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Comment by sergiotapia | Hacker News Reader

Congratulations on the success! Leanpub is the best platform I have ever bought a book on hands down.

They just send you an email with a link to the downloadable pdf or you can log in and see your purchases with simple Download links. No DRM, not third party software downloaders, just a simple File > Save As.

Really transparent and makes you feel safe buying things.

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And what about epub or mobi files?

I think they do them to, but I never use them because I don't read programming books on anything other than my PC since I keep the book and the code side by side.

why won't PDF then won't work for you?

They provide all 3 formats: pdf, epub, mobi. They also have the option to set a kindle address through the site to send books to a kindle (if the file size is okay). I agree with sergiotapia by the way, it really is an excellent service.

Are you not afraid that people may send each other the .pdf file without paying ?

Cheaters will always cheat, and let me tell ya: I've spent more money on Leanpub than I have anywhere else with "proper drm". :) I guess developers have an honor code towards their fellow software developers.

I agree. I have never paid for ebooks before I came across Leanpub. If my game/book was being copied without me being paid for it, I'll be happy that people like it so much. It only means that more folks will see it and at it will pay off in better sales eventually.

I'm not inclined to dig it out right now, but if it interests you, do check out what Neil Gaiman said about his books being copied in a similar manner.

As an author on Leanpub (http://www.leanpub.com/php) and one who's book has made it onto at least one torrent tracker site, I can say that if your book is worth pirating, it will be, and by trying to protect it with DRM you are only going to lose readers. It's only my first book, but it doesn't seem to have hurt my sales figures, and I've had plenty of complimentary feedback about the leanpub experience.

From what I can make out, if something is worth pirating, other people will happily pay for it. IMHO, the main question is; are there enough people paying to make it worth it in itself, regardless of people sharing it freely? If so, then the sharing doesn't matter.

That's even legal among close friends and within your family – at least in most European countries (private or personal use). And I consider it an absolute necessity since printed books can be easily shared and in a family, it's simply not feasible to buy the same content a few times.

I think the bigger worry should be regarding whether or not you're writing something people will buy.

The reason so many things suck these days is that people worry about edge cases, and build in rules/sucky experiences to protect against them.

For self-published authors, obscurity rather than piracy is the largest business threat

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