I’m really in a muddle about epublishing because I can’t figure HOW it works. If I put my book online and someone wishes to buy it, how does that happen? I do understand there is no way to prevent people from burning my book on CD’s and selling them or giving them away. That’s the down side. But I don’t understand why people cannot just download the book to begin with. Please explain at your convenience. Thanks.

A.C.

What I always tell authors is this. If I didn’t sell my ebooks for fear of ebook pirates, I’d have gone out of business a decade ago. While some people might forward an ebook to a friend, that friend probably wouldn’t have bought the book in the first place. Most people are honest and you shouldn’t punish your honest readers just to try to avoid the very rare occurrence of ebook theft. That said, while I’ve heard of people forwarding an ebook to a friend, I’ve never heard of anyone burning an ebook on a CD and selling it to others. Nobody orders CD ebooks anymore. Ebook downloads are instant and there are no shipping charges.

When someone buys an ebook from Booklocker.com, they are able to download it instantly and the author’s account is instantly credited for the royalties. Many people buy ebooks now because they can get the book instantly and they don’t have to pay for shipping.