Amazon and DRM changes

[Paperbackstash]

Originally Posted by odamizu

I am troubled by the number of people who seem to think nothing of DeDRM'ing Kindle Unlimited books even knowing that means the author won't get paid.

The argument that it's okay to steal money from KU authors because they don't get paid much anyway because they write crap or Amazon steals their money first ... well, it troubles me. It also makes me question any assistance I have provided for liberating ebooks from K4Mac.

Last word: According to this author: "I write romance novels and have easily made 4–5-figures a month being exclusively in KDP Select with all my books ... I’ve been a self-published author (under a pen name) for over five years now, and in all of those years, I’ve had my books in KDP Select. Why? Because a good 80% of my income comes from the program. And I still make enough for it to be my full-time career." https://medium.com/the-business-of-w...d-efbec9facac4

ETA: I have never subscribed to KU. All my Kindle books are purchased, even those available through KU.

Agree. I have subbed to KU for over 6 years and some of the self published authors I follow on there love KU. They do get paid, but not if people do stuff like sideload or never show their stats as read.
With the example given above to come out to like 1.50 a book, that's not far off from traditional publishing houses for authors who aren't giant successes. Actually they may make slightly less than that.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

I like Kobo's firmware better than Kindle's firmware.

I like Kindles hardware better than Kobo's hardware.

I like Nook's hardware the best. The Nook ST, the 2015 Glowlight Plus and the Glowlight 4 are beautifully designed devices. A shame about the software and partitioned memory hijinks (they didn't do that on the Plus and the ST had an SD card slot. But the 3 and 4 have real issues with partitioned memory).

The 2015 Plus in particular has a great tactile feel: metal back, textured bezel, flush 300 PPI Carta screen and a haptic home button.

[ps67]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

On Kobo you can read a synopsis without even opening the book. I'm surprised you can't do that on a Kindle.

And also on Pocketbook

And about Kindle Unlimited: I want to hold my books, so I don't have Kindle Unlimited. If I buy a book everywhere and the I DeDRM it to read where I want, the author won't be damaged, but with KU (the same with Kobo Plus I think) if I am able to DeDRM it and then I read elsewhere the author won't be paid and it is unfair.

[lkmiller]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I like Nook's hardware the best.

Me too. My dream ereader would be Nook hardware, Kobo software, and Amazon's catalog --but in epub.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by lkmiller

Me too. My dream ereader would be Nook hardware, Kobo software, and Amazon's catalog --but in epub.

Nook hardware is meh! The bezel design is awful.

[Alaska]

I can still download KF8 files, from two eBooks published in January and now one from February. Has Amazon backed down or do the restrictions only apply to certain publishers or countries?

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by Alaska

I can still download KF8 files, from two eBooks published in January and now one from February. Has Amazon backed down or do the restrictions only apply to certain publishers or countries?

How are you downloading them?

The restriction for books published this year only applies to books downloaded using older versions of the Kindle for PC and Kindle for Mac apps.

[lkmiller]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Nook hardware is meh! The bezel design is awful.

I like big bezels and I cannot lie!

[Alaska]

Originally Posted by jhowell

How are you downloading them?

The restriction for books published this year only applies to books downloaded using older versions of the Kindle for PC and Kindle for Mac apps.

I use Kindle for Mac 1.33. So far there has been no prompt to download a new version, when I click download on my purchases I get KF8 files which I can edit with Calibre. Also with books published after 3.1.23.

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by Alaska

I use Kindle for Mac 1.33. So far there has been no prompt to download a new version, when I click download on my purchases I get KF8 files which I can edit with Calibre. Also with books published after 3.1.23.

That is good news for Mac users.

I don’t have a Mac so I have only tested using Kindle for PC and versions of that app that can be made to download KF8 do not work for recently published books.


Added: something is odd here. I am not a Mac user but it has been reported that the last version of Kindle for Mac that allowed KFX to be disabled was 1.31. Is there something unusual about your setup?

[Alaska]

Originally Posted by jhowell

That is good news for Mac users.

I don’t have a Mac so I have only tested using Kindle for PC and versions of that app that can be made to download KF8 do not work for recently published books.


Added: something is odd here. I am not a Mac user but it has been reported that the last version of Kindle for Mac that allowed KFX to be disabled was 1.31. Is there something unusual about your setup?

Not that I know of.
Kindle 1.33 can read kfx files, so it's really strange. When I'm asked which Kindle I want to download the book for before downloading, I specify the new Scribe, not an old one that can't do kfx yet.
Maybe it's different in Germany? Or Amazon does it with publishers who don't use hard DRM for ePubs in this country.

[Patitapetit]

Originally Posted by Alaska

I can still download KF8 files, from two eBooks published in January and now one from February. Has Amazon backed down or do the restrictions only apply to certain publishers or countries?

I'm in Germany and have restrictions

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by Alaska

Kindle 1.33 can read kfx files, so it's really strange.

It supports KFX and there is no known way to disable that as far as I am aware.

Originally Posted by Alaska

When I'm asked which Kindle I want to download the book for before downloading, I specify the new Scribe, not an old one that can't do kfx yet.

Selecting a device means you are using the Download & Transfer function from Amazon's website, not Kindle for Mac. That method never delivers KFX format and there is no restriction based on publication date.

[Alaska]

Originally Posted by jhowell

It supports KFX and there is no known way to disable that as far as I am aware.



Selecting a device means you are using the Download & Transfer function from Amazon's website, not Kindle for Mac. That method never delivers KFX format and there is no restriction based on publication date.

So I always downloaded my purchased books and converted them in Calibre with your kfx plugin (thank you so much for that! ). If this is still possible, you can still buy the books from Amazon and remove the DRM.
What was the advantage of using the books via Kindle for PC/Mac?

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Alaska

What was the advantage of using the books via Kindle for PC/Mac?

You didn't need a physical Kindle.