Great article, BS they’re doing… but I learned that lesson many moons ago. You haven’t been able to buy the original Star Wars movies in 30 years… buy the paperback, buy the dvd, buy the record.
Yeah there was a big marketing campaign a few years before phantom menace came out telling people to buy the trilogy in vhs “one last time” and thatbwas it
What Amazon is doing is typical enshittification for a monopoly, and it's time to walk away. I've never owned a Kindle and have always held physical copies: files, CDs, DVDs, videocassettes, paper bound books. Calibre is a fine tool for managing ebooks, and I use it to load my 25 year old Nook. When your stuff resides on a server, you're renting, not owning.
I make leather bound copies of my books. One of them, the text has never seen the internet, has never been on a computer connected to the internet.
The future is what you can hold in your hand. Not surprising Amazon is shutting down older Kindles. Great info here, about how to own books, not rent them from corporations.
You're so right about not owning books, movies, or music when you buy them digitally. I have about 32' of bookshelves filled with DVDs and BlueRays of movies and series I wanted to actually own in case someone got butthurt later on and wanted to cancel them. I also buy physical books and CDs of those I want to actually own.
All authors need to LEAVE AMAZON THE FUCK ALONE. For the ones that don't heed this advice, good luck having book sales as your market abandons you because you're doing business with a thief. All Amazon is doing is encouraging more piracy, this time from corporations that have already shown their asses (remember the 9 million books stolen) by going direct into the KU API and just dumping it. If Meta and Anthropic can do it, trust and believe there is a scene that can too.
For the owners of their shitty products you got 2 options: 1. Flash Lineage OS on it, turn it into a full tablet, and then use desktop version of firefox and read the books straight off their site. That's one workaround. Granted, Models after 2019 require you to short the board to get it into VRAM mode to flash. Older models, just go on XDA and read the tutorials.
2. Try and sync Calibre to your Amazon account and let Calibre be your Management. It's free and they have tools and tutorials. Granted, you will need a PC, not a Mac, and you will need to find older versions of Kindle for PC unless they've updated it. It's been a long time since I kept up with Calibre, but that's a reason.
Fuck Amazon. Join the Fuck Amazon Fraternity, Inc. organization and tell them to kiss your ass.
I typically don’t waste my breathe to belligerents that intentionally hasten their own demise. These will be the same people cheering Amazon implementing AI and then going subscription and replacing them.
Gumroad is good for direct sales and D2D is the best way to get your ebooks across almost all retailers. I don’t love Google Books. Clunky interface, they don’t use aggregators, and I don’t think I got a single sale while I was listed there
I own a Kindle very similar to the one displayed in your video- ad supported. When I have a book open, it displays the cover of the book I'm reading (if it provides one), and some of the screen savers are not all product/ad related. It's a minor gripe since it doesn't affect the unlocking time, unlike my Amazon Fire devices, which have links to ads that I have to avoid clicking on.
I have only connected mine to the wifi a year or so ago- and have been hesitant to connect it to avoid any possible updates such as the DRM ones mentioned. I use USB to transfer files, and the safest way to add or remove files might be when that computer is offline, to avoid the chance that it tries to connect to Amazon via USB, however unlikely. It also doesn't have a microSD slot, unlike my Barnes and Noble Nook Simple Touch from 2011. But it was a small price to pay to get an e-reader with a front light: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07978J597
I do wish I could read more on e-readers, but because I tend to be a voracious reader of lots of internet content, tend to use large, color monitors. A friend of mine developed a color e-paper monitor: https://www.modos.tech/
Also the Nook's plastic got so old (maybe sitting in a sunny room) that it started to warp and become sticky. Hoping the Kindle doesn't- though it seems to use a different material.
Wonder if paper books will make a comeback. I have a bunch of old James Bond mass markets sitting on top of my bookcase because I head they were 'modernizing' the text.
I've never owned a Kindle and never bought an eBook but this is such an important topic overall. I've never gotten rid of my physical media to begin with, but I'm prioritising it anyway. I cancelled Netflix years ago and never had anything else in terms of streaming. And yes, I love my library. Not only can I borrow eBooks and audiobooks, but I can also lend actual DVDs and Blurays. And that just slays.
Thanks for the info. I know my mom has an older Kindle. I'll have to ask her if this will apply. (I'm not sure how old it is.)
A couple of little corrections that might be helpful:
1. Amazon does allow downloading of e-books. This was a recent change, so maybe it was a result of the backlash they got when they said people couldn't download their books anymore. If the author has chosen not to use DRM (this is a setting on the KDP dashboard), then customers can download the book as an ePub or PDF. (I don't love the PDF bit as an author... but it's better than nothing.)
2. Kobo e-books don't necessarily have DRM. Again, it's up to the author if they want to turn that on. As for prices, yes, their e-readers are more expensive than Kindles... but the actual e-books will be the same price as anywhere else. (They have to be.)
I much prefer Kobo to Amazon. I even have an old Kobo e-reader kicking around somewhere, circa 2010. It's not supported by Kobo anymore... so it's not just an Amazon problem. However, I'm sure a lot fewer Kobos end up in the landfill than are going to end up there with Amazon's new move. If you've got the most popular device on the market, you need to be a lot more responsible, especially if you're going to talk big about the environmental issues. Is Amazon starting a recycling program for these devices? Or are they just assuming people will throw them away?
Great article, BS they’re doing… but I learned that lesson many moons ago. You haven’t been able to buy the original Star Wars movies in 30 years… buy the paperback, buy the dvd, buy the record.
