You are viewing your 1 free article this month. Login to read more articles.
American self-publishing company Lulu will stop offering DRM as an option on e-books created by the company from next week (15th January) in a bid to “remove barriers when we see them.”
In a blog, the company said digital books created by Lulu and sold through retailers such as Amazon, Apple and Barnes & Noble would still have DRM, but for readers who download e-books directly from Lulu.com to any device, DRM will be removed in order to help “authors reach the broadest audience possible.”
Lulu said: “For readers who download e-books directly from Lulu.com to the device of their choice, removing DRM on EPUBs and PDFs will remove their need to create an Adobe account, authorize the purchase in Digital Editions or install a third-party application. This creates possibilities for the growing number of readers who want to shop, purchase and download books to their e-readers from sites other than large corporate providers. And we see that as a step towards helping authors reach the broadest audience possible.”
It added that companies like Apple, B&N and Amazon “do a fantastic job in this area, and e-books published through Lulu and distributed through these retail sites will continue to have the same rights management applied as they do today.”
Lulu was founded in North Carolina, US, 10 years ago and has international versions of the site in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Holland. It offers self-publishers 80% profit on their products.