Writer Sanctum
Writer's Haven => Publisher's Office [Public] => Topic started by: Hopscotch on December 18, 2025, 07:48:14 AM
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Got this today from KDP and would appreciate hearing views as to its value:
"Starting January 20, 2026, Amazon will make it easier for readers to enjoy content they have purchased from the Kindle store across a wider range of devices and applications by allowing new titles published without Digital Rights Management (DRM) to be downloaded in EPUB and PDF format. If you take no action, the DRM-status of your previously published titles will not change but the EPUB and PDF downloads will not be enabled for existing DRM-free titles. If you want to allow reader downloads for these titles, follow the directions below on or after December 9, and select the option not to apply DRM."
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Mobis with DRM are locked, and mobi has been more or less phased out, so allowing self-publishers this choice seems only logical to me.
Nothing in there suggests KDP is going to change any book's DRM status unilaterally, so I don't see a problem.
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But readers supposedly don't want eBooks in PDF format. :icon_think:
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Reflowable formats are almost certainly more popular, but I have noticed that, when given a choice, some people will opt for PDF. Also, BookFunnel has always offered that as a choice, which I doubt they would if in fact no one wanted it.
People with old Kindle ereaders might still need MOBI. Otherwise, I'm guessing most people will go for EPUB but a few may go for PDF.
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Is there any increase security risk with allowing this change? In other words, is this going to make it easier for our books to be pirated?
All my books are non-DRM. I once read that's better for sales. But honestly I don't really have a handle on what DRM does.
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A determined hacker can break DRM. It is better in terms of security, but the tools available to crack it are relatively easy to come by.
As with most protection schemes, it ends up being more of a nuisance for legitimate users than a deterrent to thieves.
A college student cracked DVD encryption in less than twenty-four hours after the first DVDs were available. Blu-Ray, with its more complicated encryption, took I think two weeks to crack.
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A determined hacker can break DRM. It is better in terms of security, but the tools available to crack it are relatively easy to come by.
As with most protection schemes, it ends up being more of a nuisance for legitimate users than a deterrent to thieves.
:tup3b
And it doesn't even take too determined of a hacker. Breaking DRM is apparently not that hard. And, if you were so inclined, if you can see text on a page, which happens whether there is DRM or not, you could take screenshots and use OCR or any other number of methods to copy a book.
Reflowable formats are almost certainly more popular, but I have noticed that, when given a choice, some people will opt for PDF. Also, BookFunnel has always offered that as a choice, which I doubt they would if in fact no one wanted it.
Personally, I've always preferred PDF. I don't need special software to read it. That is, on the Mac, the built-in Preview app will open PDFs. And, Adobe Acrobat Reader is a free download anyway. And there are plenty of other options software-wise for reading PDFs. If I am so inclined, I can also print it and read a hard copy. Yes, sometimes PDFs can be locked to prevent printing but, sometimes, even if you're not a hacker, there are ways to get around that.
BUT, the "word" was that no one wanted PDFs. Or that PDFs were bad because it made your books easier to steal. Those were the mantras at That Place That Shall Not Be Named. And, despite that, I've downloaded and read PDF books and I know others that do the same. I know one person that will read PDFs on her phone, even if the PDFs aren't specifically formatted for mobile devices. Outside of Kindle author circles, PDF eBooks have been quite common. I used to do some of mine where they were formatted to leave space for a 3-hole punch so people could print and keep them in a 3-ring binder if they wanted.
So, it's kind of like Amazon is catching up with what the rest of the world has been doing since 1995.
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I just wish there was a simple, global way to make the change rather than requiring a book by book adjustment. Sigh!
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No idea if this has anything to do with the decision, but there are authors selling direct that are emphasizing the no-DRM angle.
Buy direct...receive the epub and mobi to keep.
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Buy direct...receive the epub and mobi to keep.
Technically, if they are using KindleGen to generate the mobi file, if I remember correctly, it's a violation of KindleGen's terms of use to use it to create mobi files to sell outside of Amazon.
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I'm not sure what most people use, but I create epub and mobi with D2D.
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Most of my 50+ novels are also available via D2D / Smashwords and retailers in various formats so I am certainly not planning to go back and republish them one by one on KDP just in case anyone wants a pdf from there. But it's useful to have seen the explanation at the top of this thread and the other posts, as it hss helped me to understand what's happening.
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No idea if this has anything to do with the decision, but there are authors selling direct that are emphasizing the no-DRM angle.
Buy direct...receive the epub and mobi to keep.
Amazon's recent pronouncement on licensing may have encouraged more people to buy direct under such a model. As I recall, what Amazon said wasn't really any different from what has always been the case--that books you "buy" are tied to your account--but people reacted strongly to it. I know there was lots of chatter on Substack, all of it negative. That would certainly make buying direct a more appealing option.
That said, I doubt many people without large followings and/or dedicated followings have a significant number of direct sales. But for those authors who do have such followings, the number of sales Amazon loses might be considerable.
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Most of my 50+ novels are also available via D2D / Smashwords and retailers in various formats so I am certainly not planning to go back and republish them one by one on KDP just in case anyone wants a pdf from there. But it's useful to have seen the explanation at the top of this thread and the other posts, as it hss helped me to understand what's happening.
Yeah, any revising becomes an ugly endeavor when you have a large backlist. I must have spent all day just changing publisher names on my books this year.