• orclev@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    I recently switched to Kobo as a Kindle alternative, but that also highlighted a problem. Kindle Unlimited includes a TOS for publishers that prevents them from selling their books on any other platform. A significant chunk of the Kindle catalogue is also included in Kindle Unlimited, which means a significant chunk of authors works are locked into the Amazon ecosystem.

    It’s been very annoying to discover how many book series I’ve been reading that are simply unavailable elsewhere because they opted to take part in Kindle Unlimited.

    • bassomitron@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      There’s a reason tons of major authors have come out against Amazon. I think Brandon Sanderson even went so far as to write books in secret and shadow drop them onto other book platforms, purposefully avoiding Amazon entirely. Also, Kindle Unlimited is an awful deal for authors, they get literal pennies for every reader.

    • Bieren@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      This has been my issue as well.

      And when you sail the high seas to liberate books. You might get the actually book, without issues. You might get a file named your book, that has 17 pages of that book and then the rest is a manual to fix a car.

      • bob_lemon@feddit.org
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        10 months ago

        There’s an archive of books belonging to a certain anna, which has not failed me yet.

      • orclev@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Plus I actually want to support the authors. My issue is with Amazon not the authors, so I want to pay for the books I’m reading so they can keep making more of them. If I could buy the books directly from the authors in some cases I would, and in all cases if it was available from the Kobo store I’d be willing to buy it there. Unfortunately that damn exclusivity clause on Kindle Unlimited means my options for them are Amazon, Amazon, or Amazon (or roll the dice on piracy and not support the author, not to mention even when it is the book in question the quality is often poor).

    • sigmaklimgrindset@sopuli.xyz
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      10 months ago

      Related question: are Kindle Unlimited books digital only? Can you not buy physical copies of it?

      Ngl I still buy physical books, and I use my ereader to check out ebooks from the library and/or sail the high seas, so I have no idea what’s going on in the ebook ecosystems.

      • orclev@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Sort of? Kindle Unlimited itself is digital only, but the exclusivity clause only applies to ebooks I think, so in theory you could purchase a physical copy elsewhere.

        I’ve pretty much entirely abandoned physical books. It’s just far more convenient using an e-reader which has a backlight for reading in the dark, fits thousands of books in a device that’s pocket sized, and let’s me instantly purchase, download, and start reading the next book in a series as soon as I finish the last one.

        I do have physical books still, but I haven’t bought new ones in about a decade now.

    • chingadera@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      If the company won’t allow the books to be easily accessible, make them easily accessible.