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DRM-free ebook stores
The large ebook stores online (amazon, diesel, booksonboard) would like you to believe that *of course* you should have to give them personal info, and tie your purchased ebooks to a small set of devices (device includes your computer and ebook readers), and that it's perfectly reasonable that you can't reformat your ebooks--afer all, you can't reformat a paper book, right?
Well, yes. But you can look at a paper book's format before you buy it, and decide that the font is hard on your eyes or the letters are too cramped to read, or the table of contents sucks, or that it's just too thin for the price they want. You often don't have that option with ebooks. And with a pbook, when you're done, you can give it to a friend, or sell it, or cut it up and make paper mache out of it. With an ebook... the publishing industry, like the recording industry, has worked very hard to convince people the digital equivalents of these actions are illegal. (Some other time, I'll post about copyright law and ebooks. It's a mess.)
But some ebook publishers offer books without DRM--"digital rights management," sometimes called Digital Restrictions Management. They offer books, usually in several formats (because without DRM, it's a minor matter for them to do so), that you can reformat, or read on any device you have handy. You can also give them away to someone else; some publishers tacitly encourage this (Baen); others tell you it's forbidden (Fictionwise).
Baen Books sells sci-fi, and they are adamant in their anti-DRM stance; they think it doesn't work and drives away customers. And they think ebooks should be cheaper than pbooks, and that people will often buy both. And so far, they're proven right: they've been very successful at selling their ebooks, even with their casual attitude towards lending and filesharing. They realize that most people discovered their favorite authors through a borrowed book, or a cheap one from a garage sale--that tomorrow's loyal customers are today's broke students. So they have a free library of sci-fi books, and a webscriptions program, where you can buy a bundle of 4-6 books for $15, or buy the individual books for about $4-6 each. The library offers books in html, rtf, lit, reb and pdb (palm/psion format); of these, only .lit is cosidered a "real" ebook format (.reb was, but the hardware it works on is no longer sold, although many people have it)... but with an html file or an rtf, you can easily convert to your format of choice with many free programs. Webscription books are also offered in mobi, epub, and lrf formats--they've done the work of converting them.
Fictionwise offers both DRM-free and DRM-infected (which they call "secure") ebooks. Despite the name, they offer plenty of nonfiction. Their "multiformat" books don't have DRM, and they're offered in 14 different formats. They have a lot of older sci-fi, including indivual short stories at less than $1 each. They have a payment system that includes "micropay rebates" when buying by credit card or paypal (the other choice is to buy through store credit that you've already established) wherein some books give a discount that only works on future purchases at their store. Right now, the LotR collection, just recently released on ebook, has 100% micropay rebate--which basically means "buy $20 worth of books from us, and these are free. And you don't have to decide on which $20 of other books you want right now."
Smashwords is basically "Lulu for ebooks." (Lulu offers PDFs; Smashwords offers other ebook formats as well.) It allows the author to set the price for ebooks. (Smashwords takes a 15% commission.) It also allows free previews, so readers can download beteen 10 and 25% of the book without payment, decide if they like it, and then pay for the full book. They have 9 different formats, including mobi/kindle, epub, lrf, pdf, pdb (palmdoc), rtf, and html.
Books For a Buck (bit of a misnomer, that; some of the books cost $4) has low-cost ebooks in several formats. Their site layout is atrocious; you can buy books, but that's about all; there's no convenient info or policy page.
Freya's Bower sells erotica and romance, ebooks and pbooks. I've bought from them; you purchase 1 style only (buying the .lit won't get you access to the .pdf), and you get limited downloads. (Can only download the book 3 times, all within 14 days.)
Double Dragon Publishing focuses on sci-fi, fantasy & horror. 7 ebook formats. They have a selection of "Dollar downloads"--ebooks for $1 each. (DRM'd ebooks are almost never that cheap, because they've paid extra for the software that limits or cripples your reading experience!)
There are several other small ebook publishers, both single-genre and individual authors who've set up their own ebook sales. For this post, I've focused on ebooks you can buy. The list at the Mobileread wiki is good, but doesn't sort by DRM/non-DRM.
Free ebook sites also abound, with everything from a handful of books to thousands. Some of the largest are Project Gutenberg, Manybooks.net, Feedbooks.com, and Mobileread Forums ebook collection; Gutenberg only does public domain works, and the others also have creative commons releases.)
