I’m looking to change my reading and buying habits away from Amazon and need an alternate source for my ebooks. Where can I buy ebooks that won’t expire or have their licence revoked and will allow me to download a copy of that ebook I can store on my own system regardless of the websites status?
Calibre and DeDRM can strip Amazon’s DRM and let you save the books forever.
https://github.com/noDRM/DeDRM_tools
You need a registered Kindle, but you don’t need to actually use the Kindle to make it work. Just download the ebook from the Amazon website “for Kindle XYZ” and then import and convert the ebook in calibre.
This is unfortunately the closest answer to what the OP is asking.
To the best of my knowledge, outside of independent authors like Cory Doctorow selling drm-free from their own sites, I’m not aware of any place to shop for ebooks that are not tied to some online DRM scheme.
Humble Bundle books are another option, but it’s highly dependent upon if you want what they’re selling.
Baens library has been doing this for the past 25(?) years. They even have a free library. https://www.baen.com/catalog/category/view/s/free-library/id/2012
On the high seas
I kinda do both, I sail the sea for the book and if I like it I buy a print for the bookshelf lol
Librature has a list of DRM free individuals and small presses https://libreture.com/bookshops/
Oh I forgot also if you check the details on kobo, some of the books are sold DRM free. Mostly I think it was from Tor, but could be other publishers as well.
Anna’s Archive is a good option if you’re wanting to sail the high seas. Very easy to navigate, and almost all titles are available in multiple formats (I.e. PDF, epub)
I am a simple human. I see Doctorow, I upvote.
Since the beginning of the whole eBook trend I’ve refused to buy e-books from Amazon exactly because of their DRM, and recently I went looking around for an alternative and discovered Smashwords were I can buy the books and get them at least in ePub format (some also in other formats). They’ve been getting a steady stream of money from me ever since. (No, it’s not a subscription, it’s me being an avid book reader).
No idea of how good or not they are compared to other alternatives, but they seem to have more than enough choice for my needs and do satisfy my criteria, - the same as yours - which is that I when I download a book I get to keep it and read in any way I see fit.
Here’s a good resource:
https://www.defectivebydesign.org/guide/ebooksThanks for this! I think I may have come across it at some point but never bookmarked it for whatever reason, corrected that now!
If you get it off Amazon, you can use Calibre to download the ebook. Then convert to ebook .epub and now it’s yours forever. I don’t like this but some books are not possible to get it legally without Amazon.
Or use baen to buy. Or if your really lucky off the authors official website.
If you’re an audible user, libation is a great way to own your audio books the way calibre does.
That beats connecting the speaker jack to the mic jack and recording with audacity.
I used to do that all the time as a kid, and there are still songs where I expect to hear a windows tone over it in specific spots…
Head’s up - since Jan this year, this route is ONLY available if you have registered a Kindle with them. The new format used by amazon cannot be “unencrypted”, even by calibre, without a Kindle “unencrypting” it for you or providing it’s key or whatever the dark magic required is.
That’s terrible, thanks for the he heads up.
providing it is key or whatever the dark magic
Is it possible that someone could work out a way for Calibre to “pretend to be a Kindle”?
Piracy or your local library.
A lot of (bigger) bookstores also sell ebooks on their websites. There it usually depends on the publisher if they have DRM or not, so just look around.
Tor (the publisher, not the anonymizer) doesn’t use DRM on their ebooks.
Pirate the DRM free version of the e-book. And then send money to the author, either is a direct donation if they accept it, or donating a physical copy of the book to the library
Just pointing out that dozens of people work on each traditionally published book other than the author.
Does anyone other than the author and publisher get paid on a per-unit-sold basis?
I’m operating under the (perhaps mistaken) assumption that OP wants to “buy” an e-book in part to support those responsible for making it. And of course you can’t support an editor or cover designer or publicist directly, but they do get paid indirectly because books get sold.
A lot of publishers have DRM free content if you buy directly from them.
Verso, Tor, NoStarchPress to name a few
Surprised nobody’s mentioned Weightless ebooks or Smashwords yet. You didn’t mention region, so I can’t assure these will work for you, but worth checking out regardless to see if they may.
