I want to buy a Kindle Paperwhite but I don’t want to be limited to Amazon ebooks only. So can I purchase or download ebooks from other ebook retailers or sources?
Have you encountered this issue when you enter the digital reading world at the very beginning? But I do. Although you can always find the new released ebooks on Amazon store, there are always better deals on other websites, such as Barnes&Noble or Kobo. It is natural to obtain free ebooks from online free ebook resources. Can I read any book on kindle? Even more, can I transfer any book to my kindle eReader? Keep reading to learn how to read any book on Kindle.
To load ebook to kindle, we should make it clear that what ebook formats are supported by kindle.
What’s the Kindle Supported Format?
Do you know that your kindle can’t read every file you load to it? Only the Kindle compatible format will be displayed correctly. Since there are various ebook formats out there, I have listed the kindle supported format as below:
- Kindle Format (.AZW & .MOBI & .AZW3)
- PDF (.PDF)
- HTML (.HTML & .HTM)
- Text (.TXT)
- Microsoft Word (.DOC & .DOCX)
- Images (.JPG & .JPEG & .PNG & .GIF & .BMP)
- Other File Types (.RTF & .PRC & .PSZ)
How to Read Purchased Amazon Books on Kindle? (Include Kindle Unlimited Books on Kindle)
Step 1. Download Kindle books to Kindle device.
If you have purchased from Amazon kindle, or subscribed from Kindle unlimited, then you can just sign in your Amazon kindle with your account. Then tap the Kindle book cover to download it.
Step 2. Read Kindle books(Kindle Unlimited) on Kindle.
Once these books are downloaded to your Kindle, you can tap it and read them on your Kindle device.
How to read Non-Amazon Books on Kindle?
How to Get the Non-amazon Books?
Before reading these non-amazon books on kindle device, where do you get your non-amazon books usually? Certainly, there are many different ways to get ebooks, but the general two methods should be:
- buying from other ebook vendors besides Kindle store;
- downloading from ebook downloading websites for free.
1 Buy from other ebook vendors
If you buy ebooks from other ebook vendors, please remember the ebook store name or website address. This is very important as many ebook vendors encrypt their books with DRM (Digital Rights Protection). Bear this in mind that you can never own the ebooks completely although you have paid for it.
Not all ebooks are encrypted with DRM, but still nearly up to 95% do. DRM is the major obstacle to import the non-amazon books to kindle.
Note
Because of the DRM restriction, the encrypted ebooks cannot be read on Amazon kindle. If you come into this case, go directly to remove kindle drm from non-amazon books.
2 Download from internet for free
There are always great selections of modern and classic books on the internet for free download. If you are looking for something free to read, then the following free ebook download websites will entertain you.
Different from ebook purchased from online ebook store, the majority ebooks that you downloaded from free resources are DRM-free. Although these books are with no DRM restriction, this doesn’t mean that you can read these books on Kindle directly. The real reason is these books may be in EPUB or other kindle incompatible format.
What if your downloaded ebooks are not kindle supported formats?
It is known that many ebook vendors, such as Google Play and Kobo, are using EPUB as their ebook format. Can we just read Google Play or Kobo books on Kindle properly? Yes, you can but there are more works to do before just transferring these non-amazon books straight forward to kindle device. That is making non-amazon books drm free and kindle compatible.
How to Make Any Books Readable on Kindle?
To make the non-amazon books are readable on kindle, we need to remove DRM and convert non-amazon books to kindle compatible format.
1 Remove DRM from Any books
There are many ebook stores out there, but we cannot find one tool which can decrypt all online ebooks because they are encrypted with different drm scheme. However, there is still a tool—Epubor Ultimate which covers almost 90% drm type in the market. With it, you can remove drm from kindle, google play, kobo, nook and Adobe pdf & epub books.
Benefit from its simple and intuitive interface, you can just drag the books from left column to the right one to remove DRM.
Read How to remove ebook DRM to remove drm from Kindle, Google Play, kobo and Nook books.
2 Convert DRM-free non-amazon books to kindle compatible format
Although there are many formats that are compatible with kindle, not all of them are the best format for kindle. To read them on kindle, AZW3 is your best choice. Hereby, we’ll convert non-amazon books to azw3 format. As an all-in-one tool, Epubor Ultimate also can help you convert the DRM-free ebooks to kindle compatible format.
How to Transfer Non-Amazon Books to Kindle
After getting the kindle compatible ebooks, you can just plug in your kindle to your computer and then copy and paste these books to “Documents” folder. This time, your kindle will display these non-amazon books well.
Pro tip How to sync non-amazon books across different kindle devices/apps?
The above-mentioned method is the easiest way to load non-amazon books to kindle. But this method will keep the book in the local storage of your kindle, it will not enable you to read this book on your other kindle devices or app from where you left off.
Thanks for Amazon’s Whisper-sync, you can use the email-to-Kindle function to email your non-Amazon ebook file to your Kindle’s email address. By doing this you can read a book across devices/Apps and always make sure to be on the page where you left off. Note: If you choose this way to load your non-amazon books to kindle, please ensure your ebooks are send-to-kindle supported file type at first.
Detailed Guide: How to Email Books and Documents to Kindle?
Finally, we have transferred or emailed our non-amazon books to kindle successfully. If you transfer it via usb, you can find your ebook in "Downloaded" tab. But if you use the sent-to-kindle service, then you'll find these books under "All" tab. To read it, you'll have to tap the book cover to download it at first and then read it.
How to Read Library Books on Kindle
In the digital age, it is easy to access the ebooks. If you have a library card, you are able to borrow ebooks from your local library. "Can I get library books on Kindle?"--And "Yes, you can". Since most libraries nowadays offer digital borrowing services through platforms like OverDrive or Libby. You can visit your library's website to see if they support these services and if not, inquire about their digital lending options. You can connect your Amazon account to your Overdrive or Libbry, locate the library book you borrowed, select the "Actions" button, and then choose your kindle device to deliver your borrowed ebooks to kindle.
Here is the detailed instructions:
- If you borrow library books via OverDrive, follow the guide How to Read Overdrive eBooks on Kindle Paperwhite?
- If you borrow library books via Libby, follow this guide How to Get Libby Books on Kindle.
- If you borrow library books via Hoopla, then follow How to Read Hoopla Books on Kindle.
Iris Yan has been a passionate member of Epubor since 2017. Her mission is to enhance your ebook reading experience by sharing insightful tips and tricks. Join her on a journey towards reading excellence today!
I've used epubor Ultimate to change ALL my books, incl Kindle, to Mobi. I keep my books in Calibre. But... I've DL a number of books lately from Z-Library in dif formats. I've tried converting to Mobi & AZW3, but am still unable to read them with my Kindle Reader. I keep searching & trying different methods for reading these books on Kindle, to no avail. The one I know of but haven't tried is my Kindle email. This is b/c I'm concerned that, if a book converted to Kindle won't work, why should the same thing work when emailed? I'm at a loss! And I can't afford to buy these books from Amazon, which is the only reason I got them elsewhere.