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. [click to continue reading]