Amazon and DRM changes

[Rhooo]

Originally Posted by Cetacea

It highly depends on what kind of genre you are reading. In certain genres, there are a lot more authors publishing exlusively or almost exlusively with Amazon.

Unfortunately that's the bucket I'm currently in. I read a lot of romance (particularly fantasy and sci-fi romance) and the main publishing avenue for that genre these days is Amazon (specifically KDP Select). I'd love to see more of the authors in this genre diversify to storefronts like Kobo and Smashwords, but KU royalties are apparently hard to beat.

[Cetacea]

Originally Posted by Rhooo

Unfortunately that's the bucket I'm currently in. I read a lot of romance (particularly fantasy and sci-fi romance) and the main publishing avenue for that genre these days is Amazon (specifically KDP Select). I'd love to see more of the authors in this genre diversify to storefronts like Kobo and Smashwords, but KU royalties are apparently hard to beat.

Same, I read a lot of romance as well (different sub-genres) but that is the main reason. Either the series are also part of KU or they were published by an Amazon owned publisher and therefore are not sold anywhere else.

I was angry for a moment, but then I knew this was coming sooner or later. And now I will just have one e-reader for books I'll buy outside of Amazon and one for newly published kindle books. There are a lot of serious issues to be angry about, this is not one of it.

[gbm]

I do not think Amazon will do away with Download&Transfer for KF8 any time soon, to do so would put it in legal jeopardy from both publishers and authors who have specified no drm. I can also see some attorney filing a class action in that case on behalf of ebook buyers. At this time Amazon can claim to be following the letter of such agreements but they surely are not following the spirit of them.

The above applies only to purchased ebooks only.

bernie

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Yes, I know. But Amazon might disable Download & Transfer any time, and then the only way to deDRM Kindle books would be to get them off an older Kindle. The 2014 basic would be too new for that.

[John F]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

...

In the future if I title is Amazon exclusive, I'll see if the author has a website or some other way for me to buy that title and if not, hey, my TBR pile is already outrageous anyway.

...

I tend to think that "exclusive" means only available through Amazon. I assume you're not talking about pirate sites. I assume the author can't sell copies (according to Amazon). So what other way is there?

[jonathan2022]

Originally Posted by John F

I tend to think that "exclusive" means only available through Amazon. I assume your not talking about pirate sites. I assume the author can't sell copies (according to Amazon). So what other way is there?

They could use a payment system on a website eg PayPal and others then email buyer copy. Integrating payment systems wouldn't be hard to do. It would be hard work though. This would be for independent authors.

[jonathan2022]

Hard work being keeping on top of orders. Unless they programmed it in their site to download or email

[Quoth]

The author can't sell even on their own site if they use KDP Select / KU. Exclusive means what it sounds like.

I expect it to be banned in EU eventually as it cheats everyone and cements Amazon's almost monopoly.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by jonathan2022

They could use a payment system on a website eg PayPal and others then email buyer copy. Integrating payment systems wouldn't be hard to do. It would be hard work though. This would be for independent authors.

No, they get their book banned from Amazon if they do that.

It's not hard work, except when it goes wrong and customer claims (or really didn't) get the email. It's trival to put a PayPal button and you get the customer's email address from PayPal. Email is a disastrous way to deliver ebooks. Slightly better is password protected download via password to address from Paypal.
A full e-commerce site works better and can be less than $200 a year, but the customer support issues selling anything is a nightmare.

[John F]

Originally Posted by jonathan2022

They could use a payment system on a website eg PayPal and others then email buyer copy. Integrating payment systems wouldn't be hard to do. It would be hard work though. This would be for independent authors.

They could, but that doesn't sound "exclusive" to me.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by John F

I tend to think that "exclusive" means only available through Amazon.

Yes

I assume you're not talking about pirate sites. I assume the author can't sell copies (according to Amazon). So what other way is there?

I haven't had to check yet. But assuming the author actually answered their email, they may be willing to sell copies with me paying via paypal or they could have links on their site (yes, this would violate the Amazon agreement, but if they are small enough would anyone care? There have been examples previously.)

Honestly, I don't see myself going through that much work to get a book. There are too many others out there. But there are likely ways to get Amazon exclusive books outside of Amazon. And if not, well, I'll have to deal.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by innocenat

I am not sure you read the reply you quoted, specifically this part: Clara HD and PWSE are the same price here, which is just ridiculous. I just can't justify that purchase.

Here's pricing in Japan, for example.

Kobo Clara 2E: 19,900JPY.
Kobo Libra 2: 23,980JPY.
Paperwhite Signature: 19,980.

At this pricing, I also can't justify Clara 2E over PWSE either.

There's one easy way to justify Kobo over Kindle. Kobo runs a much much better firmware and integrates really well with Calibre for eBook management. Kindle's eBook management is really really poor. The PW5 is like buying a Porsche with a lawnmower engine.

And one other thing, Kobo is not playing stupid games with you to block you from your eBooks. And if you want all of your Kindle eBooks, you need to find an older Kindle that has firmware that only handles KF8 and not KFX and not a PW5

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Cetacea

After reading this, I guess I'll order a Kindle PW.... I will use my Kobo as back up for all the e-books I have bought before 2023 and the Kindle for all the new ones. I read a lot of Indy authors and many of them are either completely exclusive on Amazon or have some of their books exclusively there.

I hope I'm able to make the same font changes etc. on the Kindle as I was able on Kobo. Which was the main reason I had a Kobo. I would still like to import the kindle ebooks into calibre just because I had everything organizied in collections etc. But oh well, I'll get used to a new way of doing that.

You buy a Kindle PW (unless it's the PW1) and you won't be able to download KU or Prime eBooks other then in KFX. You have to buy a Kindle that supports KF8 but not KFX.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by hleo12

Not in my country.
These are the prices in my country for those devices, converted to USD.

Libra 2 32gb - 230 USD
Oasis 3 32gb - 239 USD
Oasis 3 8gb - 219 USD

Clara HD - 140 USD
Clara 2E - 173 USD
PW5 - 120 USD
PWSE - 160 USD

Amazon customer service removes ads if you ask nicely so that's 20 USD I won't be worrying about.

I miss having a Kobo, but it's just not wise to switch financially. I'll always feel like I was cheated if I buy a Kobo with these prices.

But what are the prices in your country. You aren't going to be buying in USD so converting to USD is not helpful.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by jonathan2022

They could use a payment system on a website eg PayPal and others then email buyer copy. Integrating payment systems wouldn't be hard to do. It would be hard work though. This would be for independent authors.

It would also break the terms and conditions for being on KU.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

But what are the prices in your country. You aren't going to be buying in USD so converting to USD is not helpful.

It’s fine for comparative purposes and it’s useful as a comparison to the US prices you cited. That is, this does both; it’s a comparison of prices within his country and a comparison to US prices. So it provides even more information than prices in the local currency.