Amazon says it can enable authors to supply their DRM-free ebooks within the EPUB and PDF codecs by its self-publishing platform, Kindle Direct Publishing. Beginning on January 20, 2026, authors who set their titles as DRM-free will see their books made obtainable in these extra open codecs.
The choice to make use of Digital Rights Administration (DRM), a copyright safety mechanism, is about by the authors once they publish their ebooks on Amazon’s platform.
The corporate notes these modifications received’t affect beforehand printed titles. If authors wish to change the standing of older titles, they’ll should log into the Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) creator portal and alter an possibility within the settings. (Directions on how you can make that change are on Amazon’s KDP help web site right here.)
This transfer may very well incentivize authors to use DRM to their ebooks.
As one creator on the KDP Group boards, Leslie Anne Perry, famous, “Beforehand, I’ve not enabled DRM on my e-books. My pondering was that I wished of us to have the ability to obtain them to different units inside their very own family. Nevertheless, I believe I’ll allow it on any future e-books. I’m unsure I need individuals to have the ability to obtain them as a PDFs [sic].”
One other member pushed again on the complaints, arguing that it doesn’t actually improve privateness, as those that had wished to might at all times dump the present DRM-free Kindle file into software program to transform it into an EPUB or PDF.
Amazon is positioning the brand new function as making it “simpler” for readers to benefit from the content material they’ve already bought, however the actuality is that authors must choose in in the event that they wish to open up entry to their older works. To take away the DRM, authors should click on a field that claims, “I perceive that by not making use of DRM, clients who purchase and have already purchased this e-book will have the ability to obtain it as a PDF or EPUB file.”
Elsewhere, Amazon has been making it tougher for Kindle homeowners to share or again up their ebooks by heavier use of DRM in latest months.
With an replace to Kindle’s software program for eleventh and Twelfth-generation units, the retailer launched a brand new DRM system that made it unattainable for Kindle customers to again up their ebooks with out jailbreaking their machine. This had adopted an earlier change to take away the obtain and switch choices by way of USB, which angered many Kindle homeowners.
After the creator updates their book’s DRM standing, Amazon says the modifications will take as much as 72 hours earlier than these modifications are dwell on Amazon.com.
