What are some good DRM-free ebook stores? > Likes and Comments

What are some good DRM-free ebook stores that support the kindle file format? With the unmitigated disaster that is the new Comixology update and its folding into Amazon completely I no longer want to give Amazon my money so I’m looking for alternatives to everything that I would normally purchase from Amazon.

For public domain ebooks Standard Ebooks and
Gutenberg are good. They are also free!
https://standardebooks.org/
https://www.gutenberg.org/

There are also DRM-free ebook publishers. TOR, Baen, Angry Robot, Smashwords, and Book View Cafe are some that I have used. They allow you to order their books directly in pretty much whatever format you like. I am sure there are others.

There’s bookshop.org and scribd.com. I don’t know if all the books are DRM-free, but specific publishers are.

Stores, including Amazon, don't apply DRM if the publisher doesn't want them to, so if you find a store with no DRM on titles where all the others have it? It's probably a ripoff so you're effectively stealing and hurting the authors too. Basically, any legit store will have DRM if the publishers require it, not if they don't.

That said, there are ways to remove most DRM from stores like Kobo, B&N etc and I've always felt that if you do it yourself and don't share the books, that's fair. It just means you're able to use whatever reader you want.

Not sure how the mods feel about linking to such places but a quick google search will work for you.

You might not find many that support the Kindle file format and if you don't support Amazon why would you want that format anyway? Most of the other formats are supported on nearly all other devices and can be easily converted.

Some libraries allow you to check out ebooks, and you can opt to have them forwarded to your Kindle. (You can also use the Libby app if you have another device like an iPad. So you wouldn’t need to use a Kindle.)

@AndrewP I need the kindle file format because my reader is a kindle. I already own it.

My understanding is that there is a way to side-load epub on to kindles. (I use non-kindle readers, so this is something I have read but not tried.) If not, the Calibre ebook management program (free, open-source) has a variety of format converters.
https://calibre-ebook.com/

Aaron wrote: "My understanding is that there is a way to side-load epub on to kindles. (I use non-kindle readers, so this is something I have read but not tried.) If not, the Calibre ebook management program (fr..."

No that's not true. No Kindle will read any native .ePub files. You can convert them using calibur, but then you may have issues with formatting and lose all the special features such as word lookup, X-Ray, whispersync etc. Bottom line, if you have a Kindle stick to books from Amazon, either purchased directly or from the library via overdrive.

Welcome to to the no-Amazon crowd! You have to forgo the convenience and Amazon exclusives, but there is so much to consume, that the little extra work to find it is insignificant. Once you start looking around, you find many interesting things that aren't on Amazon.

Archive.org also has both out-of-copyright ebooks and an ebook lending library.

An increasing number of established authors are breaking out of the traditional model and self-publishing through crowdfunding platforms https://unbound.com/ https://kickstarter.com/ https://indiegogo.com
Before you dismiss it, remember that Becky Chamber's Long Way to a Small Angry Planet was as a Kickstarter.

Rick wrote: "Stores, including Amazon, don't apply DRM if the publisher doesn't want them to, so if you find a store with no DRM on titles where all the others have it? It's probably a ripoff so you're effectiv..."

Stores like Amazon and Barnes&Noble apply DRM unless the publisher insists otherwise because they want the lock-in.

Smashwords (https://www.smashwords.com/), Itch (https://www.itch.io/) and other small/self publishers tend toward a drm-free model.

Some authors have control over their ebooks and make them available on multiple platforms.

Here’s a link that tells how to get started sending ebooks from the library to a Kindle (via the Libby app from a computer).

https://help.libbyapp.com/en-us/categ...

Aaron wrote: "Stores like Amazon and Barnes&Noble apply DRM unless the publisher insists otherwise because they want the lock-in...."

Got a citation for that? Not your opinion, I mean a verifiable citation? Because as far as I know DRM or not is entirely a publisher decision. Macmillan imprints are all (as far as I know) DRM free. I *think* Baen are.

My point is that there are sites out there that strip the DRM and sell the books...and which don't pay royalties. I dislike DRM a lot but I will not (and no one ethical should) pirate books which hurts authors and editors.

PS: there ARE a fair number of publishers who sell directly. They seem to be redoing their store, but Book View Cafe does this.

https://epubor.com/how-to-find-drm-fr... is a decent list too.

Basicially, no amazon doesn't mean DRM free, necessarily. But

I don't But I also have no evidence or reason to believe Amazon would remove DRM from kindle books without being forced to by publishers.

I agree that we have to check the validity of alternate sites to not hurt authors and editors.

Well... the point is DRM is applied or not according to publisher wishes. If a book is DRMed according to the wishes of a publisher, it's DRMed everywhere it's legally sold, not just Amazon.

