Tired of Amazon Books? Best Alternatives That Let You Own Your Books!
Are you tired of Amazon Kindle books and looking for a better way to actually own your ebooksđ? With Kindle books, you’re often just licensing the content rather than truly owning it, meaning Amazon can remove or restrict access at any time. If you wan to know where to buy books online not Amazon, you’re in the right place! I’ll show you free, paid, and DRM-free Kindle alternatives that let you keep your ebooks. Whether you’re searching for an online bookstore not Amazon, a more open ecosystem, or an e-reader that gives you full control, I’ve got you covered.
đ LINKS
âïžFree Kindle Book Alternatives
đ Libby & Hoopla â https://libbyapp.com/shelf, https://www.hoopladigital.com/
đ Project Gutenberg â https://www.gutenberg.org/
đ Standard Ebooks â https://standardebooks.org/
đ Open Library â https://openlibrary.org/
âïžPaid Alternatives DRM-Free (You Own the Books)
đ° Baen â https://www.baen.com/
đ° Macmillan Publishers â https://us.macmillan.com/
đ° Tor Books â https://torpublishinggroup.com/
đ° eBooks.com â https://www.ebooks.com/
đ° Solaris Books (Rebellion Publishing) â https://rebellionpublishing.com/
âïžPaid Alternatives to Amazon Books (DRM-Protected)
đł Kobo â https://www.kobo.com/
đł Barnes & Noble (Nook) â https://www.barnesandnoble.com/
đł Bookshop.org â https://bookshop.org/
đł Book Outlet â https://bookoutlet.com/
âïž Want to buy me a coffee? https://buymeacoffee.com/howtodostuff
âïž Support my work via Youtube membership:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWb40FwBq3m8JBljAcwu7EA/join
âïž My Gear & Favourite Equipment:
Amazon US đșđž: https://www.amazon.com/shop/howtodostuff
Amazon UK/EU đŹđ§đȘđș: https://www.amazon.co.uk/shop/howtodostuff
đŹ CHAPTERS
00:00 Intro to Amazon Book Alternatives
00:38 Don’t get rid of Kindle ereader
01:01 Free Online Bookstores
04:01 Paid DRM-free Bookstores
06:03 Paid Online Bookstores
08:06 Thoughts on Amazon download changes
Let’s find alternatives
Je remercie lâauteur de cette prĂ©sentation. Nous avons tĂ©lĂ©chargĂ© nos livres Kindle et tentons de retirer le DRM mais ce nâest pas toujours simple. Amazon agit avec arrogance comme les autres oligarchies. Câest un jeu dangereux qui, on se souvient encore, a coĂ»tĂ© la tĂȘte de bien du monde riche et puissant Ă travers lâhistoire de lâhumanitĂ©!
I’m still caught by the convenience of the amazon model but I’m really starting to consider moving away from it.
Iâve been very happy with Chirp.
You don’t own any digital media you buy unless it’s licence-free. Even Kobo has digital rights management and in some cases can restrict you. Read the small print.
Your voice sounded awkward. Then I realised it was the automated AI dubbing. I’m glad I noticed before closing your video. Great tips.
Thanks for that comprehensive list of book "shops"! I’ll check them all out for sure.
I agree Amazon have shot themselves in the foot. I rather hope they’ve blown their whole leg off â I’ve got a Kobo Libra, am Calibre’d to the hilt, and have taught everyone I know how to "protect" their investment in their electronic libraries.
I’m really enjoying the simplicity of copying books to my Kobo over USB; it doesn’t need to be on the internet and nobody knows what I’m reading! Magic. It’s a lot like owning your own (legally purchased) digital music files.
I read 100 books a year on average. Always library books. Either their ebooks our a physical copy. Luckily my suburban Kansas City library does great.
I am switching to Kobo even with the licensing issue because Amazon makes enough and they are too problematic atm. I also intensely use Libby and just buy the books physically more than ebooks.
Time to buy more real books – which should prove a book for brick and mortar stores đ
I have just purchase a second hand Kindle, but I will not be registering it with Amazon and I will not be using Amazon services as I don’t have an Amazon account, but the e-reader is very nice so that is why I purchased it, I will use my local library to read books.