I didn’t realize they completely got rid of the original Star Wars 😵 none of that ham-fisted CGI they crammed in there improved the experience imo
Yeah there was a big marketing campaign a few years before phantom menace came out telling people to buy the trilogy in vhs “one last time” and thatbwas it
What Amazon is doing is typical enshittification for a monopoly, and it's time to walk away. I've never owned a Kindle and have always held physical copies: files, CDs, DVDs, videocassettes, paper bound books. Calibre is a fine tool for managing ebooks, and I use it to load my 25 year old Nook. When your stuff resides on a server, you're renting, not owning.
I make leather bound copies of my books. One of them, the text has never seen the internet, has never been on a computer connected to the internet.
The future is what you can hold in your hand. Not surprising Amazon is shutting down older Kindles. Great info here, about how to own books, not rent them from corporations.
You're so right about not owning books, movies, or music when you buy them digitally. I have about 32' of bookshelves filled with DVDs and BlueRays of movies and series I wanted to actually own in case someone got butthurt later on and wanted to cancel them. I also buy physical books and CDs of those I want to actually own.
All authors need to LEAVE AMAZON THE FUCK ALONE. For the ones that don't heed this advice, good luck having book sales as your market abandons you because you're doing business with a thief. All Amazon is doing is encouraging more piracy, this time from corporations that have already shown their asses (remember the 9 million books stolen) by going direct into the KU API and just dumping it. If Meta and Anthropic can do it, trust and believe there is a scene that can too.
For the owners of their shitty products you got 2 options: 1. Flash Lineage OS on it, turn it into a full tablet, and then use desktop version of firefox and read the books straight off their site. That's one workaround. Granted, Models after 2019 require you to short the board to get it into VRAM mode to flash. Older models, just go on XDA and read the tutorials.
2. Try and sync Calibre to your Amazon account and let Calibre be your Management. It's free and they have tools and tutorials. Granted, you will need a PC, not a Mac, and you will need to find older versions of Kindle for PC unless they've updated it. It's been a long time since I kept up with Calibre, but that's a reason.
Fuck Amazon. Join the Fuck Amazon Fraternity, Inc. organization and tell them to kiss your ass.
Yep. Calibre is very do-able for those authors who don't make a non-DRM product available for you to download from Amazon.
Write those authors who use DRM and ask them why they rent instead of sell.
I typically don’t waste my breathe to belligerents that intentionally hasten their own demise. These will be the same people cheering Amazon implementing AI and then going subscription and replacing them.
I sell on Kobo at the moment. What are your thoughts on other services like Gumroad, Draft2Digital, and/or Google Play Books?
Gumroad is good for direct sales and D2D is the best way to get your ebooks across almost all retailers. I don’t love Google Books. Clunky interface, they don’t use aggregators, and I don’t think I got a single sale while I was listed there
Thank you! Looks like I have some extra work to do.
I own a Kindle very similar to the one displayed in your video- ad supported. When I have a book open, it displays the cover of the book I'm reading (if it provides one), and some of the screen savers are not all product/ad related. It's a minor gripe since it doesn't affect the unlocking time, unlike my Amazon Fire devices, which have links to ads that I have to avoid clicking on.
I have only connected mine to the wifi a year or so ago- and have been hesitant to connect it to avoid any possible updates such as the DRM ones mentioned. I use USB to transfer files, and the safest way to add or remove files might be when that computer is offline, to avoid the chance that it tries to connect to Amazon via USB, however unlikely. It also doesn't have a microSD slot, unlike my Barnes and Noble Nook Simple Touch from 2011. But it was a small price to pay to get an e-reader with a front light: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07978J597
I do wish I could read more on e-readers, but because I tend to be a voracious reader of lots of internet content, tend to use large, color monitors. A friend of mine developed a color e-paper monitor: https://www.modos.tech/
Also the Nook's plastic got so old (maybe sitting in a sunny room) that it started to warp and become sticky. Hoping the Kindle doesn't- though it seems to use a different material.
Wonder if paper books will make a comeback. I have a bunch of old James Bond mass markets sitting on top of my bookcase because I head they were 'modernizing' the text.
Eschew the Rent Seekers.
Great article, Kristin. You bookended Brian's from yesterday.
https://brianniemeier.substack.com/p/amazons-kindle-shutdown-proves-you
I've never owned a Kindle and never bought an eBook but this is such an important topic overall. I've never gotten rid of my physical media to begin with, but I'm prioritising it anyway. I cancelled Netflix years ago and never had anything else in terms of streaming. And yes, I love my library. Not only can I borrow eBooks and audiobooks, but I can also lend actual DVDs and Blurays. And that just slays.
Thanks for the info. I know my mom has an older Kindle. I'll have to ask her if this will apply. (I'm not sure how old it is.)
A couple of little corrections that might be helpful:
1. Amazon does allow downloading of e-books. This was a recent change, so maybe it was a result of the backlash they got when they said people couldn't download their books anymore. If the author has chosen not to use DRM (this is a setting on the KDP dashboard), then customers can download the book as an ePub or PDF. (I don't love the PDF bit as an author... but it's better than nothing.)
2. Kobo e-books don't necessarily have DRM. Again, it's up to the author if they want to turn that on. As for prices, yes, their e-readers are more expensive than Kindles... but the actual e-books will be the same price as anywhere else. (They have to be.)
I much prefer Kobo to Amazon. I even have an old Kobo e-reader kicking around somewhere, circa 2010. It's not supported by Kobo anymore... so it's not just an Amazon problem. However, I'm sure a lot fewer Kobos end up in the landfill than are going to end up there with Amazon's new move. If you've got the most popular device on the market, you need to be a lot more responsible, especially if you're going to talk big about the environmental issues. Is Amazon starting a recycling program for these devices? Or are they just assuming people will throw them away?