[HN Gopher] Unhooking from Amazon Ebooks
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Unhooking from Amazon Ebooks
Author : Timothee
Score : 44 points
Date : 2025-06-29 18:52 UTC (4 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (remysharp.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (remysharp.com)
| rahimnathwani wrote:
| If you have epub books you want to read on a Kindle, jailbreaking
| and installing KOReader seems like overkill.
|
| Why not just convert them to mobi and read them with the native
| reader?
| WillAdams wrote:
| Current Kindles will accept .epub files sent via the "Send to
| Kindle" feature, converting them to be read.
| goosedragons wrote:
| Which leaves them up to the mercy of Amazon's conversion
| system. Did they fix it choking on the text encoding yet or
| is there a decent chance of it messing with apostrophes
| still?
| rahimnathwani wrote:
| Which leaves them up to the mercy of Amazon's conversion
| system.
|
| How so?
|
| You can convert the files to mobi using Calibre.
| goosedragons wrote:
| Then you're not using "Send to Kindle"!
| boznz wrote:
| Until I got my Kobo this was my preferred method. Shame the
| Kobo does not have such a feature.
| theothertimcook wrote:
| https://send.djazz.se/
| vunderba wrote:
| I have a pretty old Amazo Kindle Paperwhite (10+ years old)
| and if you use the send to Kindle email address, you can only
| send ePub to it, they discontinued support for mobi at some
| point.
| rahimnathwani wrote:
| OP doesn't want to use Amazon services, so sending files
| via Amazon's email service isn't relevant.
| theothertimcook wrote:
| https://send.djazz.se/
| rahimnathwani wrote:
| OP doesn't want to use Amazon services, so 'send to kindle'
| isn't relevant.
| davidw wrote:
| I have just been checking books out from the library.
| thayne wrote:
| Unfortunately, that doesn't work if your library doesn't have
| the book you want. And you may have to wait a long time.
|
| If only there was a national (or global) digital library of
| ebooks.
| colonial wrote:
| > If only there was a ... global digital library of ebooks.
|
| There are several, if the various shadow libraries (Library
| Genesis, Z-Library, Anna's Archive...) count.
| tresni wrote:
| For other ways to sync status/mark as reading, you can checkout
| [hardcover.app](https://hardcover.app). My wife found it as she
| is also very interested in divesting from Amazon. I found a
| [Koreader
| plugin](https://github.com/Billiam/hardcoverapp.koplugin) as well
| neilv wrote:
| If you have mixed feelings about Calibre (e.g., powerful, but the
| GUI looks unpleasant to you), you can use Calibre to help you
| convert books to EPUB format, then put them in something like a
| `~/doc/` directory on your laptop, with descriptive filenames.
|
| Then you can read on your laptop, such as with `foliate`, and
| also sync to an ereader that lets you mount it as USB storage,
| with a script for which the key part is: cd
| ~/doc && rsync -crltv . "${DeviceMountPoint}/."
| beret4breakfast wrote:
| Or use calibre web. Which has a less functional but nicer
| looking interface (with user logins)
| vorgol wrote:
| Calibre has improved a lot recently. If you haven't used it for
| a few years, it's worth taking a fresh look.
| dsign wrote:
| Authors also need to unhook from Amazon, and here are some
| reasons why:
|
| - They keep at least 30% of the cut, but much more if you dare to
| include high quality images in your e-books. That map you spend a
| week or two creating? It'll be a messy blur in a kindle.
|
| - If you are not a best-seller, Amazon brings you nothing in
| terms of discoverability. In fact:
|
| - the moment a potential reader lands on your book's page, Amazon
| will show them ads for other books. Consider that that potential
| reader may have come there after you paid for ads in Amazon or in
| some other platform, or after you spent a day doing in-person
| marketing at an arts fair. That's just asinine.
