Dealing with Kindle ebooks in calibre

[theducks]

Baen (Authors) used to put first books into the Baen Free Library (when sales dropped off, making another print run not feasible?)

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by theducks

Baen (Authors) used to put first books into the Baen Free Library (when sales dropped off, making another print run not feasible?)

And that was likely one reason that so many of their books (and authors) enjoyed a long tail.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Ma'am-I-Am

Amzn may now also push the idea that their DRM is more robust (?) and will prevent pirating while "the others" have breakable DRM. Might draw in more authors.

Then those authors would not worth reading as they would not care about their readers.

[Martinoptic]

Aren't authors generally more interested in the bottom line (lucre) than their readers?

[m_pluto]

Originally Posted by maddz

If you can find a contact for the author (FaceBook or a website), write and tell him you can't buy any more of his books because of Amazon policies. If enough people do that, then things may change in the future.

See my post above why self-published indie authors stick with KU, like I said above it's the difference between a side gig/hobby for some extra change vs. Something that is at the very least self-sustaining and at best enough for an author to make livable earnings and be able to write full time.

Yes the KU program definitely boxes it's authors in, but authors are okay with it because of how much of a difference in revenue it makes for them. Not until something competitive will authors be willing to move away from KU.

Now some authors are trying alternative ways to sell their books digitally so that readers can support them without amazon, like I've seen a couple that do a one sale of their book as a pre-sale/pre-order that readers can get one or two days before it is released on amazon. Others are turning to patreon and readers who support them there can get access to new chapters for current WIP & get free ARC copies as apart of that. But until a viable alternative comes around, few authors are going to be willing to leave the KU program.

[DNSB]

Several authors I read and more than my spouse reads have gone wide while switching to Kobo Plus to get the equivalent to KU without needing the exclusivity. One author I've chatted with states that they get about 60% of the income from KP that they were getting from KU and are making up the rest from their wide sales.

The down side is that it does take more work on the author's part since they are dealing with more vendors but, on yet another hand, you don't get your books pulled and your revenue withheld when your book is found on a pirate site.

[Josieb1]

Can I just clarify something please. I am testing all my kindles 11th gen and older and is KFX-ZIP the new Amazon DRM which is still locked? Google ie very confusing about this. Thank you

[Cactus Chef]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Several authors I read and more than my spouse reads have gone wide while switching to Kobo Plus to get the equivalent to KU without needing the exclusivity. One author I've chatted with states that they get about 60% of the income from KP that they were getting from KU and are making up the rest from their wide sales.

That's great to hear. I hope it gains wider adoption.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Josieb1

Can I just clarify something please. I am testing all my kindles 11th gen and older and is KFX-ZIP the new Amazon DRM which is still locked? Google ie very confusing about this. Thank you

Yeah, if you get KFX-ZIP and all your plugin versions/settings are correct (serial number etc.), that means DRM has been updated and cannot be removed at the moment.

[texasnightowl]

Originally Posted by Josieb1

Can I just clarify something please. I am testing all my kindles 11th gen and older and is KFX-ZIP the new Amazon DRM which is still locked? Google ie very confusing about this. Thank you

afaik, the only models still working are the Voyage and the 10th gen models (K10, Oasis 3, PW4); along with the old models that are being kicked off on May 20 (K3, K4, K5, PW1). Everything else is either patched via exploit (devices on 5.12.2.2 and 5.16.2.1.1 firmwares) or is on firmware that is too new (11th gen is on firmware 5.19.2 but anything after 5.18.5 does not work). And those old ones only have 3 weeks left.

[Josieb1]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Yeah, if you get KFX-ZIP and all your plugin versions/settings are correct (serial number etc.), that means DRM has been updated and cannot be removed at the moment.

Thank you. I just wanted to be sure. It’s an 11th Gen PW we have that’s spare so I guess it’s going on eBay.

[Josieb1]

Originally Posted by texasnightowl

afaik, the only models still working are the Voyage and the 10th gen models (K10, Oasis 3, PW4); along with the old models that are being kicked off on May 20 (K3, K4, K5, PW1). Everything else is either patched via exploit (devices on 5.12.2.2 and 5.16.2.1.1 firmwares) or is on firmware that is too new (11th gen is on firmware 5.19.2 but anything after 5.18.5 does not work). And those old ones only have 3 weeks left.

I still have a Voyage and an Oasis 3 for now, as well as a PW 5th Gen (until 20th May).

[texasnightowl]

Originally Posted by Josieb1

Thank you. I just wanted to be sure. It’s an 11th Gen PW we have that’s spare so I guess it’s going on eBay.

Did you happen to jailbreak it? Has the firmware updated past 5.18.5?

I have an 11th gen PW but I jailbroke it when it was on 5.18.3 and did the renameotabin to prevent updates. At the moment, well, as of yesterday, I can still dedrm books off of it.

But if you didn't jailbreak and it's on 5.19.2 or whatever then you won't be able to use it to dedrm.

[lkmiller]

I'm doing one last check of my Amazon library using my Kindle Touch for books published after Apr 2025 and Kindle for PC 1.17 for books published earlier. I was usually good about taking care of things at the time of purchase, and I've always bought most books elsewhere anyway. I have an Oasis 2 which has stopped working with DeDRM. Also a Paperwhite 2 which hadn't, but probably has by now. I never really used either of those for DRM removal as I prefer kf8/azw3 for backup and conversion to epub.

[Josieb1]

Originally Posted by texasnightowl

Did you happen to jailbreak it? Has the firmware updated past 5.18.5?

I have an 11th gen PW but I jailbroke it when it was on 5.18.3 and did the renameotabin to prevent updates. At the moment, well, as of yesterday, I can still dedrm books off of it.

But if you didn't jailbreak and it's on 5.19.2 or whatever then you won't be able to use it to dedrm.

No I didn’t jailbreak it and it is on 5.19.2. I only learnt how to jailbreak this weekend when I did my Voyage and Oasis