A reader's request

[NotWise]

I had thirteen chapters of a novel tentatively titled "Unlikely Angels" sitting in my files when I first came to Lit. I reached a bit of a lull waiting for my third story to publish, and decided to post the first seven chapters in five parts. The story at that point ended with a minor tragedy, and I thought that would be good.

The story was popular among a fairly small group of readers, and I could hear the wails and rending of garments when I ended the series there. They convinced me to continue posting the chapters and I eventually added eight longer chapters over a two-year period to bring it up to twenty-one chapters in twelve parts.

The readership was very small at that point, and the remainder of the story would be a non-erotica religious/political thriller. It was either non-erotic, or I'd have to branch out into places I didn't plan to go. The last posted chapter did the big reveal of what was so special about the main characters, so it was a good stopping place for me.

I left it up for months, then had Laurel pull it down. I always wanted to continue the story, but not on Lit. But you know, there are always new ideas, and maybe I'll never get back to "Unlikely Angels."

The small number of devoted readers have been after me ever since. Today, I got a request by email for a copy of the series. I'm thinking of giving it to him. I'd just patch it all into one big PDF and stick a statement on it that he could use it for his own purpose, but he could not distribute it to anyone, anywhere, or in any form.

Would I just be shooting myself in the foot by doing that?

 

[Salacious_Scribe]

Depends on the person. A lit user liked my stories so much she sent me several nudes. Lovely lady. Those pictures reside in my dropbox with some others I collected. No one has seen them but me and anyone else she sent them too.

some people will respect your wishes, some won''t

Lit is not the only site, others have different rules and may accept your story. If you want links PM me.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

Well, to shoot oneself in the foot is to do oneself an unnecessary injury. I’m not quite sure why you had Laurel take it all down in the first place, so why providing a fan with a copy might be a bad thing is unclear to me.

 

[Salacious_Scribe]

Well, to shoot oneself in the foot is to do oneself an unnecessary injury. I’m not quite sure why you had Laurel take it all down in the first place, so why providing a fan with a copy might be a bad thing is unclear to me.

When he said Laurel pulled it down, I thought he meant she removed it. IF he asked her to remove it, that's a different convo.

 

[NotWise]

Well, to shoot oneself in the foot is to do oneself an unnecessary injury. I’m not quite sure why you had Laurel take it all down in the first place, so why providing a fan with a copy might be a bad thing is unclear to me.

I took it down because I had no intention of completing it for Lit -- much less in any kind of timely fashion. It would have been an unfinished series hanging in my catalogue forever, and I didn't want that.

I guess various forms of ripoff would be the main reason for not releasing it. While it was up, I could always find at least parts of it posted on sketchy websites. I never understood the appeal, but some of those sketchy websites gave it a pretty nice presentation.

 

[NotWise]

When he said Laurel pulled it down, I thought he meant she removed it. IF he asked her to remove it, that's a different convo.

I asked her to remove it.

 

[Enchantment_of_Nyx]

I had thirteen chapters of a novel tentatively titled "Unlikely Angels" sitting in my files when I first came to Lit. I reached a bit of a lull waiting for my third story to publish, and decided to post the first seven chapters in five parts. The story at that point ended with a minor tragedy, and I thought that would be good.

The story was popular among a fairly small group of readers, and I could hear the wails and rending of garments when I ended the series there. They convinced me to continue posting the chapters and I eventually added eight longer chapters over a two-year period to bring it up to twenty-one chapters in twelve parts.

The readership was very small at that point, and the remainder of the story would be a non-erotica religious/political thriller. It was either non-erotic, or I'd have to branch out into places I didn't plan to go. The last posted chapter did the big reveal of what was so special about the main characters, so it was a good stopping place for me.

I left it up for months, then had Laurel pull it down. I always wanted to continue the story, but not on Lit. But you know, there are always new ideas, and maybe I'll never get back to "Unlikely Angels."

The small number of devoted readers have been after me ever since. Today, I got a request by email for a copy of the series. I'm thinking of giving it to him. I'd just patch it all into one big PDF and stick a statement on it that he could use it for his own purpose, but he could not distribute it to anyone, anywhere, or in any form.

Would I just be shooting myself in the foot by doing that?

If you password protect the PDF, you can set the permissions so that the text can't be copied from it and pasted somewhere. It someone wanted to, it would still just be a matter of printing or saving it as a graphic and running it through OCR to render it as renderable text. I guess it depends on what you're concerned about preventing.

 

[NotWise]

If you password protect the PDF, you can set the permissions so that the text can't be copied from it and pasted somewhere. It someone wanted to, it would still just be a matter of printing or saving it as a graphic and running it through OCR to render it as renderable text. I guess it depends on what you're concerned about preventing.

I haven't tried using password protection on PDF's. If they can print it, then I don't see how that protects me. They can just print it to a pdf file.

 

[Rustyoznail]

I haven't tried using password protection on PDF's. If they can print it, then I don't see how that protects me. They can just print it to a pdf file.

There's no perfect security solution. All you can do is make it difficult and not worth someone's time.

 

[KeithD]

I took it down because I had no intention of completing it for Lit -- much less in any kind of timely fashion. It would have been an unfinished series hanging in my catalogue forever, and I didn't want that.

I guess various forms of ripoff would be the main reason for not releasing it. While it was up, I could always find at least parts of it posted on sketchy websites. I never understood the appeal, but some of those sketchy websites gave it a pretty nice presentation.

If it would disturb you to see it for sale on Amazon to someone else's profit, you probably shouldn't send it. There's really no way I know of to protect the content if you release it to anyone.

You might consider setting it up yourself at Amazon and letting anyone who wants it buy it.

 

[NotWise]

If it would disturb you to see it for sale on Amazon to someone else's profit, you probably shouldn't send it. There's really no way I know of to protect the content if you release it to anyone.

You might consider setting it up yourself at Amazon and letting anyone who wants it buy it.

If I knew how to do that and wanted to take the time, that would be the perfect solution.

As is, I think I'll just give him a copy.

 

[Enchantment_of_Nyx]

I haven't tried using password protection on PDF's. If they can print it, then I don't see how that protects me. They can just print it to a pdf file.

You can set the permissions to prevent printing it. That doesn't keep them from screenshotting it, though, then converting the image file to text with OCR. There's no such thing as foolproof.

 

[NotWise]

You can set the permissions to prevent printing it. That doesn't keep them from screenshotting it, though, then converting the image file to text with OCR. There's no such thing as foolproof.

Taking screenshots of 123 word processor pages would demonstrate real dedication.

In retrospect, that isn't a huge document. Maybe 67K words, which is bigger than anything I have on Lit, but it's only about half the story.

I reread snippets of the story while I converted it. I can almost understand why a reader would get that involved. I was cultivating a tone that took a lot of time to develop. But you know? I've written a lot since then that the general audience seemed to like more.