Stopping art thieves when selling comics..how?

[mariusthered]

so I have now got to the end of book 1 of my comic Blunderland and made my plans to sell it as a digital comic (updated artwork and unseen stuff included )
the 21 chapters will break down into 16 books with about 40 pages each.
what i cannot decide on is how to limit the people sharing it on the net once it's out for sale?
I know this will happen no matter what and I did consider not talking any steps.

but the other side of me thinks i should.

will a one page notice with every issue do the job?
or do i have to put water marks on every page?
any other advice you can give?

thanks for any feed back you can help with.

[punkarsenic]

by 'sharing it on the net' do you mean people posting stuff to like imgur, or do you mean 'hey i just read this comic you should read it, ill email you a copy'

with the former: - sign each page, (c) you, and then put a notice at the start being like 'hey dont share this entire book online i gotta eat.' if they only share a few pages (which youve already shared on tapas for free) then hey, its free press, and your name and maybe a social media is in the margin so anyone interested can find you.

with the latter - basically the same as someone buying your physical book and then giving it to a friend, charity shop, or library. nowt you can do, its not really theft anyway

[seru]

People who will buy the comic will buy the comic.

People who will pirate will never buy the comic in the first place.

[mariusthered]

my cunning plan is to take down most of the free stuff on tapas as i publish the new versions so each chapter will only have three pages. while i am doing this i will be posting new stuff to book two on tapas but im planning things better this time around what to leave out. thanks for the advise.

@seru sadly very true.

[Nerdicon]

I agree. At the end of the day if you have folk who love and support your work and they are willing to go that extra length then they will.

[monotone_ink]

By hiring duolingo to do the dirty work

[IdiotWithPencil]

what i cannot decide on is how to limit the people sharing it on the net once it's out for sale?

do absolutely nothing, at most just sign the pages outside the panels.
the less you do the better since

A) if they pirate it they wouldn't buy it at the start anyway
B) those who like it might buy it themselves later since they would be happy to support a good product after enjoying it.
if you try to police who gets what you will lose the B) pirates who you want to convert into clients.

pirates are either free entertainment seekers(they never buy anything) or cheap (they only buy after making sure they like it)

source: I lived in pirate heaven since childhood, most bought the product after knowing they enjoyed it or liked the author.

People who will pirate will never buy the comic in the first place.

not strictly true, I've bought a lot of games, comics, and movies I've pirated since I enjoyed them immensely. Pirates are just dissatisfied clients with 0 morals or with 0 funds to spend (I'm in the latter), you have to actually make them happy to pay you for your product, how do you do that? make a good product.

but as always this is just my opinon take it with a grain of salt-

[TheWitherling]

Wish my art was good enough to be stolen, heh.