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That’s, indeed, what the Good E-Reader blog is claiming.  Here’s a snippet. Check out the full story at the site:

… It seems many publishers have been told by the company that in the near-future, they should be submitting their books to Amazon in EPUB format and not exclusively MOBI. This news has been confirmed by at least 4 publishing companies we have spoken with during the last few days. …

Four publishers in the last week have confirmed that Amazon has indeed told them they now have an option to submit eBooks to be listed in the Amazon store in ePub format. Two of the companies we spoke with are very big in the publishing world and spoke to us regarding this new development during an interview in the last few days on a totally different subject.

25 COMMENTS

  1. is there any hint whether this update will be available for K2s? will it just be a software update to K3s? (I’m out of reason excited by this, because it’s taking us one step closer to a universal reader)

  2. I’m not sure this means Kindles will read ePub (though it would be great). Amazon can still convert ePubs to the Kindle .azw format before releasing them in the Kindle store. This move just makes it easier on Publishers to make submissions by not having to make a mobi version.

  3. I wouldn’t start cheering yet – just because Amazon accepts EPUB, doesn’t mean they’ll support or use Adobe’s DRM. I can easily see them adding support for EPUB on the publisher side, but sticking to their existing DRM because it’s transparent to the user and limits them from buying from other vendors. The benefit would be for the publisher not to have to convert to MOBI and having separate workflows. Users would probably be able to load DRM-free EPUB files, but not ones bought from other stores.

    With all that said, if Amazon creates an Android tablet, this could all be moot, provided said tablet supports installing other reader software that does support EPUB with Adobe DRM.

  4. Anything, that would eliminate having to use Adobe ADE is fine by me. Amazon’s system is the most straightforward to use by far. They tell you whether you have bought the book, it is dead simple to authorize and use whatever device you have at hand: Amazon have done the best job for readers than all the others put together.

  5. Earlier today, I belated noticed mention of support for ePub in the 1.5 version of Kindle Previewer, and wondered if it meant something was coming. Here’s the description (from last September no less):

    ******
    Amazon is releasing today an update to Kindle Previewer software. This update provides enhancements to the software including

    * Support for previewing Kindle Editions with Audio/Video
    * Support for “Kinde for iPad” preview mode
    * Support for opening ePub files
    ******

    Why support ePub in a viewer intended for previewing Amazon titles? I asked myself.

    I’d be delighted to only have to create ebooks in one format. Among other things, it’d let me devote more time to a book’s appearance. But I wonder if these ePub ebooks will support all Amazon’s features, including notes, location numbers, and page numbering from a printed version.

    We’ll see…..

  6. They have promised to list Smashwords, so this may be the way they do so since Smashwords prefers Epub. And also, Smashwords is pushing for many venues, most recently as apps through Scrollmotion for Smartphones.

    I think Amazon realizes that most ebooks are drm and are subject to territorial limitations, but not Smashwords.

  7. Wording is interesting:

    ——- “…It seems many publishers have been told by the company that in the
    near-future they should be =submitting= their books to Amazon in EPUB format and
    =not exclusively MOBI-=.

    Also, Kindle Director Jay Marine told Len Edgerly that Amazon won’t be using Adobe’s DRM. No additional software will need to be downloaded or used , he emphasized (it’s normally needed with Adobe’s DRM) and that wireless delivery will be within 60 seconds.

    Amazon will track last-page-read and location numbers and sync the borrowed books between devices and also keep a record of annotations (by location numbers) in case the person wants to re-borrow a library title or buy the book from Amazon.

    Overdrive has written that only one title will need to be bought by a library but that the user will be able to select between ePub and Amazon-format, depending on destination device.

    Amazon did buy Stanza, so ePub capability has always been somewhere in the background. I would imagine that if they present or distribute an e-book in ePub format, it’ll be with Amazon’s DRM.

    I agree that they would plan to have the Kindle read non-DRM’d (by others) ePub…

  8. As I understand it, Adobe will not allow ADE DRM on devices or apps with another DRM method. They don’t permit you to do it more than their way. And I don’t think Amazon is going to go for that on the Kindle.

  9. >Greg, do you have a link or anything to back that up?<

    It's a memory from a blog somewhere, sometime. I think it comes from when B&N switched DRM to Adobe and had to abandon the old DRM.

    It's probably true of Amazon too. They're not (at this time) permitting different DRM methods on Kindle.

  10. @ Greg

    The eink Nook can read both Adobe DRM and the old pdb ereader DRM, so either Adobe made a special deal to facilitate a move by B&N from their old DRM to an Adobe DRM, or your memory has failed you and Adobe has no such rule.

  11. Mobipocket (owned by Amazon) does not allow any other DRM on a reader than Mobipocket DRM. That is the reason e-readers here in Europe do not support Mobipocket DRM anymore. Offering Mobipocket DRM support would mean they would not be able to offer ePub DRM (which was becoming the default format).

    As Amazon owns Mobipocket I assume they can make an exception for themselves and offer Mobipocket DRM and ePub DRM support on Kindle.

  12. Amazon selling Adobe DRM’d ePub books would save users having to convert Amazon books from Mobi to ePub format after removing Amazon’s DRM. Making life easier for ‘pirates’ would be much appreciated I’m sure.

    But if Amazon started offering ePubs DRM’d with their own DRM though, that’d be a problem. It might take as much as, oh a week or two, for the Kindle DRM removal tools to be updated to cope with that.

  13. When you have drm on an ebook you don’t even own the book when you buy it. That is a crock. I am sorry, but I don’t have that problem. You buy my ebook and you OWN it.

    This freedom from territory that also comes with DRM has placed me as a featured author in the political science section of Diesel. I can’t understand why anyone except a famous author would even want DRM. Go Smashwords.

  14. Sorry, correction:

    This should have said “this freedom from territory that also comes with NO DRM has placed me as …..”

    The point is, no drm allows people from India, Singapore and other countries to buy. That has helped me at least on the one bookstore. How long things will remain this way makes for an interesting discussion.

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