Guide

Where to find DRM-free ebooks

Any app that narrates your ebooks needs to open them, and DRM prevents that. The good news: a large share of books are sold or given away without it. Here is where to look.

Free, public domain

Project Gutenberg: 70,000 titles, EPUB and TXT, in many languages. The Discover tab in Book2Speech searches it directly.
Standard Ebooks: carefully typeset editions of public-domain books, the best-made EPUBs you will find.
Internet Archive and Wikisource: broader and rougher; check the file quality.
Feedbooks public domain and Manybooks: convenient mirrors with their own formatting.

Paid, DRM-free by policy

Tor / Tor.com: all Tor ebooks have been DRM-free since 2012, from any retailer.
Baen Ebooks: science fiction and fantasy, DRM-free from the publisher’s own store, plus a free library.
Kobo: many titles are DRM-free; the product page says “DRM-free” under the format. Download the EPUB from your account page.
Humble Bundle book bundles: DRM-free EPUB and PDF, often technical and comics.
Smashwords and Draft2Digital storefronts: independent authors, DRM-free by default.
Leanpub and Pragmatic Bookshelf, No Starch Press, O’Reilly (direct purchases): technical books, DRM-free.
Many small presses and authors sell DRM-free directly through Payhip, Gumroad, Shopify or BookFunnel; search for the title plus “DRM-free”.

Your own writing and documents

Manuscripts, theses, notes, exported Google Docs and saved articles have no DRM and are ideal inputs. Export as DOCX, EPUB or TXT.

What about books I bought with DRM?

Book2Speech rejects DRM-protected files with a message asking for a DRM-free copy, and this guide does not cover removing DRM. Check whether the publisher sells a DRM-free edition (Tor, Baen and many independents do), or whether your library offers the title through an app with its own read-aloud.

Questions people ask

How do I tell whether an EPUB has DRM?

Try opening it in Calibre: DRM-protected files fail to open. Kobo and some stores label formats “DRM-free” on the product page.

Are Kindle books DRM-free?

Most store purchases are protected. Personal documents you sent to the Kindle and books from DRM-free publishers (Tor, Baen) are not.
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