The blog/rss feed, eBooks Just Published, links to a new book every day. Some are paid, some are free; all are DRM-free.
Well, yes. But you can look at a paper book's format before you buy it, and decide that the font is hard on your eyes or the letters are too cramped to read, or the table of contents sucks, or that it's just too thin for the price they want. You often don't have that option with ebooks. And with a pbook, when you're done, you can give it to a friend, or sell it, or cut it up and make paper mache out of it. With an ebook... the publishing industry, like the recording industry, has worked very hard to convince people the digital equivalents of these actions are illegal. (Some other time, I'll post about copyright law and ebooks. It's a mess.)
But some ebook publishers offer books without DRM--"digital rights management," sometimes called Digital Restrictions Management. They offer books, usually in several formats (because without DRM, it's a minor matter for them to do so), that you can reformat, or read on any device you have handy. You can also give them away to someone else; some publishers tacitly encourage this (Baen); others tell you it's forbidden (Fictionwise).
Baen Books sells sci-fi, and they are adamant in their anti-DRM stance; they think it doesn't work and drives away customers. And they think ebooks should be cheaper than pbooks, and that people will often buy both. And so far, they're proven right: they've been very successful at selling their ebooks, even with their casual attitude towards lending and filesharing. They realize that most people discovered their favorite authors through a borrowed book, or a cheap one from a garage sale--that tomorrow's loyal customers are today's broke students. So they have a free library of sci-fi books, and a webscriptions program, where you can buy a bundle of 4-6 books for $15, or buy the individual books for about $4-6 each. The library offers books in html, rtf, lit, reb and pdb (palm/psion format); of these, only .lit is cosidered a "real" ebook format (.reb was, but the hardware it works on is no longer sold, although many people have it)... but with an html file or an rtf, you can easily convert to your format of choice with many free programs. Webscription books are also offered in mobi, epub, and lrf formats--they've done the work of converting them.
Fictionwise offers both DRM-free and DRM-infected (which they call "secure") ebooks. Despite the name, they offer plenty of nonfiction. Their "multiformat" books don't have DRM, and they're offered in 14 different formats. They have a lot of older sci-fi, including indivual short stories at less than $1 each. They have a payment system that includes "micropay rebates" when buying by credit card or paypal (the other choice is to buy through store credit that you've already established) wherein some books give a discount that only works on future purchases at their store. Right now, the LotR collection, just recently released on ebook, has 100% micropay rebate--which basically means "buy $20 worth of books from us, and these are free. And you don't have to decide on which $20 of other books you want right now."
Smashwords is basically "Lulu for ebooks." (Lulu offers PDFs; Smashwords offers other ebook formats as well.) It allows the author to set the price for ebooks. (Smashwords takes a 15% commission.) It also allows free previews, so readers can download beteen 10 and 25% of the book without payment, decide if they like it, and then pay for the full book. They have 9 different formats, including mobi/kindle, epub, lrf, pdf, pdb (palmdoc), rtf, and html.
Books For a Buck (bit of a misnomer, that; some of the books cost $4) has low-cost ebooks in several formats. Their site layout is atrocious; you can buy books, but that's about all; there's no convenient info or policy page.
Freya's Bower sells erotica and romance, ebooks and pbooks. I've bought from them; you purchase 1 style only (buying the .lit won't get you access to the .pdf), and you get limited downloads. (Can only download the book 3 times, all within 14 days.)
Double Dragon Publishing focuses on sci-fi, fantasy & horror. 7 ebook formats. They have a selection of "Dollar downloads"--ebooks for $1 each. (DRM'd ebooks are almost never that cheap, because they've paid extra for the software that limits or cripples your reading experience!)
There are several other small ebook publishers, both single-genre and individual authors who've set up their own ebook sales. For this post, I've focused on ebooks you can buy. The list at the Mobileread wiki is good, but doesn't sort by DRM/non-DRM.
Free ebook sites also abound, with everything from a handful of books to thousands. Some of the largest are Project Gutenberg, Manybooks.net, Feedbooks.com, and Mobileread Forums ebook collection; Gutenberg only does public domain works, and the others also have creative commons releases.)
The blog/rss feed, eBooks Just Published, links to a new book every day. Some are paid, some are free; all are DRM-free.