Back in the "before times" as one of my favorite social media accounts to follow (The Dadbod Veteran) says, we had this function on our phones (you know, the landline dinosaurs no one has anymore) where if we needed information (i.e., the phone number for the new hot guy at school or the new store in the mall) we dialed 4-1-1.

Anyway, I wasn't paying attention to a couple HOT topics flying around in the indie book publishing world that are about to hit. Mostly because I've been a bit frazzled lately with some things and my brain hit its "Does Not Compute" alarm so I skimmed or outright ignored the onslaught of posts on the two subjects.

Thanks to another author who spelled it out brilliantly in a post (Thank you, R.L. Caulder, you rock!) my brain clicked back on and now I believe I have a better understanding and I hope to share what I've learned with you, lovely readers since both issues impact... well, readers AND authors (mostly self-published, indie authors).

After February 26, 2025 (TOMORROW), you can only download books from the Kindle store to your e-reader over Wi-Fi. Amazon will no longer have the feature to download purchased books to a computer and then copy and transfer them manually to a Kindle (or other ebook reader) via USB.

Personally, I never knew this was a thing, hence why I wasn't too bothered when the posts started flying around about it. But can see how some readers may be troubled by this. Purchased books can no longer be backed up or converted to other formats compatible with non-Kindle e-readers. And if a reader doesn't have access to Wi-Fi via their ebook reading device, that's a legit problem for which I have no answer.

The download feature came about "in the before times" when Kindles didn't come with Wi-Fi. Kindle 1, Kindle 2, and Kindle DX are the only Kindles without WiFi. They use cellular services that are unavailable now in the USA, and the Kindle 1 was only released in the US. Every other model supports WiFi.

Per a statement to The Verge from Amazon, "Customers can continue reading books previously downloaded on their Kindle device, and access new content through the Kindle app, Kindle for web, as well as directly through Kindle devices with WiFi capability." They go on to clarify that readers can still "manually copy ebook files and other documents to Kindles over USB using Amazon apps of other third party solutions like Calibre." Just not directly to a computer.

What does this all stem from? The hard fact is that we do not truly own the digital content. We have licenses to digital products, such as ebooks, movies, television shows, streaming services. But we do not own them. That was a universal misconception. We're licensing the content, not buying.

SO WHY THIS USB THING MAY BE A GOOD THING? It’s going to hopefully do it's part to cut down on piracy issues with folks stripping DRMs and illegally downloading. Piracy hurts us all, especially self-published, independent authors. We struggle to make a nickel off our books. Having other people steal our work is... THEFT! That is not, and never is, a good thing. Authors work hard, give our blood, sweat, and tears to the words you read. We offer our books at prices so low we never see a profit after paying for editors, marketing, pretty book covers, etc. Piracy is a slap in the face and (dare I say) illegal! So, as an author, I can't argue against that.

As an author, I also realize some readers can't afford books and look for other options which may lead them to piracy sites. Independent authors try to be sympathetic. We offer books via public libraries and will run promo offers for limited times with our books offered for free or at greatly reduced prices. For those who can afford it, Kindle Unlimited is a great resource. Authors literally get paid pennies from KU page reads, but we want our books in the hands of as many readers as possible (just not pirates).

And that is the extent of my understanding of the "After February 26th, you can only download books from the Kindle store to your e-reader over Wi-Fi" message.

*****

There's another issue spoiling everyone's good time on social media but this email is already too long so I'll address it another time (definitely before February 28, 2025, if that gives you an indication of where we're going from here).

Happy reading, folks! Download those ebooks today if you prefer having offline copies.