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?
For ebooks, the hurtle is really storing them on your own system. Most open source readers can read Amazon’s .azw and .azw3. I like to keep everything in epub on my proton drive, but I buy (and sometimes don’t buy) them from different places. I went to my local library to come up with a archival method that works. I use an open source ereader app on my phone and laptop, and use ‘Send to Kindle’ to get books on an old Kindle from 2014, deleting them when I’m finished reading.
By breaking up where I get my books from, and decoupling it from storage and reading method, I’m able to be a lot more flexible and take advantage of deals/exclusives on different platforms. I also feel a little more private. The downside is paying for storage, and an extra step to download books from the central location when I want to read them.
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.
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.
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)
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What’s MAM, and in what ways is it better than Anna’s Archive?
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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
You can borrow them forever from libgen or similar ;)
On the high seas
I kinda do both, I sail the sea for the book and if I like it I buy a print for the bookshelf lol
Yarrrrr.
Here’s a good resource:
https://www.defectivebydesign.org/guide/ebooks