Definately leaving Amazon now, havent decided yet what to replace it with but want to be able to borrow books from library and other places so will look into what I need to do to my Kindle device to enable that. a bit heart broken about all the kindle books I will no longer have access too
I used to buy Kobo books until I realised I didnât own any of them and Kobo could essentially rescind them at any time. Now I use Project Gutenberg all the time and I used ePubor to strip the DRM off books I purchased from Kobo so I could read them on other devices. Yes thatâs probably not strictly legal but tbh I donât share them, I keep them just for me. I donât see why I shouldnât be able to read books Iâve paid for on a different/non Kobo device.
I won’t be buying any ebooks or real books from Amazon. I have Kindle Unlimited for but don’t plan to keep it. Thank you for informing me of so many alternatives.
Well… let’s start pirating… I bet someone is able to buy the licences and pirate it somehow… Pirating is resistance
I have 2 kindles a 7th gen paperwhite and a 10th oasis. Both of which I was very happy with, within the Amazon ecosystem. However , as became aware of the feb 26th changes and reading of some terrible stories of people losing their books/library, I decided time to move. I followed your advice and tutorials as well as others to download and clean via Calibre, which has worked well and all my Amazon books are now backed up locally and DRM free.
So, I am trying new stores, Ebook and Project Gutenburg as starters. I have bought a couple of books and a couple of freebies, they have been transferred via Calibre and finally sent (after some pissing about) to my Kindles.
Life ain’t as simple as it was with Amazon, but I think it’s going to be the right thing to do. You never know, Amazon may reverse it’s course (like hell).
But thank you, you have been most helpful
Libraries are where it’s at. I may for 1 or 2 nonbook reasons be stuck w/prime but I can & will get my ebooks elsewhere. I’d go back to hardcopy but a) no longer nor will ever again have the space & b) the ink used since the oughts fumes & itches.
what crap
I never knew about the rent not own clause, but that’s on me. My problem is not with that though. My problem is that I am charged the same for both a physical book and a rented copy. That’s not right! AND in the Global South, kindle books (from the US site) is more expensive, sometimes even double the price. If you’re gonna charge me for a rental that’s fine, but let it reflect in the price. I was already distancing myself because of their shady business practice where they corner a market by lowering the price of an item until their competitor goes out of business. And then I found out how they treat their employees, then their authors. Of course the last year’s support of those that shall not be named was the last straw. Or so I thought. Amazon did this AND to top it off, Bezos said his newspaper would only print pieces that agreed with his pillars. It was enough a long time ago, but it’s done now! For me, at least.
Take ownership of your Kindle books with Calibre and the De-DRM extension. You can still use that to transfer your books from your e-ink kindle to your PC or Mac
I picked a terrible time to publish my book in Kindle Unlimited. đ€Šââ
This whole non-ownership of digital media is getting ridiculous. It’s happening to digital movies, games, and courses as well. It’ll reach a boiling point where some real change will happen and will get enough pushback to give ownership to the consumer, someday. Thank you for recommending these!
Very helpful, thanks and subscribed đ
Thanks for the information
thank you so much for making this video. Amazon’s recent policy change makes me want to consider getting a kobo and seeking other alternative online stores
I am in the UK so do you have a video on UK sources for books please, thanks.
I already adore Libby, but it is awesome to have so many new (to me) alternatives to Amazon. Thank you! My decision to seek non-Amazon platforms is due to Amazon’s misleading book "sales" practices and Jeff Bezos’ support of Donald Trump.
Yes! Thank you for highlighting libraries!! Iâm a librarian and we work so hard to make our collections valuable to the public! Thank you for mentioning us!!
Its great something like Project Gutenberg exists. I’m old enough to remember when out of copyright classics were completely free on Kindle. Now they want $0.99 for them. I still have my free copies of Call of the Wild, Black Beauty, and Alice in Wonderland downloaded to my Kindle. They got me through some middle school book reports lol.
Libby thru the public library. FREE!! I read all books on my tablet.
Thank you for your extensive explanation. I am sharing with friends. It is necessary to listen to your video again and note down follow up points.
