I ‘De-Amazoned’ My Kindle, and Here’s How I Buy DRM-Free Ebooks

I recently decided to buy a Kindle Paperwhite but not register it with my Amazon account. It’s as simple as not connecting to Wi-Fi during setup. The Kindle itself will still work just fine, it just won’t connect to the internet and it won’t connect to your Amazon account. I did this on purpose because I was tired of being tied to the Amazon ecosystem when buying books. Luckily, whether you register your Kindle or not, there are alternatives.

Typically, eBooks you buy for your Kindle come with DRM (Digital Rights Management) protection, which prevents the book from being legally copied to other devices . Large publishers and eBook sellers often use DRM to ensure that you can’t back up books you’ve already paid for. However, if you have a DRM-free book, you can save a copy of it on any of your devices and send it to any other eBook reader. Large companies may argue that this makes it easier to pirate eBooks, but fortunately, there are plenty of ways to legally purchase DRM-free books that you can save and transfer as you wish.

Using a Kindle without an Amazon account means you can’t buy books on it, but you can easily transfer DRM-free books from any other store. Just plug your Kindle into your computer, and it’s as easy as dragging and dropping. For many, the idea of using a Kindle without Amazon’s eBook store is unthinkable, but I think there are enough DRM-free books for me to make it work. That choice got me thinking about how to buy DRM-free eBooks, and I’ll cover all the best options in this guide. And again, even if you’re not as dedicated to an Amazon-free device as I am, you can still buy and transfer DRM-free books even using a Kindle with an Amazon account.

How to Send DRM-Free Ebooks to Kindle

First, how do you download DRM-free eBooks to your device? The best way is to use the nicely named Send to Kindle feature. This allows you to attach eBooks to an email to your personal Kindle address, which will then convert them to a Kindle-compatible format and transfer them wirelessly to your Kindle device. To use Send to Kindle, follow these steps:

1. First, find the email address you want to send files to on your Kindle. Log in to your Amazon account in a browser and open the Manage Your Content and Devices page.

2. Go to Settings > Personal Documents Settings . Here you will find your Kindle email address.

3. In the Approved Email List for Personal Documents section, be sure to add your Gmail, Outlook, or other personal email addresses. This will ensure that your books are delivered to your Kindle when you attach them to emails sent from approved email addresses.

4. Now attach your books to an email and send it from a verified email address to your Kindle. Supported file formats are epub, pdf, doc, docx, txt, rtf, htm, html, png, gif, jpg, jpeg, and bmp. epub is by far the most popular DRM-free ebook format, and virtually every ebook you purchase will be available in epub format.

5. If you’re not comfortable sending books via email, Amazon has alternative ways to send books to Kindle. To find one, visit the Send to Kindle website , select your device, and find an easier way to send books to your e-reader.

Because I chose not to register my Kindle with Amazon, I can’t use the “Send to Kindle” feature. Luckily, there are great alternatives to this method. My favorite is the free app Calibre . To use it, I simply connect my Kindle to my computer and open the app. Calibre is also great for managing my ebooks. By connecting it to the folder where all my DRM-free books are stored, I have it automatically list them in the app as I add them. With two clicks, I can send all of those books to my ereader.

How to Buy DRM-Free E-Books

As for where to actually buy DRM-free ebooks, there are plenty of choices. Unfortunately, some books are only available on Kindle and are impossible to find anywhere else. If that’s not an issue for the books you’re looking for, here’s a list of the best DRM-free ebook stores for your needs.

Download free open source ebooks

Once the copyright expires, a book falls into the public domain, meaning you can download eBooks for free. If you love reading classics, you can find them for free at many bookstores. However, some digital stores make it much easier to save a copy of these eBooks on any device. Here are a few reliable options.

1. Project Gutenberg : A great site for all types of open source ebooks. You’ll find over 75,000 books here.

2. Standard Ebooks : Another useful site for free ebooks.

3. Internet Archive : Possibly the largest collection of free ebooks on the internet, you’ll find books in a variety of languages here, as the library isn’t as English-focused as most other sites.

DRM-free eBooks from bundle sites

Not everyone can afford to buy each ebook at full price. You can find great deals on ebooks that are sold in bundles. This way, you can buy many books for much less than you would buy individually. Most of these bundles are also DRM-free, meaning you can freely back them up to any device or hard drive and easily transfer them to your ebook reader at any time.

1. Humble Bundle : Yes, this site known for game bundles also sells ebooks. You can find some great deals here, but be sure to check the details of the specific bundle to make sure the books are actually DRM-protected. Usually they are, but sometimes the bundle includes video tutorials that may be DRM-protected.

2. StoryBundle : This site has been around for over a decade and specializes exclusively in selling ebook bundles. None of the ebooks you buy here are DRM protected.

3. Fanatical : Another ebook bundle site that offers a wide selection. Be sure to read the description of each bundle, as not all books here are DRM protected.

Buy DRM-free books from e-book stores

If you want to buy individual books rather than sets, there are plenty of stores to choose from. However, note that some publishers, such as Tor Books , sell DRM-free books no matter which store you buy them from. However, this is not the case for most publishers, so be sure to use filters to display only DRM-free books.

1. Bookshop.org : This is one of the best non-Amazon ebook stores. It has a large collection, but not all books are DRM protected. When searching for a book on this site, you can add a filter to see DRM-free options.

2. Kobo : Kobo makes e-books, but also sells books. There’s a useful section for DRM-free e-books, which makes finding what you’re looking for much easier.

3. Itch.io : While Itch is primarily known for video games, it also sells ebooks and has a helpful tag to help you find DRM-free books.

4. Ebooks.com : This site features a huge collection of ebooks, as well as an entire section for DRM-free books.

5. Smashwords : This site specializes in self-published ebooks. All books sold there are DRM-free.

6. Baen : This sci-fi and fantasy publisher has its own ebook store, and also only sells DRM-free books.

Buy DRM-Free Books on Crowdfunding Sites

Crowdfunding sites are an underrated way to buy promising ebooks. Of course, there’s always the risk of not receiving the rewards the project provides, but if you trust the author, you have a good chance of getting a DRM-free copy of their work at a good price. Most book projects I’ve encountered have sold ebooks for pretty cheap. Printed editions, on the other hand, are usually quite expensive. Here are a few crowdfunding sites that have good DRM-free ebooks.

1. Kickstarter : Kickstarter has a dedicated publications page that makes it easy to find DRM-free ebooks, but not every project offers an ebook bundled with a printed copy.

2. Indiegogo : While there’s no easy way to find all the book-related crowdfunding projects on Indiegogo, you can use its search tools to find what you’re looking for.

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