Introduction to eBook Publishing at Pothi.com
Pothi.com enables authors and publishers to publish and sell eBooks through its platform. Authors and Publishers can upload their eBook, set its price and sell it through Pothi.com's eBook store. The details are available in the following sections.
File Specifications
- Files are sold as PDF and optionally as EPUB. File to be sold as PDF is mandatory to submit.
- For file to be sold as PDF
- Accepted formats: .doc, docx, .sxw, .odt, .rtf and .pdf.
- Non PDF files are converted to PDF files by Pothi.com.
- Front Cover: The first page of the File should be its Front Cover. It will be displayed on the store as the cover image. No separate covers will be accepted.
- Margins: Leave at least 0.5" margin at the bottom. It will be used to watemark the buyer's e-mail id on the file. Other margins are as per your discretion.
- File to be sold as EPUB
- Needs to be submitted in EPUB format only
- Submission in this format is optional. If you do not have EPUB file, you can ignore this field in the submission form.
- Cover image should be included in the EPUB file.
Price and Author Margin/Royalty
MRP of the eBook is set by you. It can be zero or a minimum of Rs. 5.
Author Margin/Royalty is 75% of the MRP when sold through Pothi.com's store and 25% of the MRP when sold through other channels.
Terms for eBook publishing
- By submitting your eBook files on Pothi.com, you grant and assign us a non-exclusive right to digitally publish, distribute, market and sell them, and to license others to do so. The copyright remains with you.
- We have the right to sell the eBook worldwide through our site or through other channels.
- License is non-exclusive, so you retain the rights to publish, sell, distribute for free or do anything else with the content. Of course, if you are using other platforms you should make sure that your use of Pothi.com does not violate their terms of services.
- You continue to remain the copyright owner of the eBook.
- MRP of the eBook is set by you. It can be zero or a minimum of Rs. 5. Author Margin/Royalty is 75% of MRP when sold through Pothi.com and 25% of MRP when sold through other channels.
- The responsibility of the content lies with the user submitting the content in accordance with our terms and conditions. Pothi.com does not check or endorse the books published through the platform. User has to ensure that the content submitted by him/her does not violate our Terms & Condition or the law of the land or anybody’s copyrights, rights to privacy etc. The content has to comply with all the existing terms on our website.
- Pothi.com is not liable for any misuse or piracy by the buyers.
- We reserve the right, but are not obliged, to continue to keep a copy of the files and serve it to existing buyers, even after the book has been unpublished from the site.
- If the book has gone into distribution through other channels and you want to remove it, we need to be intimated by e-mail for the same. Unpublishing the book on Pothi.com does not remove it from other channels automatically. The removal will happen in accordance with the terms and time frames of individuals partners.
Digital Rights Management (DRM)
- DRM, described simply, restrict the number and type of devices an eBook can be read on. This is intended to prevent unauthorized copying/piracy of eBooks.
- But existing DRM solutions from various providers are not compatible and DRMed books can get very messy for even genuine buyers to read.
- At Pothi.com, eBooks are not DRM Protected.
- Instead, we are experimenting with the concept of Social DRM.
Social DRM
- Involves stamping some personal information of the buyer on the electronic files
- Presence of personal information is expected to reduce the tendency to pirate the files
- In extreme cases, something sensitive like Credit Card Information can be stamped
- In Pothi.com’s social DRM system, we stamp e-mail id of the buyer on the PDF file
- Currently an experimental feature
- EPUB files do not have any stamping