Where to Find Free or Reduced Price Books When You're Stuck at Home

There are many times in every person's life when they have to remain at home for one reason or other (illness, weather), but now a huge portion of the world's population is home, trying to thwart the coronavirus (COVID-19) and keep everyone safe by maintaining a distance from others. That means many hours to fill once we've done our work, our chores, our studying or whatever jobs need to be taken care of.

As a reader and writer, I tend to turn to books first, and I am fortunate to have many books on my shelves and on my ereader that I haven't yet touched. But if you're worried about running out of things to read, here are some sources of free or inexpensive material (these are all ebooks). 

For work that is in the public domain, there is always Project Gutenberg. The site has more than 60,000 books, and you'll be familiar with many of the titles. It sometimes takes a bit to navigate the site, but they're updating, and there's a lot to see there, so I recommend roaming around the site for a few minutes to find your way around. They also have lists of the Top 100 Books of the Month, and if you click through to the new beta website, there are the top 100 books/authors of yesterday, the last seven days, and the last thirty days. A quick glance at yesterday's top 100 included works by Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Louisa May Alcott, Robert Louis Stevenson, Jonathan Swift, Arthur Conan Doyle, the Bronte sisters, Oscar Wilde, H. G. Wells, Edgar Allan Poe, Jack London, and Mark Twain, among others. 

Along the same line is Standard eBooks, a nonprofit that takes public domain books from places (Project Gutenberg is one), cleans up the typography, improves the technology and adds public domain fine art for the covers. The selection is limited, but it's an easy site to navigate, and the books do look inviting.

If you're looking for something more contemporary, there are actually books whose authors have priced them as free. Often these are promotions, designed to tempt readers to buy the rest of a series or other books by the author. Either way, there's a wealth of material out there. Below are some places you can find those books and how to go about it.

Smashwords - at the top of the main Smashwords page, you can do a general search of all the free books on the site. Just click on Free in the second row (you can also choose the length in the third row). If you'd like to limit to books in the genre you're interested in, choose your genre in the left hand column and then click on Free. The books on Smashwords are in various formats, so you're probably in good shape no matter what kind of reader or computer you're using. You do have to register to use Smashwords, but I've been with them for years, and they've never sent me annoying emails.

Kobo - There are several ways to find free books on Kobo. You can go to the Kobo home page, click on ebooks, click on your category (such as Science Fiction, Romance, Mystery, Business & Finance...), click through to your subcategory of choice, then follow the left column to the bottom where the price is, check Only Free Items and then check Apply. 

Alternatively, you can go to this page, which lists a few categories with free books along with Today's Top Free eBooks. 

Amazon - Amazon has a page titled Cheap Reads for Kindle: Free and Low Priced Reading Options. If you want only free as opposed to low-priced, set the search option to Sort by: Price: Low to High. At first glance, it appears that there are only two ways to break the 400 pages of books into divisions, Kindle Short Reads and Kindle eBooks, but if you click on Kindle Short Reads, you can drill down further based on projected time to read and number of pages. If you click on Kindle eBooks, you'll find genre categories. Unfortunately, I didn't find much of a selection when drilling down that way. That's often a failing of Amazon, I've found. You know that what you're looking for exists, but once you start setting parameters, not everything that fits those parameters is visible.

If you're looking for book deals (as opposed to free), go to the Kindle Book Deals page.

Other Deals

Bookbub - go here for their daily deals.

eReaderIQ - eReaderIQ is a site I frequent. They list free and discounted books, but what I really like is that once you sign up (just an email address), you can track books or authors and once a book you're tracking (or any books by an author you're tracking) falls below a certain price point you set (or a certain percentage you set), you'll receive an email with a link to the book, so you can purchase it at the discounted price. 

And, of course, if your library subscribes to Hoopla or Overdrive, you can borrow books for free just as you would any print library book. 

I'm sure that some people will find it strange that an author would be promoting free or discounted books, but I feel that books should be available to all of us, I know that not everyone can afford to buy books at full price (especially now), and I trust that most readers who are able will continue to support their favorite authors so that they can pay their bills and continue writing wonderful books.

I hope this has been helpful. Enjoy and Happy Reading!

Where to Find eBook Bargains

Years ago I had a professor who told me that he and his wife were book poor. No need to explain that to anyone who has been in love with books all their lives. We tend to be obsessed with acquiring books. There are many reasons for that and they're probably different for each person, but my personal reasons for being a mad book buyer have to do with the fact that every book contains stories, secrets, possibilities, the answers to questions, hours of entertainment and more. I take one look at a book, and I just can't help looking inside...and often, buying.

In fact, I can't remember a time when I wasn't a bit obsessed with books and reading. When I was a girl in school I loved the days when we could order Scholastic Books and I eagerly awaited each shipment. When I became a teacher, I was just as entranced, and I always ordered extra books for my classroom. Bookstores call out to me (at least it seems that way). At garage and estate sales, I always gravitate to the book shelves. Library book sales suck me in every time, so I understood when, visibly six months pregnant and waiting in line at a huge library book sale, I was nearly knocked flying by eager book buyers trying to get in the door to access all those books!

But here's the thing. Even though I buy a lot of books and even though I'm a writer who totally understands that writers need to eat (i.e., make money), I'm also still a fan of bargains. Don't get me wrong. I buy a lot of books at full price, but now and then a discount comes my way, and I'm happy to be able to save a dollar or two.

So without further ado, here are some of my favorite ways to save on books (note: these are all for ebooks, so feel free to mention places to save on print books in the comments section).

eReaderIQ - You sign in with an email address, indicate the books and/or authors you want to keep watch on, indicate what price you want to pay or how much of a discount you're looking for, and when the books go on sale, the site sends you a notice. I have a tendency to forget and just buy the book without waiting, but now and then I've gotten some great bargains.

BookBub Daily Deals - You can access the site to look for deals and/or sign up for alerts, indicating your preferences, and every day you'll receive an email with a bunch of bargains in it. I love it!

Bargain eBook Hunter - I haven't used this one much at all (although there are lots of free books here. I used to get their emails--like BookBub, you can get a daily email with bargains), but some time has passed, so I'm no expert on this one.

Kindle Daily Deals - you may need to go to a different Amazon address if you're in a different country (just google Amazon daily Kindle deals and add your country name at the end), but every day Kindle has daily deals which can be accessed via the site or--again, as above--via a daily email. I get the daily emails, but I also visit the site, because there are also monthly deals and other short-term deals.

Nook Daily Find - If you're a Nook reader, there's a daily deal, try this. Also, once you're there, look in the sidebar for other deals.

Kobo Deals - If you have a Kobo, you might try here.

Bargain Booksy - You have to look at the details of individual books. Some are only offered as Kindles. Others are offered on other sites, include Apple.

If you have other favorite places to find books (ebook or print), share it in the comments. I'd love to hear from you.

Happy Reading!

Myrna