Some people are reducing or eliminating purchases made from large companies like Amazon, for various reasons. But what if you have a Kindle reader and you still want ebooks on it? Here we’ll tell you our distribution platform of choice, along with some tips and tricks, pros and cons of the process.
First, what do we mean by “ebooks”?
Some “ebooks” offered on websites are PDF downloads. While these have their place, especially for out-of-print works, if these documents read easily on a large iPad, they won’t read terribly well on a phone screen (and vice versa). Our Kindle books here at Smidgen Press aren’t PDFs; they’re reflowable-text books, meaning you’ll have the power to set your font size in your app or on your Kindle reader, to choose your line spacing, your screen color … The possibilities aren’t endless, exactly, but we build our ebooks to be customizable.
Bookfunnel
The platform called Bookfunnel is the service we use for ebook sales here on Smidgen Press {coming soon!}. We love Bookfunnel’s customer service, as they help readers load things to their specific device if there is any trouble.
Bookfunnel has multiple options for loading an ebook to a Kindle:
- Download using the Bookfunnel app on smart device (which we think is simplest!); Android and Apple phones and tablets, and Kindle Fire devices, can all use this app.
- With a Kindle Fire tablet, the reader can download directly from Bookfunnel.
- Or they can download the ebook file to their computer and transfer via USB cable or email it directly to their Kindle device’s email address (see “Loading Kindle files,” below).
- There is also a Bookfunnel cloud reader, which requires only an internet browser for access.
Tip: This link has more detail on Bookfunnel access options, and if there is any trouble, their help center page is the best place to start.
Pros and cons of buying Kindle books outside Amazon
Pros:
- Buying directly from an author/small publisher allows some costs to be kept lower*, meaning prices for the reader can also be lower (while the seller isn’t losing out on middle-man fees!).
- Purchasers can choose to interact with a small business directly, rather than on a mega-business platform.
Cons:
- Some items will not display the same as on a book purchased from Amazon (like drop caps and text ornaments, every so often).
- The process of buying Kindle books outside of Amazon is far more complex.
*Print costs are steadily rising in 2021, so many print books, especially, will be increasing in price for the foreseeable future, regardless of where they’re purchased.
Loading Kindle files to a device
Blogger Steve Bremner has put together a roundup of how to load files to a Kindle that aren’t purchased through Amazon.
Standard Kindles, ones without touch screens, may be able to have files emailed directly to the device’s dedicated email address, which you can find in the connected Amazon account or by looking on the device itself. In some cases–like if there is no WiFi connection or WiFi is disabled–devices may need to be connected with a USB cable.
Kindle Fire devices can have book files sent directly to their internal email, or a browser app may be used to download a file directly. Here’s how to find any downloaded files that may be difficult to locate in the Silk browser.
(The first few times are always a bit of a challenge, but over time it gets easier! No wonder companies make it so easy to “just buy the thing” from them, eh?)
What information are we missing?
We need to know YOUR questions. Help us build a Frequently Asked Questions section for this page by emailing our team at hello(at)SmidgenPress(dot)com. We’ll be glad to hear from you!
