In a move that is seen as consumer friendly, Amazon is now allowing customers to download DRM-free ebooks from the Kindle store to their own devices as EPUB or PDF files rather than in the proprietary Kindle reader format. DRM stands for digital rights management and is applied by most publishers to their digital titles to prevent copying and distribution. (Still, DRM can typically be circumvented by anyone determined enough.) Authors who use Kindle Direct Publishing have always had the choice of whether to apply DRM to their ebooks just as publishers do.
The new download policy takes effect for readers on January 20, 2026, for newly published titles only and for titles the author publishes after Dec. 9, 2025. If authors take no action, EPUB and PDF downloads will not be enabled for existing DRM-free titles. To allow reader downloads of older titles, authors must login to their KDP account and proactively make it possible. Learn more at Amazon’s help page.
For better or worse, some authors are now choosing to apply DRM to their titles moving forward, as they don’t want their books downloaded as PDFs.
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
