Book Publishing ebook (easy to pirate) vs soft copy (printed)

Book Publishing ebook (easy to pirate) vs soft copy (printed) Im continually asked if Im going to jump on the ebook bandwagon.  Its easy to distribute, the author gets more money if you sell through Amazon, and because the Kindle is so prominent (even the Kindle app on the i-devices), its so easy to tap into a huge audience of people who can purchase very, very easily (one click?). I have been on the fence about ebook publishing, for books I want to sell (not give away), for years. Heres why: document sharing websites, like scribd, make it super easy for people with questionable ethics, to share your document at no cost.  Heres an example: you can get my entire book, free, illegally, from scribd (URL here, but Im not linking to it:  scribd.com/doc/90301388/On-Linkedin). Scribd is not a bad-guy site.  Its not some offshore, shady torrent site where you can get anything, pirated, for free. Its more of a legitimate, trustworthy site, with real stuff.  Like docstoc and many other document sharing sites. But it was so easy for someone with poor judgement, or no ethics, or who perhaps feels that everything should be free, to post my book in its entirety, to scribd. And I dont see an easy way for me (or anyone) to say HEY, THIS IS PIRATED!  TAKE IT DOWN! No flag button or link. A couple of years ago, a FENG (The Financial Executives Network Group) member took my ebook and illegally emailed it to the entire FENG email list. Nice. Thousands of financial executives just got my book for free.  Did sales increase?  Nope.  Youd think financial execs would have more ethics than to let that happen.  When I asked the FENG leadership I got an apology, but the damage was done. I only knew about that because one of my JibberJobber users was on that list, and they forwarded it to me. As an author, and someone who is trying to earn money, I find the lack of integrity when it comes to stuff like this unsettling. And thats why Im not enthusiastically planning on making 101 Alternatives to a Real Job an ebook. But then, am I missing out on gobs of sales? The decision hasnt been made, but its hard to get excited about making a move that could completely wipe out any legitimate sales. Id love to know what you think. Book Publishing ebook (easy to pirate) vs soft copy (printed) Im continually asked if Im going to jump on the ebook bandwagon.  Its easy to distribute, the author gets more money if you sell through Amazon, and because the Kindle is so prominent (even the Kindle app on the i-devices), its so easy to tap into a huge audience of people who can purchase very, very easily (one click?). I have been on the fence about ebook publishing, for books I want to sell (not give away), for years. Heres why: document sharing websites, like scribd, make it super easy for people with questionable ethics, to share your document at no cost.  Heres an example: you can get my entire book, free, illegally, from scribd (URL here, but Im not linking to it:  scribd.com/doc/90301388/On-Linkedin). Scribd is not a bad-guy site.  Its not some offshore, shady torrent site where you can get anything, pirated, for free. Its more of a legitimate, trustworthy site, with real stuff.  Like docstoc and many other document sharing sites. But it was so easy for someone with poor judgement, or no ethics, or who perhaps feels that everything should be free, to post my book in its entirety, to scribd. And I dont see an easy way for me (or anyone) to say HEY, THIS IS PIRATED!  TAKE IT DOWN! No flag button or link. A couple of years ago, a FENG (The Financial Executives Network Group) member took my ebook and illegally emailed it to the entire FENG email list. Nice. Thousands of financial executives just got my book for free.  Did sales increase?  Nope.  Youd think financial execs would have more ethics than to let that happen.  When I asked the FENG leadership I got an apology, but the damage was done. I only knew about that because one of my JibberJobber users was on that list, and they forwarded it to me. As an author, and someone who is trying to earn money, I find the lack of integrity when it comes to stuff like this unsettling. And thats why Im not enthusiastically planning on making 101 Alternatives to a Real Job an ebook. But then, am I missing out on gobs of sales? The decision hasnt been made, but its hard to get excited about making a move that could completely wipe out any legitimate sales. Id love to know what you think.