Which stores make it cumbersome to get the files on my hands?

[swapjim]

I plan to keep all my eBooks on my hard drive and I want to know which stores will make it hard (or impossible) to get the files on my hands.

Having to install software from the store on my PC to sync the eBooks and then fetch them from a folder inside 'C:\Users' counts as cumbersome. Requiring to connect the reader to the store to get the books is worse (I might even have a reader from another vendor). Best is allowing me to download the file from a website.

For example, I just checked the B&N store and they don't allow downloading via the website.

[Deskisamess]

Amazon doesn't allowed direct downloading, but using Kindle for PC, and sending the books to that app, makes it fairly easy to then retrieve the files from Windows File Management.

However, DRM means those files are only able to be opened in that specific Kindle for PC app.

Stripping the DRM is another topic, not discussed openly on these forums. But the use of Calibre is widely talked about, and something for you to look into.

[swapjim]

Originally Posted by Deskisamess

Stripping the DRM is another topic, not discussed openly on these forums. But the use of Calibre is widely talked about, and something for you to look into.

Yes, I know what tools I need to use to strip DRM and that it cannot be discussed publicly on the forum ;-)

[Sirtel]

I regularly buy books from Amazon, Google Play, Kobo and Smashwords. Smashwords books are mostly self-published and they have no DRM, so they're the simplest to download. For the rest, I'd say there's no particular difference. You can get your books to your PC from them all, but most books need the DRM removed before they're usable (there are some books that are DRM-free, but those are in the minority).

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by swapjim

I plan to keep all my eBooks on my hard drive and I want to know which stores will make it hard (or impossible) to get the files on my hands.

Having to install software from the store on my PC to sync the eBooks and then fetch them from a folder inside 'C:\Users' counts as cumbersome. Requiring to connect the reader to the store to get the books is worse (I might even have a reader from another vendor). Best is allowing me to download the file from a website.

For example, I just checked the B&N store and they don't allow downloading via the website.

I think you are arbitrarily imposing limits on yourself for seemingly no good reason. (Sorry, I seem to be extra judge-y this weekend.)

Anyway, to give a helpful answer: Smashwords will let you download books directly.

For classics, check out Standard eBooks for nicely formatted PD titles (though selection is smallish) and of course, Project Gutenberg.

[jhowell]

If you own an e-ink Kindle device or Fire tablet then Amazon allows you to download books from their website. This is intended to allow you to copy the books to the device via USB in cases where the device lacks network access, but it does give you direct access to the book file. In my opinion it is about the same effort as downloading books using Amazon's Kindle for PC software. (You will also need to deal with DRM for many books and that won't be possible for files downloaded for use on a Fire tablet, only for an e-ink Kindle.)

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by swapjim

I plan to keep all my eBooks on my hard drive and I want to know which stores will make it hard (or impossible) to get the files on my hands.

Having to install software from the store on my PC to sync the eBooks and then fetch them from a folder inside 'C:\Users' counts as cumbersome. Requiring to connect the reader to the store to get the books is worse (I might even have a reader from another vendor). Best is allowing me to download the file from a website.

For example, I just checked the B&N store and they don't allow downloading via the website.

B&N is one of the few sites with that limit. Kobo allows downloading from your library on their website, Amazon allows downloading if you have a eInk Kindle and want to download and transfer via USB. Both offer apps that will download ebooks on your PC/Mac though you will have to deal with DRM (Kobo uses a proprietary DRM for their app which is handled by obok de-drm -- see Apprentice Alf for more information.). If you are using Calibre, obok will also fetch the books from the Kobo app folder and copy them to Calibre. In either case, you don't need to dig into C:\users\myusername\etc. to locate the files. This might still qualify as cumbersome but downloading files individually is equally cumbersome to me.

[cfrizz]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I think you are arbitrarily imposing limits on yourself for seemingly no good reason. (Sorry, I seem to be extra judge-y this weekend.).

I totally agree with this statement.

I should think that the priority should be about getting the books onto your pc so that you have permanent access to them. It shouldn't matter how many times you have to click the mouse to achieve that result.

Nor do I understand those who think it's such an inconvenience to plug in an ereader/phone/tablet every day to keep it fully charged. They want to read forever on just one charge.

But whatever, to each their own.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by swapjim

Having to install software from the store on my PC to sync the eBooks and then fetch them from a folder inside 'C:\Users' counts as cumbersome. Requiring to connect the reader to the store to get the books is worse (I might even have a reader from another vendor). Best is allowing me to download the file from a website.

