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Help, Someone is Using My Book’s Images.


Learn to Self-Publish and Market

While the internet marketing are great options for publishers to promote their books, ethical and legal lines can seem blurred. This is especially true for posted images and materials and how they are actually used. As an author, publisher, marketer or other web entrepreneur, you have access to several free metrics sources to track your products' sales performance and clue you into where and how to market.

 Google Analytics, Blogger.com and other resource can help you track your books’ online presence and include information such as who is viewing, where they are viewing from, what they viewed, how long they viewed, and how they got there. It can also give insight into how many page views it takes before someone makes a purchase.

 However, there is not much available (that I'm aware of) by way of technology to track the use of your proprietary information or intellectual data. Most of that stuff is protected by existing laws such as the ones governing copyrights and trademarks. Here are some examples of problems you could face:

1.       Blogs and newsletter articles are stolen and attributed to someone else-I've had entire articles of an extremely niche nature stolen, published word for word on another blog and attributed to an entirely different author or Included in a book, magazine or other publication.

2.      Books and covers are copyrighted. However, book covers and graphics can also be stolen and used. There are many opportunities to lift images of search image results for use on websites, magazines and other media.

Here are some ways you can discover how your work is being used:

1.  Frequently search for your book titles, name and articles using various search engines. If you get some hits or indications you have a few choices:

     a. Determine whether or not they are used unfairly, or in a way that is unethical or detracts from your mission or product.

     b. Determine whether or not the information can be used to your advantage and further your mission or product.
For example, Red Bike Publishing prints government books, documents and regulations. Though they do not write the content, they do professionally design the covers. In some instances the covers have been used by vendors and other government agencies to further their mission. By default, the cover images are now treated as an industry standard, demonstrating that the image is what the "endorsed" product should look like. Leaving the industry to seek out publications with the image featured on industry leader websites. With that in mind you have a few options:

a.       Contact each website and ask them not to use your image

b.      Contact each website and ask them to attribute the image to you

c.       Choose to do nothing and let everyone buy your book. You could blog or write about the success of your book cover and the acceptance within the industry.

 Some ways to protect your images is to publish only low quality images, watermark your company name onto the image on your website or use software to reform your image into a product box or eBook. However, low quality images may hurt your marketing.

Jeffrey W. Bennett, ISP is the owner of Red Bike Publishing. Jeff is an accomplished writer of non-fiction books, novels and periodicals. He also owns Red bike Publishing. Published books include: "Get Rich in a Niche-Insider's Guide to Self Publishing in a Specialized Industry" and "Commitment-A Novel". Jeff is an expert in security and has written many security books including: "Insider's Guide to Security Clearances" and "DoD Security Clearances and Contracts Guidebook". See Red Bike Publishing for print copies of: Army Leadership The Ranger Handbook The Army Physical Readiness Manual Drill and Ceremonies The ITAR The NISPOM
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