5 ms·

So, Lament for the Fallen sounds fantastic. I've got a break from school coming up, and would like to read it. I cannot find a way to purchase it on your websit

So, Lament for the Fallen sounds fantastic. I've got a break from school coming up, and would like to read it. I cannot find a way to purchase it on your website. The problem is that every retailer I can find that sells it sells a DRM'd version. Adobe Digital Editions isn't available for my operating system. There's no way for me to purchase a digital copy of your book that I can actually read. If you sold a DRM-free epub on your website, I'd be reading Lament right now. I wouldn't have batted an eye at paying you $10 for a book Amazon sells for $5. If I want to read your book on my Kindle, the only option is piracy. Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to pirate your book. I'll just end up purchasing an ebook from an author that has a DRM-free epub on their site. Your books sound interesting and I hope you find commercial success as a writer. I just can't contribute to that success until your work's available in a format I can read.

aembleton 6y ago
> If I want to read your book on my Kindle, the only option is piracy. It's not the only option, a Kindle can read Kindle books from Amazon that you've admitted sell for $5.
- wantstobuybook 6y ago
  How? My Kindle's quite old (4th gen, I think), it doesn't even support epub files. (I convert epubs to mobi to use on it.) As far as I know, you can't use the ACSM files Amazon on it. I can't convert them to anything because Adobe hasn't released a version of Digital Editions for my operating system. Technically, I could set up a Windows vm. But requiring a customer to use a particular OS to read a friggin' book is lunacy.
IvyMike 6y ago
> If I want to read your book on my Kindle, the only option is piracy. It's in the kindle store... what am I missing?
- wantstobuybook 6y ago
  My Kindle's old enough that it doesn't support the ACSM files you get from Amazon. I'd have to convert them to mobi from the DRM'd epub - which I cannot download from the ACSM because Adobe Digital Editions does not exist for my operating system.
IvyMike 6y ago
Your other comments are dead, but I'm still missing something. Why can't you buy it in the kindle store and send to your kindle over WiFi? P.S. I am very aware that your operating system doesn't support Adobe Digital Editions; I just don't understand why your operating system needs to get involved at all.
- ryukafalz 6y ago
  It's possible they've replaced the Kindle's reader software with free software like Koreader: https://github.com/koreader/koreader https://github.com/koreader/koreader This is what I run on my Kobo - it's quite nice! It has an RSS reader, Wallabag integration, cloud storage integration, a Lua plugin API... but it can't open DRM'd ebooks. This is what's frustrating about DRM for me: it restricts the software you can use to only software from huge corporations. Want to make a small tweak to your reader? Nope, you're not allowed. I only buy ebooks when I can find a DRM-free source for them, which pretty much means Tor/Baen/Humble/etc. I could buy DRM'd books and strip the DRM, but I'd rather not support the practice; I'm more likely to buy a physical book in that case.
  - cbHXBY1D 6y ago
    Plato is also good: https://github.com/baskerville/plato https://github.com/baskerville/plato I switched to it from Koreader.

aembleton 6y ago

> If I want to read your book on my Kindle, the only option is piracy. It's not the only option, a Kindle can read Kindle books from Amazon that you've admitted sell for $5.

wantstobuybook 6y ago
How? My Kindle's quite old (4th gen, I think), it doesn't even support epub files. (I convert epubs to mobi to use on it.) As far as I know, you can't use the ACSM files Amazon on it. I can't convert them to anything because Adobe hasn't released a version of Digital Editions for my operating system. Technically, I could set up a Windows vm. But requiring a customer to use a particular OS to read a friggin' book is lunacy.

IvyMike 6y ago

> If I want to read your book on my Kindle, the only option is piracy. It's in the kindle store... what am I missing?

wantstobuybook 6y ago
My Kindle's old enough that it doesn't support the ACSM files you get from Amazon. I'd have to convert them to mobi from the DRM'd epub - which I cannot download from the ACSM because Adobe Digital Editions does not exist for my operating system.

IvyMike 6y ago

Your other comments are dead, but I'm still missing something. Why can't you buy it in the kindle store and send to your kindle over WiFi? P.S. I am very aware that your operating system doesn't support Adobe Digital Editions; I just don't understand why your operating system needs to get involved at all.

ryukafalz 6y ago
It's possible they've replaced the Kindle's reader software with free software like Koreader: https://github.com/koreader/koreader https://github.com/koreader/koreader This is what I run on my Kobo - it's quite nice! It has an RSS reader, Wallabag integration, cloud storage integration, a Lua plugin API... but it can't open DRM'd ebooks. This is what's frustrating about DRM for me: it restricts the software you can use to only software from huge corporations. Want to make a small tweak to your reader? Nope, you're not allowed. I only buy ebooks when I can find a DRM-free source for them, which pretty much means Tor/Baen/Humble/etc. I could buy DRM'd books and strip the DRM, but I'd rather not support the practice; I'm more likely to buy a physical book in that case.
- cbHXBY1D 6y ago
  Plato is also good: https://github.com/baskerville/plato https://github.com/baskerville/plato I switched to it from Koreader.