> I like the fact that the paper books themselves are copyrighted and no one can print them extremely cheaply and flood the market with them at my expense.

Amazon has a book piracy problem ( 219 points by tosh on July 8, 2022 | 120 comments ) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32026663 https://x.com/fchollet/status/1550930876183166976 (and via Threadreader - https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1550930876183166976.html ) - also https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32210256 ( 665 points by jmillikin on July 24, 2022 | 193 comments )

Pirated books thrive on Amazon — and authors say web giant ignores fraud - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35761641 ( 87 points by vanilla-almond on April 30, 2023 | 79 comments ) https://nypost.com/2022/07/31/pirated-books-thrive-on-amazon...

Amazon caught selling counterfeits of publisher’s computer books—again - https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/02/amazo...

Having something that is paper doesn't mean that no one else can print them cheaply and flood the market. While it might not be at your expense - it certainly isn't something that is making you any money.

I stopped self-publishing my books, because as soon as I offered PDFs to those who purchased my paper books the sales of printed copies tanked. Then nobody wanted to pay for PDFs and Amazon screwed my KDP sales (banned my book). The readers felt entitled to free copies and free consultation on the subject of the book. It's really depressing how entitled people feel to other people's creative output or knowledge.

I also self publish books.

Most of the audience is decent. But there are some bad actors out there.

And lots of times the biggest book marketplace appears to (intentionally) close their eyes to this problem.

Piracy of my books from the dark web is one thing. Amazon pushing it is another.