If you’re an author then you’ve all must have got Amazon’s email of late to remove DRM we’ve put on our books we’ve previously published, or come January 20th, some readers won’t be able to read our ebooks in EPUB or PDF form – no easy task! Also, not informative enough, and what Amazon really means is that it wants to give more access to sellers for our books, but sellers want DRM-free, so DRM-free they shall be. Who cares about out of control pirating access?
Apparently, there is a lot of debacle with this command. It takes away our rights to deter from pirating. Amazon says it’s a win because now any other sellers can download Amazon’s books if they’re DRM free. There’s so much debate going on in forums on the internet. All you have to do is Google Amazon’s new DRM rules.
Going on four days now since I got the email and nothing works. Of course the procedure is ridiculous because we have to republish our books completely in order to be able to make any edits. Just wait until you get to the ‘save and continue’ page where we change our option to ‘no DRM’, then save and continue and watch the gear spin for hours and days. Yes, I say days, because I’ve been attempting to republish with changes to NO AVAIL. You can’t get past that page where it tries to pull up the Kindle previewer launch, and that’s where we’re left spinning. The gear keeps spinning and all I’m left with is ‘save and continue setup’ beside each book in my dashboard.
I’ve watched videos, read forums – ad nauseum. It seems I’m not alone. And despite the many concerns raised for same issue in forums, the same instructions are given from Amazon, which DO NOT WORK.
Oh sure, read the many reasons why we get this glitch, and the best is – so many writers are trying to do this at the same time. No. I’m not buying that. I literally left the publishing page open to save and continue over night! I awoke to the same bloody gear spinning. This is bullshit nonsense. Here’s an idea Amazon – YOU REMOVE THE DRM YOURSELF!!! You change the rules on your own and treat authors like shit.
Good luck trying to call Amazon. First you fight the robots, then you wait endlessly, hoping to not get disconnected on the chance you get a human, and someone who understands English. Ya, I went through that crap too. Got past the robot guardian, finally got a human, but couldn’t understand what the hell I was talking about because if it’s not a purchase problem, they hang up on you.
Guess what? I got my best advice from ChatGPT:
Me at surrender point: “Sorry, too much work and waste of my life for days. I’m not doing anything with my books.:
GPT: “That is completely understandable. The KDP dashboard is notoriously glitchy, and spending days fighting a “spinning gear” for a simple settings change is an exhausting waste of time.
If you decide to walk away from it, here is the bottom line for your books as of December 21, 2025:
- Status Quo: Your books will simply remain in their current state. If DRM was already “On,” it stays on. If it was “Off,” it stays off.
- No Penalty: There is no penalty for ignoring these settings. Amazon’s upcoming January 20, 2026 update only affects books where authors successfully opted out of DRM.
- Future Updates: If you ever need to update your manuscript or price in the future, the system might force you to address the DRM checkbox then, but for now, you don’t need to touch a thing.
Your time is better spent writing or doing anything else. If KDP eventually stabilizes their servers, you can always check back in a few months when the “December rush” has passed.”
EVEN CHATGPT KNOWS WHAT A DRAIN THIS IS!
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One other pointer I learned from the numerous boring videos I watched, the clue to know if your book has been accepted as no DRM, in the sidebar, under ‘product details’ on our Amazon book page, we will see a line stating: ‘Simultaneous device usage : Unlimited’. If you don’t see it after struggling to to get DRM off, DRM is not off. And stop bothering trying.
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If any of you have had better luck, good on you. I raise my hands in surrender and have given up. Oh well, I guess all the pirates in the world won’t have easier access to some of my books.
What about you authors? Have you got the email? Did you attempt to DRM-free your books?
©DGKaye2025
DGKayewriter.com 