What you actually own

What happens to my books if Bookrata shuts down?

They keep working. If we vanished tomorrow, every book you had downloaded would still open, because there is nothing of ours inside the file that has to be alive for it to work.

This is the whole reason DRM-free is not a feature we could quietly drop later. It is the test the rest of it rests on.

What if I lose access to my account?

You lose a download link, not a library. The copies you have already saved sit on your own machine and never check in with us to ask permission.

Can you delete or change a book after I've bought it?

No. A file on your hard drive is out of our reach, and we have built no mechanism to reach into it. What you downloaded is what you keep, in the version you downloaded.

What if my reading device dies?

A dead device costs you nothing. Re-download anything you have bought, on anything else you own, as many times as you need to.

Will my books still open in ten years?

EPUB is an open standard that long predates us and is not ours to withdraw. The files you have are plain ones, readable by software that has nothing to do with Bookrata, and that stays true whatever happens to us.

Do I need an app to read a book I bought?

No. Books open in the browser you are already using. There is also an installable app if you prefer one, and you can ignore both and read the downloaded file in whatever you like.

Do I need any extra software?

None. No separate reader to install before a book will open, no account to authorise with a third party, and no step between buying and reading.

Can I read these on a Kindle?

You get a standard EPUB, which every major reading app and e-reader takes. A Kindle is the one device that does not open EPUB directly from its own library, but Amazon's Send to Kindle tool accepts EPUB files, and that is the route most readers use.

What format are the files?

EPUB for ebooks. Audiobooks are DRM-free audio files you download and keep, on the same terms as everything else — not tied to an app, a subscription, or an ecosystem.

Is there a download link that expires?

No. There is no emailed link to go stale and no window to miss. The book is in your library the moment you buy it, and it is still there whenever you come back.

Are there ads?

None, anywhere, on any plan. The only thing anyone here is selling you is the book you came for.

Will you recommend books to me?

No. There is no recommendation engine, no bestseller list, and no sponsored shelf. Books surface because they match what you asked for, not because they are selling well or because someone paid.

Do you track what I read?

No IP addresses are stored. Location is country-level only. Any demographic breakdown is suppressed below five people, and Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control are honoured.

Authors see what sold. Nobody sees you.

Is there a watermark in my file?

There is, and it is invisible. Nothing is stamped across your page — no banner, no name on the title page, no reminder that somebody is watching. It identifies the buyer so an author has recourse if a copy is distributed, and nothing scans for it automatically.

Is this a subscription?

Nothing is rented to you. You buy a book and you own it. Some authors offer a membership to their own catalogue if you want to support them monthly, and even then, anything you buy outright is still yours for good.

Can a book I paid for disappear from my library?

No. There is no catalogue churn to lose a book to, because nothing here is on loan to you in the first place.

How do I know what's in a book before I read it?

Every book is rated across six categories on a five-level scale, applied the same way to every book by someone who isn't selling it. The information is on the book itself, not buried in a thread underneath it.

Can I avoid content I don't want to read, without spoilers?

Yes, and this is the part most tools get wrong. Set your comfort caps once and anything above them simply stops appearing. You never read a list of what happens in a book you were about to start — the filtering happens before discovery, not as a warning on the cover.

Can I search for very specific things?

Over two thousand four hundred content and theme tags, plus the six rated categories. You find books by what is actually inside them rather than by the genre shelf someone filed them on.

How do I find books that are on sale?

Filter the library for what's on sale right now. There is no deals newsletter to join and nothing emailed at you — the sales are there when you go looking, and quiet when you don't.

What does the Certified Clean badge mean?

It is the stricter version of a comfort cap, and it is earned against the same rating scale rather than claimed by whoever is selling the book.

Can my child have their own account?

Not an independent one, and that is deliberate. You create a profile for them inside your account. It signs in with a username rather than an email address, on a password you set, and it exists only as part of your account.

Can my child buy anything?

Not unless you turn it on. Purchasing is off by default on every child profile, and when it's off your child isn't stopped at a checkout — they are never shown a buy option in the first place. No store links, no links out to other retailers, no price waiting to be tapped.

A book your household already owns is never shown to your child as something to buy, whether or not you have enabled purchasing. It shows as owned, because it is.

How do I control what my child can see?

You set a level in each of the six rated categories — language, sex, violence, health, religion and LGBTQ — separately for each child. Anything above a child's level doesn't appear for them. Two children in the same family can have entirely different limits, which is usually the point.

What can my child actually open and read?

Only a book you own and have assigned to them. Both have to be true: your household owns it, and you have given that specific child access. If either isn't true, the book doesn't open.

Can I allow one book that's above their limits?

Yes. Assigning a book to a child lets them read it regardless of their levels, and you can withdraw it later. The levels handle the general case; this handles the book you've read yourself and are happy with.

Can I see what my child is reading?

You see the books you assigned and how they're doing against any reading goals you set — pages or minutes a day, streaks, points.

What you don't see is where they are in the book, their bookmarks, or anything they highlighted. That stays with them and doesn't reach your account or a sibling's. A child should be able to underline a line in a book without it being reported.

What do you ask my child?

Nothing. There is no field anywhere in the child experience that takes a name, an email address, a phone number, an address or a date of birth. We ask you for an optional age range, and you can skip it — skipping changes nothing about how the profile works.

What if they forget their password?

You reset it from your own account. After ten failed attempts the profile locks for an hour, and you can unlock it straight away.

Will my child see ads or recommendations?

No. There are no ads anywhere on Bookrata and no recommendation engine for anyone, children included. Nothing is pushed at them, and nothing is ranked by what happens to be selling.

Why are books cheaper here?

We take nothing from the sale. The author keeps the whole price and sets it themselves, so the same income needs a smaller number on the page than it would anywhere a retailer takes a margin.

Can I buy from my country?

There are no territorial restrictions here. No rights map decides you live in the wrong place, and no book is withheld from you because of where your card was issued.

Who gets my money?

The author, directly, into their own account as the sale happens. We are not in the payment path, which is also why nobody is holding their earnings or yours.

What if I want a refund?

You deal with the author, who you can actually reach. No ID checks, no escalation path, and no department that blames another department.

Who do I contact if something goes wrong?

Your question about a book goes to the person who wrote it. If it's us you need, support requests reach Marcus or Brock, and we answer them ourselves.

Can I tell an author I loved their book?

Yes — a Reader Note. You own the book, you write to them privately, and they can heart it and reply once. It isn't a public review wall, so there is nothing to brigade and nothing to perform for.