without the digital rights management (DRM) debacle.

See, I accidentally selected "enable DRM" when I first published the book. (Don't know what DRM is? Read this.) I don't believe DRM is good for authors. The debate rages on, of course, but in my opinion, it hurts.

If I want people to read my stories (which I've decided is goal #1), why would I put roadblocks in their way? Some writers get all kerfluffled about pirates giving away their books. I say go for it--as long as you don't start selling those pirated books under a different name. Just give me credit, and we're good. Go ahead. Steal my books. Give them away. Grow my audience.

The only way to free We are the Monsters from the DRM monster was to kill it and publish it again from scratch. So I did. It has a brand new, completely linked table of contents, new cover art, and freedom from DRM. None of my other books have DRM, either. It just doesn't make much sense.

And you can download it at Smashwords for free (for the time being). The Amazon Kindle edition is only 99 cents.

How do you feel about DRM? Piracy?

(And if you've read We are the Monsters, I'd love to hear what you think--good or bad. Amazon reviews are a writer's friend.)

7 comments:

Daniel Powell said...

Hi Aaron,

I made the mistake on a book as well, but left it up. I think it's pretty silly that Amazon won't let authors switch it after the fact (though I suspect I know why)...

Loved yesterday's post, by the way. As writers, we just need to write and try harder. Reviews and rejections (in most cases) just aren't personal. Read it, learn from it, keep stepping!

Sage Ravenwood said...

Word of mouth is the most potent free advertising anyone can get.

I agree with you here. Case in point is this post by a friend of mine: http://quoteflections.blogspot.com/2011/05/perfect-ironic-shower-gift.html

In which he talks about Facebook starting the rumor mill. The book in question isn't even due for release for another month, but it's already made the NY Times bestseller list. Why? The PDF was pirated and word of mouth. (Hugs)Indigo

Michael Stone said...

I don't know much about DRM on books, but if it is as ineffective as the DRM in music and games, I'd say it's only going to stop the casual user from pirating your books.

J. R. Tomlin said...

Tough to do but I agree with you on DRM.

Katey said...

I've never seen the point of DRM. I used to tape songs off the radio and my friends CDs as a kid. I borrowed books from them and let them borrow mine. I don't know--I do think there's a danger in making people feel as if they're entitled to free entertainment, in that people definitely will think that's the norm if we let it happen. But that's not a DRM issue, it's a social issue, and--yeah. Not really relevant, as far as I can see.

Then again, I also think fanfiction is awesome. So what do I know?

Aaron Polson said...

Daniel - Let's all keep writing. Cheers!

Indigo - Going viral is the 21st century home run. ;)

Michael - And the casual user probably wouldn't have pirated them in the first place.

J.R. - I won't make the DRM mistake again.

Katey - I think all fiction is fanfiction, sort of. And I think you know a lot.

Katey said...

I think all fiction is fanfiction, sort of.
Yeah. Me too.