Recent news from Amazon has been shaking the e-book and knowledge communities online.

Amazon is quietly changing how you can access your purchased Kindle books, and the impact is bigger than it seems. As of tomorrow, readers in the U.S. will no longer be able to download their e-books for USB transfer, meaning your personal backups and true ownership of your books are at risk.

So, what does this mean for you? And more importantly, how can you keep control of the books you’ve rightfully purchased?

Why This Matters: The Shift from Ownership to Licensing

In the digital age, big tech companies have increasingly moved away from selling products outright and instead offer licenses — limiting true ownership. We’ve seen this shift across music, software, and movies, where access is often tied to subscriptions rather than purchases. E-books have been one of the last frontiers where readers could still buy and own their content, rather than just lease it.

Amazon’s latest move reinforces this uncomfortable shift, reminding us that access isn’t the same as ownership. If a book disappears from Amazon’s store or your account gets restricted, your library could shrink overnight. This is not a common occurrence, but as is mentioned in this article by Vice, it is not unfounded.

Thankfully, there are alternatives that put readers back in control — without sacrificing convenience.

Download Your Kindle Library

If you haven’t already, the first thing you should be looking into doing today is downloading your Kindle library. Thankfully, many creators have already outlined exactly how to do this. We like this tutorial in particular:

Create a Source of Truth for Your E-Books — Back-Up Your Kindle Library

Creating a reliable source of truth for your e-books is essential to ensure your digital library is always accessible and protected from potential loss. One effective way to do this is by using Calibre, an open-source e-book manager, to back up your Kindle library. Calibre allows you to easily transfer, convert formats, organise, and store your e-books on your computer, giving you full control over your collection. By using Calibre, you not only protect your investment but also gain better management and accessibility of your entire e-book collection.

*Need some guidance? Check out this Reddit post where a reader was able to move their entire library of 1831 books to Calibre.

Accessing Your Library — How to Read Your Backed Up Books

Once you’ve backed up your Kindle books using Calibre, you’ll want to make sure you can easily access and read them. Calibre allows you to send your e-books to a variety of readers and platforms, giving you the flexibility to enjoy your library on multiple devices. You can transfer your books to popular e-readers like Kobo, Nook, or even back to your Kindle. Alternatively, you can also export them to apps like Adobe Digital Editions, Moon Reader, KoReader, Apple Books or the built-in readers on your tablet or smartphone.

One of the best options is BookFusion, which offers seamless integration with Calibre, syncing of books in all formats across all devices (including e-ink!). With BookFusion, you get a robust, highly customisable reading experience, plus the convenience of syncing your library across devices with ease. Read more from Katie about why she consolidated her entire library to BookFusion.

BookFusion: Your E-Book Library, Your Rules

At BookFusion, we believe that readers should truly own their books, not just rent access to them. If you’re looking for a secure, flexible home for your e-books, here’s how we make it easy:

📖 Seamless Integration with Calibre
For years, Calibre has been the go-to tool for e-book readers who want full control over their digital libraries. It allows users to manage, convert, and transfer e-books across different formats and devices. BookFusion fully integrates with Calibre, making it simple to transfer and organise your library while keeping all your metadata intact.

🔄 Send to Kindle, Read Anywhere
Prefer reading on your Kindle device? No problem. With our Send to Kindle feature, you can still enjoy your books on Kindle while using BookFusion and Calibre as your true source of ownership and backup.

📚 All Formats, All Devices
Unlike Kindle’s restrictive formats, BookFusion supports all major e-book formats and syncs your entire collection across all devices — including e-ink readers. Whether you’re on a tablet, phone, or dedicated e-reader, your books are always at your fingertips.

Take Back Control of Your Library

Amazon’s changes highlight the need for an independent, reader-first solution. BookFusion gives you the freedom to manage, read, and truly own your books — without worrying about disappearing downloads or shifting platform policies.

Ready to take charge of your e-books? Try BookFusion today and keep your library in your hands, where it belongs.