Amazon and DRM changes

[C-novice]

Hard truth for thought. . .

For those of us very, very, small minority who never and will never own a kindle of any sort and are reading addicts, can we see ourselves, stop purchasing ebooks from Amz?

Not for Amazon as it is clear it matters not to them but for our own principled sakes?

True. There are some authors we like but their books are exclusive to Amz. That said, perhaps we should get to them and publishers asking them to make their books available elsewhere for purchasing as well. If they do, fantastic! Happy reading to us all. If not, likely just strike them off the TBR list until Amz is not the only purchase option?

Easier said than done. . .

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by C-novice

Hard truth for thought. . .

For those of us very, very, small minority who never and will never own a kindle of any sort and are reading addicts, can we see ourselves, stop purchasing ebooks from Amz?

I will. There's no point to buying an eBook if I can't sideload it onto my Kobo.

[C-novice]

Does Amz pays so well that an author would bound his/her/other pronouns works for life to that one entity?

[Aleron Ives]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

I also have one game that I can never play again because the installer phones home to a website that no longer exists and won't let me proceed past that.

If it's old enough, somebody might have made a fix for it by now.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by C-novice

Does Amz pays so well that an author would bound his/her/other pronouns works for life to that one entity?

No. They just sell vastly more than all other vendors combined. So many authors don't see the point in bothering with others.

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by C-novice

Does Amz pays so well that an author would bound his/her/other pronouns works for life to that one entity?

KDP Select (which includes higher royalties & Kindle Unlimited) pretty much binds the author to sell exclusively on Amazon. I consider it anticompetitive shit.

[Quoth]

About 1/3rd to 1/2 of our sales is outside Amazon, because we don't go for KDP Select.
Partly Amazon having 90%+ of English ebooks market is the fault of publishers and authors not bothering to publish elsewhere.

[C-novice]

*scratching my head* How could that be good business sense if authors want to make a living from their work? In essence one can hardly blame Amz when authors willingly agree to such nonsense.

Though I note that some authors do sell their works on their own website- not a link to Amz. I guess those are the ones who haven't put all their selling rights in Amz exclusive basket.
Which means, I'll go an author's site to see if purchasing other than from Amz is available.

[hleo12]

Originally Posted by C-novice

Does Amz pays so well that an author would bound his/her/other pronouns works for life to that one entity?

I've seen multiple videos of indie authors saying they do earn more from being Amazon exclusive. Not that Amazon gives their authors more percentage, but it's easier and cheaper to get published on the author's part. Less hoops to go through.

I think Amazon is just too big. There were a lot of small publishers I used to follow 10 years ago that had to shut down because of Amazon. They just couldn't compete. Not just with prices, but also with convenience.

Recently, there's this Sanderson drama with Audible. A few authors wanted to follow his lead but their publishers outright said no. They can't afford to not publish through Audible. Almost all of the publishers these days rely on Audible for their audiobook services.

Sad reality is most indie authors just can't afford to not publish through Amazon. Traditional publishing is so gatekept.

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by hleo12

I've seen multiple videos of indie authors saying they do earn more from being Amazon exclusive. Not that Amazon gives their authors more percentage, but it's easier and cheaper to get published on the author's part. Less hoops to go through.

KU also pays royalties per page-turn, if I remember right.

[hleo12]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

KU also pays royalties per page-turn, if I remember right.

Yea. I've seen some posts telling readers to make sure to flip through the last page of the book.

[C-novice]

. . .Traditional publishing is so gatekept.

Which isn't helping and since they too sell on Amz and is fostering DRM, they wouldn't care either.

[C-novice]

Yea. I've seen some posts telling readers to make sure to flip through the last page of the book.

Incredible

Will not, can not stop reading even if I no longer purchase ebooks from Amz.

[ownedbycats]

Historically, DeDRM wouldn't remove the DRM from Kindle Unlimited books and there's a few bug reports about this that essentially ended in "if you like the book enough to keep it, go buy it." I'm not sure if the new maintainer follows the same policy.

[C-novice]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

. . . "if you like the book enough to keep it, go buy it." . . .

Of course. I do agree with that wholeheartedly but can one now read books purchased on Amz on anything than a kindle or kindle apped? Am I right?