Can you de-DRM Kindle Unlimited books to read on a Kobo?

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Drou

Suddenly explains so much

My personal favourite were the people who made the ToC at the end of the book the start page so the whole book showed as read.

[Gone]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

That was done because there were numerous frauds. People put a 5-pages-book in KU and got the same amount as the author of a 1000-pages-book. Some put up a book filled with thousands of pages of nonsense text. And so on.

[Cootey]

I don’t think anybody has answered your question specifically (or maybe I missed it).

Yes, you can deDRM KU books to read on the Kobo. I wish there was a way to *not* do it. Sometimes, my KU borrows get swept up in the batch when I backup my purchased Kindle ebooks.

As others have pointed out, this robs the authors of income since they’re only paid by pages read. If you absolutely prefer the Kobo reading experience (and why wouldn’t you!! &#128516, you could keep your Kindle at your side and thumb through the pages as you read on your Kobo. Sounds like a pain, but it would let you reward the authors while you rewarded yourself with a pleasant reading experience.


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[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Cootey

As others have pointed out, this robs the authors of income since they’re only paid by pages read. If you absolutely prefer the Kobo reading experience (and why wouldn’t you!! &#128516, you could keep your Kindle at your side and thumb through the pages as you read on your Kobo.

Or simply BUY the books!

[John F]

Some of the people only use KU for a free trial, apparently. Does an author still get paid for ebooks read during a free trial?

[Drou]

Originally Posted by Cootey

I don’t think anybody has answered your question specifically (or maybe I missed it).

Yes, you can deDRM KU books to read on the Kobo. I wish there was a way to *not* do it. Sometimes, my KU borrows get swept up in the batch when I backup my purchased Kindle ebooks.

As others have pointed out, this robs the authors of income since they’re only paid by pages read. If you absolutely prefer the Kobo reading experience (and why wouldn’t you!! &#128516, you could keep your Kindle at your side and thumb through the pages as you read on your Kobo. Sounds like a pain, but it would let you reward the authors while you rewarded yourself with a pleasant reading experience.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Thanks for the reply to the actual question I sort of assumed that was the case from the previous answers but I asked the question not realising how KU authors were paid. And from subsequent answers, having only ever used KU on my phone and not my old kindle, which always has some sort of internet connection on, I have, luckily, not deprived any authors of any past royalties!

Someone asked why not just buy the books? Tbh, they're not worth it. For me, KU is mainly light reading, books I can get through in a few hours and then never feel the need to pick up again. I think most of the authors I read on KU I discovered through an initial free book from amazon (usually the first in a series) and reading their other books is sort of like watching a soap opera- you'd tune in just to see what happens but you'd never rewatch. So if there was no KU I'd just not bother reading any more of their books. In their position I suppose I'd rather earn some royalties (even if it's less than from a bought book) than none at all. And obviously I'd hate not to earn anything so if I ever work up the mental energy to try de-DRMing any kindle book I might try as you suggest with a book I actually own and see how much bother it is to read on a kobo with my phone or barely working kindle on the side. Otherwise I'll just give up my 'soaps' and rely on goodread spoilers to see what's happening

[Josieb1]

Originally Posted by John F

Some of the people only use KU for a free trial, apparently. Does an author still get paid for ebooks read during a free trial?

They do but the total of KU pages read is divided by the total amount of income from KU so I guess the more pages read for zero income the less the authors get per page.

[Byrdie]

Kobo has a similar program called KoboPlus, that way you wouldn't have to convert anything. But I'm not sure if they have free trials as often as Amazon, also I'm not sure how authors get paid when you rent the Plus books. They don't seem to use the page count method because you can read offline on your reader or in the Kobo app. And unlike KindleUnlimited, you aren't restricted to just 20 books downloaded per month.

Edited to add: Also not sure which countries other than Canada, Belgium, the Netherlands and (I think) the US it's available in. But a quick search on the Kobo site ought to help you find it.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Byrdie

Kobo has a similar program called KoboPlus, that way you wouldn't have to convert anything. But I'm not sure if they have free trials as often as Amazon, also I'm not sure how authors get paid when you rent the Plus books. They don't seem to use the page count method because you can read offline on your reader or in the Kobo app. And unlike KindleUnlimited, you aren't restricted to just 20 books downloaded per month.

According to https://help.kobo.com/hc/en-us/artic...-while-offline, you can read 15 books off-line and then have to sync. I would assume during the sync it will upload whatever is needed to do the payment calculation.

There is some, to me, weird language on that page as they keep referring to "the trial period". It might mean that the length of the trial period is used later as the maximum time you can be off-line and read those 15 books. There is a "whichever comes first", so that might be it. But, https://help.kobo.com/hc/en-us/artic...mmon-questions gives the different trial periods, and for some reason those in Quebec don't get a trial period, so I don't know what happens there.
[QUOTE]
Edited to add: Also not sure which countries other than Canada, Belgium, the Netherlands and (I think) the US it's available in. But a quick search on the Kobo site ought to help you find it.

You can add Australia. The second link lists the countries Kobo Plus is available. The US is not one of them.

[Cootey]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Or simply BUY the books!

Isn't part of the terms for listing on KU that the book can't be for sale? Otherwise, what's the three month exclusive period about?

[Cootey]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Edited to add: Also not sure which countries other than Canada, Belgium, the Netherlands and (I think) the US it's available in. But a quick search on the Kobo site ought to help you find it.

You can add Australia. The second link lists the countries Kobo Plus is available. The US is not one of them.

Indeed, the US does not have this program. However, this wouldn't solve the OP's issue. KU books are exclusive, so it's unlikely the books would be in both programs.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Cootey

Isn't part of the terms for listing on KU that the book can't be for sale? Otherwise, what's the three month exclusive period about?

It can't be for sale elsewhere than Amazon.

[darthyoda6]

Originally Posted by issybird

• Invasion of privacy: Amazon et al. have so much data on me anyway, I can’t get fussed about its knowing how many pages of a KU book I’ve read

Then you also shouldn't use use a Kobo ereader if you ever sync it to get updates. Without any patches (which I have no clue if they even exist), Kobo tracks everything you do, how many page flips, how long you're idle, access different menu items, change the light level, etc. Then everything gets uploaded to Kobo when you do a sync. This is for purchased and sideloaded books.

Since I track books I read and don't always remember to track Kobo reads, I periodically look in the Analytics table to get start and end dates of books. I even found today a book I missed recording back in July. I actually wish I could do this on my Kindle reader, but Kindle encrypts the data.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Cootey

Isn't part of the terms for listing on KU that the book can't be for sale? Otherwise, what's the three month exclusive period about?

No, it can be bought on Amazon, but nowhere else unless KDP Select is cancelled, and that has a minimum period.
I expect EU to ban it as monopolistic when they notice. It's not like a supermarket having an exclusive brand, it's like one supermarket being the only one selling ANY baked beans at all. No retailer should have exclusive book, DVD/BD, music, magazine, newspaper content. Not the same as a publisher having exclusive rights (And Sky in Ireland must offer its own channels at a reasonable price to Cable & Fibre Pay TV companies).

[Deskisamess]

Shouldn't the decision be the author/right's holders? Plenty of retailers have exclusive brands. No one forces an author to sign the contract for KU.