I’m looking to change my reading and buying habits away from Amazon and need an alternate source for my ebooks. Where can I buy ebooks that won’t expire or have their licence revoked and will allow me to download a copy of that ebook I can store on my own system regardless of the websites status?
Calibre and DeDRM can strip Amazon’s DRM and let you save the books forever.
https://github.com/noDRM/DeDRM_tools
You need a registered Kindle, but you don’t need to actually use the Kindle to make it work. Just download the ebook from the Amazon website “for Kindle XYZ” and then import and convert the ebook in calibre.
This is unfortunately the closest answer to what the OP is asking.
To the best of my knowledge, outside of independent authors like Cory Doctorow selling drm-free from their own sites, I’m not aware of any place to shop for ebooks that are not tied to some online DRM scheme.
Humble Bundle books are another option, but it’s highly dependent upon if you want what they’re selling.
Baens library has been doing this for the past 25(?) years. They even have a free library. https://www.baen.com/catalog/category/view/s/free-library/id/2012
On the high seas
Yarrrrr.
I kinda do both, I sail the sea for the book and if I like it I buy a print for the bookshelf lol
You can borrow them forever from libgen or similar ;)
Anna’s Archive is a good option if you’re wanting to sail the high seas. Very easy to navigate, and almost all titles are available in multiple formats (I.e. PDF, epub)
MAM is the best for piracy.
What’s MAM, and in what ways is it better than Anna’s Archive?
They have a lot of content and a pretty nice community.
It’s a private tracker but it’s easy to join even if it’s your first.
Surprised nobody’s mentioned Weightless ebooks or Smashwords yet. You didn’t mention region, so I can’t assure these will work for you, but worth checking out regardless to see if they may.
Libgen is buying isn’t that important. Otherwise calibre+dedrm
And Calibre
You can then directly send something to the author
Otherwise you are just paying full price, but renting until the publisher changes their terms.
Here’s a good resource:
https://www.defectivebydesign.org/guide/ebookswww.kobo.com is an online bookstore I use. I don’t know if all their books are DRM-free, but the handful I bought have been. The full name of the store is Ratuken Kobo. I like it well enough.
They definitely sell DRM’d books, it might even be the majority of books on the store. I think it depends on the publisher. I have managed to find some DRM-free books there though.
Pirate the DRM free version of the e-book. And then send money to the author, either is a direct donation if they accept it, or donating a physical copy of the book to the library
Just pointing out that dozens of people work on each traditionally published book other than the author.
If you get it off Amazon, you can use Calibre to download the ebook. Then convert to ebook .epub and now it’s yours forever. I don’t like this but some books are not possible to get it legally without Amazon.
Or use baen to buy. Or if your really lucky off the authors official website.
If you’re an audible user, libation is a great way to own your audio books the way calibre does.
