DRM Free Publishers

[leebase]

My favorite publisher is Baen. Now I come for the content, I love their sci fi -- but I particularly like their DRM free policy and their reasonable prices. Heck, you can try out over 100 of the books for free via their Baen Free Library. www.baen.com

I just became aware of BeWrite books: http://www.bewrite.net/ I think one of their editors participates here. Again, reasonable prices, DRM Free. Seem to have a variety of genre's. Am looking now to see which book to try.

Lee

[sabredog]

Try Smashwords as well

[ATDrake]

For SF/Fantasy backlist, try BookViewCafé. It's a consortium of established authors, some of them quite well known like Vonda McIntyre and Sherwood Smith and Judith Tarr, selling their older works in MultiFormat, DRM-free editions.

Average price is $4.99 per book, plus they've put up plenty of short stories and novellas for free reading and you'll basically be supporting the authors directly. Ursula K. Le Guin even has a couple of things up there, though none of her famous classic stuff, of course.

[JeremyR]

While they seem to be in the process of winding down, Fictionwise still offers some DRM free books.

The trouble with Baen is if you don't like military SF, they don't have much to offer. They do have some classics, but the e-book version of those can be spotty (at least the ones I bought were).

[Worldwalker]

Originally Posted by JeremyR

The trouble with Baen is if you don't like military SF, they don't have much to offer. They do have some classics, but the e-book version of those can be spotty (at least the ones I bought were).

Esther Friesner writes military SF? (I just bought her new collection from Baen) Sharon Lee and Steve Miller? Lois Bujold? Mercedes Lackey? P.C. Hodgell?

Yes, Baen sells a lot of military SF. As I happen to like military SF, this is a good thing. But they also sell a lot which is not military SF, and as I also like that, this is also a good thing. Plus they're bringing out-of-print books back into print as ebooks, and often pbooks, such as Norton, Leinster, Heinlein, Leiber, and many other authors. For those people who have to search out ratty old copies in used bookstores or go without, they're yet another good thing, and if they have formatting issues (though I haven't seen any notable ones personally) let Baen know and they'll be fixed. Personally, given the state of some of my old paperbacks, I'd trade a few formatting problems for having the covers not fall off.

I don't like their politics, but I like their prices, I like their DRM (none), and I like their books; they, in turn, seem to quite like my money, since they accept large quantities of it. It works out for both of us.

I buy fiction books from Baen, Smashwords, BeWrite, BookView Cafe, the occasional stray indie, and authors' websites. For non-fiction, where I mostly buy computer books, I'm very fond of O'Reilly, especially when they have sales.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by JeremyR

They do have some classics, but the e-book version of those can be spotty (at least the ones I bought were).

If you see a typo/OCR error in a Baen ebook, do report it. It will get fixed.

But if you downloaded the ebook more than a month ago, do first check that it hasn't already been fixed.

[neilmarr]

Hi Lee. Thanks for the mention of BeWrite Books. Why not check us out before actually buying anything? Call by the bookstore section of the site (linked below) and drop me a line of a couple of titles that catch your eye. I'd be happy to send them along by return as attachments with our compliments. Be sure to let me know your preferred format. A bumper four new releases this month, by the way; one just out today. Cheers for now. Neil -- ntmarrATbewrite.net (but use the @ sign).

[neilmarr]

Heck it's Thankgiving over there, isn't it! So the offer above stands for anyone else in this thread, too. Just take a look at what's on offer and email me with a couple of picks so that I can send them to you. We have PDF, ePub and Mobi of all titles. Happy day, folks. Love and peace to all around your tables. Neil

PS: If you're spoiled for choice, just let me know your preferred genre and I'll surprise you. N

[Steven Lake]

Just to throw my 2c into the mix, all of my books, including those of my publisher, are DRM free, always have been, and always will be. Neither of us will ever sell anything with DRM on it, just FYI. BTW, my publisher is 2 Moon Press.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Here's two more cents: My books are DRM-free also, available from my site as well as Amazon, Smashwords and Barnes & Noble.

[Elfwreck]

Non-DRM ebook stores list, in addition to Three Press Consulting's list of DRM-Free Ebook Publishers, some of whom don't have specific ebook stores.

Three Press's list has 8 nonfic, 19 "regular" fic, and 40 romance/erotica publishers listed.

(Romance/erotica has my vote for "genre that will break the DRM hold on the ebook industry," because there is lots of competition for the mainstream publishers. Harlequin's doing very well with DRM'd ebooks, but their lack of range means dozens of small imprints are also making a living.)

[SensualPoet]

Mobileread is honestly the only place on the planet I know of that has readers who select what to read on the basis of a lack of DRM.

This is not to say that there are lots of worthwhile reads that are DRM-free.

But my decision to pay money down for novel X or Y is not driven by the format the book is in: it's whether the book appears to be worth spending my leisure time with it or not. I am not prepared to stop shopping at Amazon for my Kindle 3 or at Kobobooks for my Kobo just because there is DRM. If the authors and titles that intrigure me are for sale there, I'll plunk down my cash. DRM or not, my eReader will play the title as expected.

And, I'm not prepared to give up public library access if it means becoming a DRM-free household.

I applaud authors and publishers who supply their goods DRM and Calibre-friendly for customer conversions. But it's simply NOT part of my ebook buying decision: the content, not the format, is king.

[ypocaramel]

I wholeheartedly agree. I decide first what I want to read, and then the best format it's available in.

To me, DRM is a matter of pricing. Less DRM = fewer restrictions = more I can do with my files = more value. So I'll get the version without DRM if it's not too much more expensive than the DRMed version.

I do think, as a matter of principle, that any rights management should be less restrictive, more transparent on the user and provide more gurantees to the user that they will be able to use their purchases in the long term.

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by SensualPoet

Mobileread is honestly the only place on the planet I know of that has readers who select what to read on the basis of a lack of DRM.

It's not, although it may be the only place that speaks about it in those terms.

I know plenty of people who don't buy ebooks from Amazon because "you don't own them, you're just renting them." And people who don't buy ebooks because they don't want to lose them after they have to reinstall Windows, or if they switch from Windows to Mac. They may not know the term "DRM," but they have figured out that most ebook stores sell content they can't rely on.

As a result, because they don't understand how DRM works, they just don't buy ebooks, or only buy rarely, and only from the one or two stores they know they understand.

Which, I suppose, is what the mainstream publishers want: people who buy paper because they understand how it works, and have looked at ebooks & decided they're mostly too complicated.

And I also know of *many* people who don't select what to read on the basis of DRM, but *do* select what to buy--if it's only available with DRM, they'll torrent it instead.

Mobileread's not the only place that brings up "no DRM" as an important feature in ebooks; it's just about the only place that knows how to discuss it coherently.

[Blue Tyson]

Originally Posted by SensualPoet

Mobileread is honestly the only place on the planet I know of that has readers who select what to read on the basis of a lack of DRM.

You don't get out much then, clearly.