It may well be that Amazon defaults to applying DRM but if the publisher doesn't care enough to have it turned off ...

Is there a way to download backup kindle books on Amazon? Because if so those might be DRM free from certain publishers. This used to be the case with Comixology books from certain publishers, but maybe Amazon stripped that from Kindle too.

What do you mean backup books, Brad? You can download the books and you can sycn t hem to the Kindle on your PC from the Kindle e-reader, but that won't remove the DRM if it's there. As above, DRM on or off is a publisher decision. If it's on and you find a store where it's gone, check out that store VERY carefully.

The way comixology used to do it is there was a webpage you could download (right click and save as) a .cbz or .pdf of all the DRM free books you had purchased. I don’t know if there’s a way to do that for Kindle books on Amazon or not.

Baen books sells their ebooks from their website in multiple formats, including kindle-friendly formats, with no DRM.

Bookview Cafe is an author-owned publishing co-op that sells ebooks without DRM. https://bookviewcafe.com/about/

Nimo wrote: "If you go the "Manage your content and devices" page on Amazon, you'll find a list of all your Kindle books.
You can download them in azw3 format (not kfx) via the "Download and transfer via USB" o..."

If you use Calibre and a few little plug ins you can find with Google all azw3 books can be DRM free for reading on your favourite device.

Iain wrote: "If you use Calibre and a few little plug ins you can find with Google all azw3 books can be DRM free for reading on your favourite device.
f..."
Kind of. It doesn't work on Mac anymore - you need to download them using an older version of the Kindle app (pre-1.26) and those don't run on the newer versions of the OS. There are workarounds if you have other OSes, I think, but it's sadly not as straightforward as it used to be.

Heard about this from the podcast episode - if you're still looking - a few more options:

- ebooks.com - all of Tor.com's books on there are DRM free. With Calibre you can convert the books to .mobi (or whatever format Kindle uses) as well as PDF or any other format.
- libro.fm is like audible, but DRM-free
- Humble Bundle and Story Bundle sell their books DRM-free and usually include epub, mobi, and PDF for their books (and comics!)
- Tor.com giveaways (which can be awesome - last year they gave away ALL the Murderbot novellas) are always in both epub and mobi
- Rick says this doesn't work on a mac, but on Windows (or a Windows VM if you have a mac, I guess) it's pretty easy to remove from Kobo or Amazon store. That said, you'd still be supporting Amazon, so I guess that leaves Kobo. That same Calibre plugin that removes it also works with Adobe's DRM and MAYBE still works with Nook (used to back when I used to buy my books at B&N.com)

Important to note, since a few folks (including myself) have mentioned Calibre - it's a perfectly legal bit of software for managing your ebooks and their metadata. It also allows you put put books onto your ereaders via USB connect. It's the DRM-removal plugin that you may or may not want to use depending on how you feel about those things. It may technically be illegal (depending on what country you live in), but it's illegal in the same way as speeding - almost nil chance of it hurting you unless you're going WAY above the speed limit. And (to me) perfectly ethical since you BOUGHT the ebook, right? No one in this group (with our love of books and authors) should be getting books without paying unless it's a giveaway.

Just a note... the Tor books are DRM free everywhere. All Macmillan imprints are. DRM is always (as far as I've seen) a publisher option, not a store one.

As @ladymurmur mentions, Baen Books (baen.com) sells all their books DRM free in many (including Kindle) formats. They also offer some of their library (usually the first book in a series as a teaser to get you to buy the rest if you like the start of the series) as free downloads.

No, I'm not employed by them. I've just bought books from them.

Not strictly eBooks and not DRM free but the Internet Archive has a brilliant array of scanned in books that you can borrow from their webpage or on the Open Library app.
There is even a text to voice (read aloud) option on most of the books if you feel reading is too 20th Century

I have found it extremely useful for old hard to find books
https://archive.org/details/jewishjap...

https://rebellionpublishing.com/

I've purchased some SFF books from them.

Internet Archive does not have permission from authors to scan / distribute their works. It is effectively a pirate site, despite the owners' stated good intentions.

This site has a long list.
https://libreture.com/bookshops/

DriveThru Fiction skews heavily toward S&L books
https://www.drivethrufiction.com/

Reading all this, I'm a little surprised. How diverse our world is. A certain part of readers chose digital formats of books, and a certain part - printed. When printing, translation into other languages is required, if demand increases, translation, editing and proofreading in another language. And what are the mechanics of digital books? Everything is encoded there... I don't even know what will be there... I sometimes feel sad when you see many gadgets and one printed book. Your thoughts while reading, written between the lines... you can write directly in the book.