I’m a reader. Always have been, always will be, and my home library and Kindle will give you a really good idea of the type of books I read. Since reading is one way I relax and de-stress, I’m constantly rotating out what book I read with the next one on my list, and I keep my TBR (to be read) pile fairly full both physically and digitally.
Last year, I discovered a few ways to get free books while still supporting authors that I thought I’d share with you.
Before I start, let me just say I received a lot of free books last year. Some of those were physical books, but the majority were e-books. I read on my Kindle all the time, so if you’re like me, these methods will work great for you, too.
As a caveat before I begin this, most of the books I got last year were from independent (or indie) authors. These are authors who are self-publishing, which I realize will have some people shying away or making assumptions before even checking it out.
Let’s get some of the assumptions out of the way before we dive in:
Independent authors deal with assumptions about their writing all the time. There’s a stigma attached to self-publishing and a belief that self-published books are not or are poorly edited. There’s a lot of questions about how much work an author puts into a book if they’re just going to distribute it themselves, and I think these assumptions can cause people to miss out on great indie books. There’s also the assumption that readers will always judge a book based on its cover and many, many indie authors can’t afford to pay for excellent cover art. I’m not going to tell you not to judge a book on its cover, but I would just ask you to maybe read the blurb twice before making a decision when it comes to an indie author’s books.
Now that that’s out of the way, let’s talk about how you can get free e-books this year.
Sign up for an author’s newsletter. I realize we’re all overwhelmed by spam and out-of-control inboxes, but I actually really enjoy receiving newsletters from authors I follow. Many indie authors will promote new releases and share with their newsletter readers when they’re discounting books or marking them as free, and a lot of authors even have books available for free just for signing up for their newsletter.
Sign up for free book newsletters. Last year I signed up for FreeBooksy, which allows you to select your favorite genres and then emails you with free book offers daily. Yes, it can get a bit overwhelming because there really are deals on a daily basis, but I’ve snagged a number of books through this newsletter, and there are more websites you can subscribe to for daily free deals, like Fussy Librarian and BookBub.
Check for “Stuff Your Kindle” days. Don’t be intimidated by the title. A lot of participating authors offer books on other e-readers as well and will set those books as free, too! These events are so much fun, and they’ve blown up in recent years to include genre-specific days when groups of authors promote free books across social media. My favorite “Stuff Your Kindle” day is run by a fantasy group and features multiple events each year; the most recent one netted me 50 books!
Join ARC groups and websites. This is an interesting option for people who like to review books because ARC stands for Advance Reader Copy. Being an Advance Reader for an author means you’ll receive a copy of the e-book (and sometimes a physical copy!) before it goes on sale. The idea is that you would read the book before it comes available and then review it on a platform, like Amazon, Goodreads, Barnes & Noble, or social media to help get the word out about the new release. There are some websites where you can sign up to be an ARC reader and will occasionally get the opportunity to score traditionally published books as well, like NetGalley. You can check out BookSirens and BookSprout, which will have books by different authors available to download and add to your e-reader. The main caveat to doing this is that you should allow yourself plenty of time to finish a book and ideally commit to making sure you review the book on a platform so you’re doing your part. And most authors ask for an honest review, so don’t be concerned you’ll get in trouble if you dislike a book and want to rate it lower than 5 stars.
Last but not least, join Facebook groups for readers, especially for indie readers! Indie authors are out there trying to get their books seen, and a lot of groups will allow promotions by authors. This means if you’re checking in a group, you might catch an author promoting a free book. Or if you join some groups, they’ll have reading challenges and competitions with prizes of free books from authors. I’ve actually won several e-books, audiobooks, and physical books as a result of participating in challenges.
Now, how do you support the authors if you’re simply grabbing up free books when they’re available? Well, the first way would be deciding to buy other books in a series if you happen to grab a first-in-series book you end up liking. That’s the most obvious way of supporting authors! But another way to support them is to review a book on one of the reading platforms out there. Even if you don’t write a huge review, every review is helpful to get a book in front of new readers, and every review is a way for other readers to determine if this is the right book for them.
