Doug- ebook reselling policy

Most sellers of e-books say you cannot resell your e-books because they’re afraid of you retaining a copy or it getting out of hand with someone selling multiple copies, etc. That’s why some publishers lock their book files in some way to try to prevent distribution. Most forums and auction sites will not allow anyone to resell e-books for that reason. Copyright law in these areas is a bit fuzzy but does seem to at least partially support those restrictive practices.

We instead, come at it from the standpoint of trusting you. Locking books down or password protecting them is a pain for you. We don’t like them that way so we’re certainly not going to make you jump through those hoops.

We needed to come up with a policy that was fair to all of us and treated you in the way we would like to be treated. That policy is based on trust and assuming you would do the right thing.

What we did is relax the restrictions that might normally be afforded to us through copyright and say that you can resell our e-books, with a few reasonable caveats. We simply ask that you certify that you have destroyed or passed on to the buyer any copies you have, electronic or printed. We haven’t stipulated it, but it would be great to include a signed letter to the buyer saying those are the conditions and you have abided by them.

Sure, there are some risks in us doing this. I know few, if any, other publishers do such a thing. But we want to trust you just like we want you to trust us. It’s a golden rule kind of thing.

We trust that you will not steal our books by giving copies to friends or by selling or distributing copies. If you want to resell your copy we trust that you will do so in an honest way. We believe that you want to financially support our efforts because when you do you help make sure we continue to exist to produce more great materials and run this site. We’re a small and somewhat niche publisher, so even a little support can have a large impact.

Sorry for such a long answer, but it’s hard not to get into the whole philosophy of it because it goes to the heart of who we are. I hope I actually answered your question along the way. 🙂

I don’t fault other publishers too much for their more restrictive policies. They are only following what is considered the normal way of doing things. It’s hard to change the norm because it’s partially motivated by fear. We often fear what we can’t control.

I’ve heard small publishers refuse to offer any e-book versions of their products saying things like, “What if someone takes our e-book and posts it on the Internet? We’ll lose what little income we have to put food on the table.” Is that a lack of faith? Maybe or maybe not. It could just be following the principals they were taught as being good business practice.

Trust is the opposite of control. They are on totally opposite ends of the spectrum. That’s a huge leap for someone to make. It’s a big risk.

We’ve thought deeply about these issues where others may not have yet had opportunity to do so. We believe taking the risk is worth the gain of being true to who we are and how that makes us stand out from what is considered ordinary. At the same time I have no problem extending grace to those following what are considered the accepted policies.

But given the chance I’ll be happy to get up on my soapbox and extol the virtues of trust and openness. 🙂