At this point, you should be ready to create your liberated library. Kindle for PC should be installed, and your Kindle library downloaded to your computer. Calibre should be fully functional, DeDRM plugin included.
Open Calibre. The Calibre library should be empty.
On the top menu, locate the “Add Books” tab. This is the green book on the top menu, first on the left corner. Click on the down arrow next to it and select “Add books from a single folder.”
You will see a navigation pane. At the top, it will show “This PC > Documents > My Kindle Content.”
If it doesn’t, you can navigate there by clicking on this navigation pane. Kindle keeps its library on the user’s Document folder. Click on the “My Kindle Content” folder. You should see a listing of your Kindle books. (See image above) They appear as yellow folders with the _EBOK extension on the file. Click on the first folder with the _EBOK extension.
The individual book will appear. (See image above) Click on the blue book file. It has the _BOK extension also. This is the Kindle book file you need.
The Calibre Library will now open with the new book in it. Click on the book for the first time open. If the DeDRM plugin is working correctly, the book will open in Calibre. The DeDRM stripping happens automatically on Calibre’s first opening of the book.
You have imported your first book stripped of Kindle DeDRM. Below the book cover you will see the book format, which is Kindle format KFX. You will now make an Epub version of it.
Click on the book. The book listing should be highlighted in blue. Right-click on the listing (You can also use the top menu- the brown book ikon) and select “Convert Books.” Choose “Convert Individually” since you are working on only one item.
A conversion screen will show up. At the top right-hand corner, there is a box marked “Output Format.” This is the format to which your book will be converted. Click on its pull-down menu and you will see just about any format available. Select “Epub.”
At the bottom of the screen, click on “OK.” In a few seconds, your book will be converted to Epub format. You can convert your books into Epub format in bulk too rather than individually. Your book now exists on the Calibre library in two formats: original Kindle (KFX, AZW?) and Epub. (See the entries under the book cover).
Each book you own can be added to Calibre and stripped of DeDRM automatically as it is opened. Then, you can bulk convert them to Epub. Once your entire library is converted, you will remove all formats but Epub. You do this next.
Highlight the entire library. At the top menu, on the “Remove Books” tab, choose the “Remove files of a specific format from selected books.” If by accident you remove the entire book, just add it again.
Select only the formats that are not Epub (KFX, AZW, Mobi). Click on the format you want deleted and hit “OK.” The unwanted format will be deleted, leaving you with only an Epub library.
Your original Kindle Library remains untouched and unchanged in your Kindle for PC directory. This is a Calibre library that you may now move, copy, and use as you wish. Each time you buy a new Kindle book, you can individually add it to the library.
Be careful not to set Calibre to automatically import new books from Kindle. It will erase your Kindle library if it is set to automatic import.
Now, for the final step in the process. Close out Calibre. On Windows Explorer, navigate to your Calibre library. It is usually found in the Documents Directory. Click on the Calibre library, and you will see a listing, by author, of your entire Epub library.
The entire library can be uploaded to a Cloud service such as Google Cloud, DropBox, iCloud, or OneDrive. The listing can also be saved to a USB thumb drive. You can use a small external drive and take it with you wherever you travel. I use a cloud service to pull down and load my books into most reading apps on demand.
These books are yours. No seller can access or remove them from your library. Even if Amazon locks you out of your account for whatever reason they choose, your library is intact and readable in any device which supports Epub.
On my next post, I will show you how to transfer books from other sellers into Calibre to add to your library.