Kentucky Serendipity

Getting Low Cost and Free Books for Your eReader 16 October 2014

Ebooks are very popular. About a third of U.S. adults own an e-reader, and many other people read ebooks on a tablet or a smartphone. Whether you read on an Amazon Kindle or an Apple iPad, your phone, Android tablet, or whatever, it’s easy to get free or low cost books to support your literary habit.

Free books fall into two categories:

• Books in the public domain; or
• Books given away as a promotion to entice you to buy more books.

Public domain books are those which are not copyrighted — either the book was never copyrighted or the copyright has expired. Once a copyright expires, the work belongs to the public; hence the name public domain. Other books are given away (or sold at a significantly reduced price) to serve as an introduction to an author or series or genre. The author and publisher hope that you will enjoy the free (or low cost) book and be led to purchase additional books.

It is easy to find free books; the problem is in finding free books which are worth reading. Ebooks are an easy and cheap way to self-publish, and sites such as Amazon are nearly overrun with self-published works. Sadly, most of these are not worth the electrons used to transmit them. I have owned a Kindle for several years and I have accumulated many books. I have suffered through horrible self-published works and I have enjoyed literary masterpieces, both at no cost. Here are some things I have learned in my quest for free and low cost ebooks.

Public domain books are the largest category of free books. Many of these books can be found on Amazon, however, a better source is Project Gutenberg. All ebooks on Project Gutenberg were previously published by bona fide publishers (no self-published trash), and the ebooks are proofread after being digitized. Project Gutenberg has a few copyrighted ebooks which are free for non-commercial use but most items are in the public domain. One can search by title, author, category or key word, making it easy to find works of interest. Books are available for download in several formats (including audio books) or one can read online.

It’s easy to find free ebooks on the Amazon Kindle Store — just do any search and then sort by “Price: Low to High”. The problem is combing through the pages of results to find something interesting. Luckily there are people who go through the listings to find interesting books and then share their results. One of the best is One Hundred Free Books (OHFB). One can browse the listings on the OHFB web site for free (or sometimes low cost) books or one can search by title, author or keyword. OHFB selects books three times each day, and offers a daily email listing selected ebooks. OHFB only lists Kindle books on Amazon, and clicking a book link takes you to the ebook page Amazon. Here is an important note: Always remember to check the price on the Amazon ebook page before clicking the purchase button. Amazon prices change throughout the day, and an ebook which was free in the morning may be full price in the afternoon. Prices change without warning. I have even had the experience of finding an ebook listed as free in the Amazon search result but showing a price on the Amazon book page. Always double check the price before purchasing!

BookBub is another site which provides a selection of free and low cost ebooks. BookBub offers books in several formats (including Kindle) and the books on BookBub are selected by a team of editors. This means that BookBub generally lists higher quality works than OHFB, but the number of free ebooks on BookBub is usually less than the number on OHFB. BookBub also offers a daily email service but the BookBub email only includes books in categories in which you expressed an interest. (Categories are selected when one signs up at BookBub; these can be edited later.)

One Hundred Free Books (OHFB) and BookBub are both useful tools for adding ebooks to one’s library, especially if one is interested in discovering new authors. If you’re less inclined to adventure, and instead want to get volumes by your favorite authors, you can still do it on the cheap if you are patient. Prices on Kindle ebooks change regularly and frequently, and most books will available at no cost at some point. Develop the habit of going to the Amazon Kindle Store and searching for ebooks by the authors which interest you; then sort by price and snag any free ones. This requires patience, and it may take months before you a free copy of one of your desired volumes, but the method does work.

Whatever the means you use to get your free or low cost books, enjoy reading them. And consider buying an ebook at regular price from time to time — that’s how authors manage to have the time to write.