Thank you. I appreciate all this great information.
I currently have all 250 or so of my Kindle books on my Linux PC, an Andtoid Tablet and pgone, my original keyboard Kindle and a Kindle fire 10. But going forwards I won’t be buying books from Amazon anymore.
Thank you!
I learned soooo much
Bought a Kobo Libra Colour, returned my Kindle. Never been happier. As an e-reader, I think its form factor is far better than Kindle and it just offers a smoother reading experience. Agree that Kobo uses the same â licenceâ model but at least they are more upfront about it via their subscription model. The whole Amazon fiasco has also helped reignite my love of libraries and Iâve joined 3 in as many days. Most books Iâve wanted were either available right away or with a short wait time (a week or less). Thanks for the great content – new subscriber here.
Considering humans die after about eighty years do we ever really own anything? Does it matter than you donât have mounds of junk books to go into estate auctions and charities?
Now knowing the Amazon licensing loop hole I will terminate my subscription with them. Talk about greedy mother efers with their licensing scams. Industry has DRM’d movies, eBooks, DVDs, CDs, songs, you name it… The (distribution-platforms) are the ones stealing the most from the content creators because they monopolized distribution.
I really need to get better about utilizing my library benefits, but I LOVE thriftbooks. They’re my go-to. I canceled I preorder I had open on amazon and found it cheaper on thriftbooks so you can get new titles with them as well apparently
What about Scribd/Everand?
Whatâs your favorite non-Amazon bookstore?
Thanks for a quick rundown of what readers (and listeners) of books face in our beloved and hated digital world to come. At 82 I have much less time to worry about than all of your younger readers. I have owned two e-readers (neither were of the âkindleâ variety). When I graduated to a lovely iPad, I really started to feed my obsession for reading and listening in my favorite era/genre of fiction. I stayed away from the âAâ word until that dreadful day when my favorite authorâs newest release was not available on Kobo (remember that this is a Rakuten-owned company) and licensed only on kindle. I held out as long as I could and burned up the keyboard with contacts to their customer service group, but I eventually decided to âbuyâ just that one book and use their app on my iPad. Well, I know you understand where that went. I now have enough apps to chase around the digital world to keep up with the licenses and pricing on the authors I enjoy rereading. I just hope not to live too long to see an even worse âbait and switchâ scenario. Thanks again for a well-researched rundown.
Thank you for the info. Very useful. I want to move away from Amazon and I was looking for information about other ebook readers.
Thanks for this. Great resource for those of us looking for alternatives to Amazon and the like.
I was looking at Open Library. For me it’s a bit of a disappointment. Many of the books that I was looking at either say "Not in Library" or "Preview Only". If they don’t have the ebooks why do they still display it?
Then I found a book that I could borrow. I clicked on "Borrow" (I’m doing this on my Mac) and it opened a new page which was a book viewer. Ie. I would have to read it sitting at my desk. There appears to be no way for me to transfer to my Kobo.
Pity and disappointing, that.
Another thing to mention is that to search up your bookâs author or publisher if they sell ebooks/audio books files. For example Bridget E Baker has a website that offers selling digital ebooks or audio books files to your preferred app/device. Im very happy this author has this option instead of purchasing from amazon (they also sell her books on amazon but i believe purchasing directly from her will support her more than third party retailer)
I deleted Amazon everything out of my life.. not supporting wanna be oligarchs.
This whole fiasco has really turned me off to ebooks in general. My thinking is…. Even though another service will let me download it, if I can’t loan it to a friend, re-sell it, or give it away, I don’t really own it any way. So I’m going back to physical books for now. Over the last year, I’ve been doing the same thing with my music and movies. So far so good…
If you can afford it, please consider making a donation to your local library to show your support even if it’s just a couple bucks now and then. In your local town, be vigilant and watch for library funding cuts and let local officials know that is not gonna fly. Lastly, tell your local librarians how much you appreciate them and the services they provide!
Thank you for this! I plan on buying a kobo in the future!
Itâs amazing what you can find on Gutenberg. Iâve found early books by big name science fiction and fantasy books. And Agatha Christie books are gradually becoming Public Domain.