Any insight on "piracy" rates? I recently published something print-only, and was considering offering a PDF (layout matters). It's a completely different "vertical," so the rest of your experience isn't too relevant.
A good take on this from a writer friend of mine: the people that "pirate" the book were likely never going to pay for it. But they could very well recommend it to people who might prefer buying it. The more it gets "pirated" the better as that means it's likely to be a decent book. I kind of agree with this and my gut says avid readers (which are always your #1 target due to word of mouth etc.) are generally fairly likely to pay for books.
I also once saw an author online who had a similar sentiment and offered a "did you download this book somewhere" button where you could donate a freely chosen amount of money to "ease your mind" and support future releases that worked rather well (to his own surprise). Trying to think of the name but can't I'll edit if it pops into my head.
My book is neither tech nor mass-market, and I've heard from another author in the area that "piracy" doesn't seem to be a major factor. It's also a large enough file to be a pain to email or put on a free blog, and unlikely to turn into a reliable torrent, so accidental or casual mass distribution is unlikely. Hm...
Any insight on "piracy" rates? I recently published something print-only, and was considering offering a PDF (layout matters). It's a completely different "vertical," so the rest of your experience isn't too relevant.