Reading or downloading your early copy, and how the file is protected

Ways to receive an early copy

The author ticks, per campaign, the ways you may get an approved copy; the campaign page and your request say which. With one way, that is how the copy reaches you. With two or more, My early copies shows Choose how to read and a card for each way, Read here, Download for your e-reader and Send to Kindle, and you pick one.

• Read on Booklabria: the file never leaves the server. From My early copies press Start reading (later Continue reading) and the book opens on the site or in the app, one chapter at a time, with the contents down the side and each chapter's reading time. Your place is saved as you read, so the bar at the top says how far you are, and the last chapter offers I finished the book. There is nothing to download and nothing to pass around; the download door says This early copy is read on Booklabria, not downloaded. The author sees how far readers get, as counts, never who. You can highlight and take private notes as you read (Highlights and private notes).
• Download a protected copy: the steps below. Every EPUB you download carries a watermark tied to your copy (a code, never your name or e-mail, written into the file's source and as unseen characters in the first paragraphs); a leaked file can be traced to the copy it came from.
• Send to Kindle: we e-mail the watermarked EPUB, as an attachment, to your own Kindle address, up to five times per copy. You add your Kindle address once, and add our sending address to Amazon's approved list first; Sending an early copy to your Kindle has the steps. The author sees that it was sent, not how far you have read.

You can change your mind until the first download or send: under the copy, quiet links read Read here instead, Download for your e-reader instead and Send to Kindle instead. Leaving Read on Booklabria asks first, because the author then sees Downloaded or Sent to Kindle instead of your progress. The first download or send fixes the way for that copy.

Downloading

1. Open the Early copies › My early copies. An approved copy on a download campaign reads Ready to download.
2. Press the download; the page says Your download link is ready and the file comes down in the format the author offered (EPUB or PDF). After the first, the button reads Download again.
3. Open the file in your reader of choice. To read it on a Kindle yourself, Amazon's own Send to Kindle works the way it does for any EPUB you own; if the author offered Send to Kindle on this copy, Booklabria can send it for you (Sending an early copy to your Kindle).

How the file is protected

• The file is never at a public address. Each download goes through a signed link that expires fifteen minutes after it is issued; the link is personal and stops working after that, even if it was copied.
• Each approval allows five downloads; the count is shown to you and to the author. It costs nothing until a download actually succeeds: an expired link that was never used does not count.
• Every download is logged (who, when, which format); the author sees the deliveries on their campaign.
• A copy sent to a Kindle goes as an attachment, never as a link, to your own Kindle address. It carries the same watermark, five sends are allowed per copy, and every send is logged (which copy, when, how big), never your address.

These limits protect the author's unreleased manuscript. Sharing, reselling or republishing an early copy file is a serious violation of the Terms.

When something goes wrong

• The link expired: ask for a fresh one from My early copies; that costs nothing.
• Could not prepare the download: try again in a moment; if it keeps failing, see Download or page problems.
• You reached the five downloads: write to the author from the campaign page, or contact support with the book's name.
• A copy sent to your Kindle did not arrive: see Sending an early copy to your Kindle.