|
| The discoverability issue affects me the most as a reader, since
| Amz keeps surfacing ten-a-dime stories that happen somewhere in
| USA, mention starwars three times per page, and involve
| werewolves.
| asdefghyk wrote:
| RE "...high quality images in your e-books....." Why is this ?
| Why are they deliberately converted to low res images ?
| dsign wrote:
| Delivery cost per size:
|
| https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G200634500
|
| Basically, they'll charge you 0.15 USD / Mb if you opt for
| the 70% royalty. Or nothing, if you opt for the 35% royalty.
| The deal would sort of make sense if it weren't for because
| they put so little value on the table.
| markush_ wrote:
| 70% is wild, how does that hold up in monopoly and anti
| competition cases
| xvilka wrote:
| I wish there was also open and decentralized alternative to
| Goodreads.
| WillAdams wrote:
| Is Librarything still a thing?
|
| It seemed promising when it launched, but I switched to
| Goodreads (before the Amazon purchase) and haven't been able to
| find the time to look for an alternative since.
| mikhailt wrote:
| For what purpose exactly?
|
| There is one based on ActivityPub called BookWyrm.
|
| https://joinbookwyrm.com/
| cyberax wrote:
| I did something similar:
|
| 1. Jailbroken my old Kindle to freeze the software version.
|
| 2. Use it to get new books from Amazon, and then import them into
| Calibre. Calibre can then de-DRM them, with the help of the dr-
| DRM plugin. It only needs the Kindle's serial number to work.
|
| 3. In addition to Calibre Desktop, I'm also running Calibre Web
| with the same database (my book database is on a network drive).
| Calibre Web also has OPDS server support.
|
| 4. I'm now reading books from a reMarkable tablet that has
| KOReader installed. It also has OPDS support, so I can browse my
| library from it and download books as needed.
|
| 5. I'm also using Storyteller to align Audible books and the
| Amazon Kindle eBooks, synchronizing them.
|
| Stuff that doesn't work:
|
| 1. Position sync between audiobooks and physical books. KOReader
| does have a position sync protocol, but translating its position
| into an aligned position is not trivial.
|
| 2. Automatic audiobook alignment when new books are added.
|
| 3. I'd love to use a Kindle Oasis with 4G with my eSIM to be able
| to sync the reading position. This was _the_ killer feature of
| Kindles for me.
| JJIMMYJR18 wrote:
| Delete
| freefaler wrote:
| Well...there is always this path:
|
| https://open-slum.org/
| linotype wrote:
| Or just buy a Kobo and be done with Amazon without any kind of
| hacking.
| goosedragons wrote:
| Yep. You can also sync to your own self-hosted book platform
| like Calibre-Web or Komga instead of or alongside the Kobo
| store. That way you can easily sync books from multiple stores.
| reaperducer wrote:
| _Or just buy a Kobo and be done with Amazon without any kind of
| hacking._
|
| Whenever someone on HN complains about Kindles, someone else
| recommends Kobo. But I never see anyone recommending the Nook.
|
| I haven't used a Nook in close to a decade, but when I did, it
| was very hackable. I even used a $5 one from Goodwill as an
| e-ink photo frame. Are the modern Nooks as bad as Kindles now?
| tcoff91 wrote:
| I really like Boox devices. It's a full on android tablet
| with e ink.
| dml2135 wrote:
| I love my Kobo Forma except for the fact that the battery life
| is complete trash. I'm pretty sure Kobo did not replace the
| battery on the refurbished device I purchased :(
| pnw wrote:
| I discovered recently that if you sideload a book onto the Kindle
| via Calibre, Amazon can delete them silently at some later stage
| if they decide you didn't purchase it from Amazon. This includes
| public domain works.
|
| It's allegedly a result of how Calibre manages tags in order to
| display covers but still feels deeply wrong.
|
| Long thread here:
| https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=340936
| seam_carver wrote:
| I believe this is a more detailed explanation:
|
| There are two main tag values for Kindle books: EBOK and PDOC.