If your have an E-Ink based Kindle registered to your Amazon account, you can download 'for transfer via USB' from the Amazon web site.

[bgalbrecht]

If you have a Kindle device (not the Kindle app for PC/Mac or smartphone), I believe you can download ebooks via a browser for sideloading via USB, or you can download with the Kindle app for PC/Mac.

B&N requires downloading from either their unsupported Nook for PC app that runs on Windows 7, or on the Windows store Nook app for Windows 8.x/10. On my Windows 7 machine, I have to reinstall the Nook app in order for it to download recently purchased books, the Windows store Nook app works fine for me.

Kobo and Google Play both require some version of Adobe Digital Editions to download DRMd books from their website, but books without DRM can be downloaded directly with a browser. Kobo allows download from ADE 1.7, but I think Google Play might require a more recent version. One thing to consider about Kobo is that if you buy from them regularly, their VIP program has a 10% discount on some non-Agency pricing publishers, the potential for free books from the non-Agency pricing publishers, and a price matching policy that gives you store credit bringing the price of an ebook to 90% of a cheaper retailer's price. Kobo is probably also the easiest major retailer to purchase ebooks only available in other countries.

If you're using Windows and want to import everything into Calibre, it's trivial to do so once you've created a Windows Explorer shortcut to the default download path for every retailer.

In my personal opinion, the retailers you never want to buy books from are the ones that only allow you to read their books in their own application for Windows/Mac or smartphones. Examples of this are bookshout.com and glose.com. If they ever shut down, and don't sell their customer base to someone else, your books will be gone. Even if they do sell their customer base and claim to transfer your books, in my experience, some books will be lost in the the migration. Either they are not available because the publishers lost the rights to the ebook, or their databases are faulty, or the transfer was handled ineptly.

In the US, you can get gift cards for Amazon, B&N and Google Play, but not Kobo. I know some people here at MobileRead use services that give them gift cards in exchange for viewing some/all of their browser or web-purchasing history.

[swapjim]

Originally Posted by jhowell

If you own an e-ink Kindle device or Fire tablet then Amazon allows you to download books from their website. This is intended to allow you to copy the books to the device via USB in cases where the device lacks network access, but it does give you direct access to the book file.

That's nice to hear, but only if I got a Kindle, and the odds are I won't.

Originally Posted by DNSB

downloading files individually is equally cumbersome to me

I was thinking of a here is a zip with all the books you've bought from us so far button.

Smashbooks and Standard eBooks look nice. Since software is used to ensure DRM, the pattern seems to be that stores offering a download through a website are the ones selling DRM-free books. So I'll google that to find more stores. And for the rest I'll settle for a store that uses software.

Thanks everyone!

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by swapjim

That's nice to hear, but only if I got a Kindle, and the odds are I won't.

I was thinking of a here is a zip with all the books you've bought from us so far button.

Sounds like Baen's monthly bundles. I download the file, open it with 7Zip, save the individual zip files to my Baen directory and import the files into Calibre.

I wouldn't want to do a download of everything I've bought from a single site in a single file -- 2000+ from Kobo, 400+ from Baen including years worth of bundles, ghod alone knows how many from Gutenberg's various sites and other PD sites, Amazon, Google Play and all too many stores that no longer exist. The only time I can conceive of that I would want that capability is if I suffered a disaster that wiped out my home backups, my off-site backup and my cloud based backup. The home and off-site backups consist of a set of hard drives that get rotated between home and work on Mondays so at most I lose one week. The cloud based backup is run once a day so I should lose no more than 24 hours for that backup set.

[John F]

Which stores make it cumbersome to get the files on my hands? ...

I believe the saying is "get my hands on ...". For example "... cumbersome to get my hands on the files."

[sjfan]

Originally Posted by cfrizz

Nor do I understand those who think it's such an inconvenience to plug in an ereader/phone/tablet every day to keep it fully charged. They want to read forever on just one charge.

At home it’s not such a big deal. When you’re travelling a lot, things are different—you’re probably going to want to charge your phone every night. And dragging around a bunch of chargers is inconvenient. Having an e-ink reader that can last several days on a charge is helpful.

[cfrizz]

That is why all of my android devices are Samsung I only need 1 charger that has 2 USB slots and two cords. That way I can charge both my phone and my tablet! All 3 fit into a little ziplock sandwich bag.