|
| EBOK is intended for store content. (ebooks) PDOC is intended
| for user content. (personal documents)
|
| In the past, only EBOK got cover thumbnails. So Calibre tagged
| books as ebok to get cover thumbnails.
|
| This changed in a relatively recent firmware update for 7th gen
| and later Kindles, so now PDOC tagged books get cover
| thumbnails too. (Sept 2022)
|
| I assume that Amazon just looks at the EBOK tag, assumes its an
| expired loan or something, and deletes it. Since that thread
| says only EBOKs get deleted. Calibre still tags as EBOK by
| default. A possible solution is to tag as PDOC instead. That
| thread mentions the problem started in 7/2021
| likpok wrote:
| That's super annoying, but it is still straightforward to
| sideload books in a way that works with Amazon sync, via either
| the email address or uploading through Amazon.
| theothertimcook wrote:
| https://send.djazz.se/
| thaumasiotes wrote:
| In the Kindle app for Android, Amazon is constantly deleting
| stuff that you downloaded from it. Why do you think "if they
| decide you didn't purchase it from Amazon" is relevant?
| soufron wrote:
| What the hell is this guy? You can buy epub for most books, you
| can even get many ebooks for free at public libraries - at mine
| it comes with adobe but there are many different solutions.
|
| There are other ebook readers than the kindle, and there are
| other formats than azw3... Just use them instead of complaining.
| breakingcups wrote:
| There are certain genres of which 90% of authors are publishing
| exclusively on Amazon, because all other authors in that genre
| are too and that's where the customer base is. They all publish
| under Kindle Unlimited, which allows readers with a
| subscription to read unlimited books (of which authors get paid
| a certain % of that months total KU profit).
|
| That phenomena isn't a coincidence, a large percentage of
| readers in this genre will have KU because almost the entire
| genre they love is on there. To sign up for KU requires authors
| to agree to an exclusive publishing agreement, meaning they
| can't publish their ebooks on other platforms. This means that
| the majority of that genre will never migrate to other
| platforms.
| msgodel wrote:
| In my mind if something has any kind of DRM it simply doesn't
| exist/isn't available.
| wonderwonder wrote:
| I've got a nook and always try and buy eBooks through Barnes and
| noble. Not because I have anything against amazon but because I
| want physical book stores to survive. Its been a long time since
| I bought a physical non technical book for myself but I love
| taking my kids to B&N and letting them roam around and find
| something to read.
| mikhailt wrote:
| There's an interesting cross-platform ebook reading platform
| being developed called Readest that might work to sync books and
| reading position.
|
| They might be able to also integrate with Hardcover API for
| syncing your books list as well as using WebDAV protocol for
| syncing locally book files.
|
| https://github.com/readest/readest
| Metalnem wrote:
| I've been a Kindle user for over 15 years, but I finally stopped
| buying Kindle books after Amazon removed the "Download & Transfer
| via USB" option, effectively eliminating the ability to remove
| DRM.
| vunderba wrote:
| It's a shame. I kept my original Kindle (1st gen) around for a
| long time just so that I could go to "Manage my Content" and
| then Download the Book via USB for that older device to get an
| AZW3 file rather than the really locked down KFX format because
| DeDRM'ing it was easier.
| tcoff91 wrote:
| If you want the Whispersync experience without Amazon, use
| Storyteller:
|
| https://storyteller-platform.gitlab.com.io/storyteller/
|
| It has a server and mobile apps for reading.
|
| It produces EPUB3 files with embedded audio aligned with the
| text. Use Libation and Calibre to strip your DRM or use Libro.fm
| to buy audiobooks without DRM.
| theothertimcook wrote:
| https://send.djazz.se/
| politelemon wrote:
| The deascm plugin does work well, but try some different sources
| for books.
|
| For book deals, try bookbub. There are regularly deals on kobo
| which you can get notified of.
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