Where to Get Free and Low-Cost Ebooks

This post was previously published. It has been updated.

Getting Free and Low Cost Ebooks

Books are expensive. The days of trade paperbacks being under $10 is long gone. And ebook prices are usually not much cheaper, which is crazy given there is no physical inventory. Luckily there are ways to get free or low cost ebooks.

My Reading Addiction

I read. A LOT. Sometimes up to 10 books a month. Even with my daughter’s staff discount at a local bookstore, I can easily drop $100 on print books in a visit. Same with Amazon. Even with discounted ebooks at Amazon, I can still spend a lot of money.

I researched and implemented ways to bring my reading bill down.

The Local Library

Local libraries often have ebook catalogs that are included with your library card. My local library uses Libby, which is a great software for putting holds on books and allows me to check out and return books without having to go to the library’s main website.

I like that Libby consolidates everything and will prompt me when a hold is available – and remind me when it is due. The only issue I have with Libby is I can’t renew a book, so I have to make sure that I don’t have too much on hold at any point.

Other Free Libraries

There are other libraries that allow you to get a card if you are part of a geographic area. One of the local cities offers a free library card if you are a resident of Virginia or North Carolina. That gives another library to access.

Everyday Reading has a great list (by state) of places you can get free library cards.

Library Cards For A Fee

There are also libraries that will allow you to have a non-resident card for a fee. I pay $50 a year to access the library in Fairfax VA. Their book collection is much bigger (both in titles and number of copies) than my local library.

Everyday Reading includes those libraries in the list. Just peruse the whole list to find them.

BookBub

Bookbub.com is a site that scours the various online bookstores for free and reduced cost ebooks. Imagine having a staff that would compile a list of free and reduced cost books in your particular genres of interest! These books are not amateurs either; they are often books discounted by the publishers.

BookBub \ emails always give a large selection of books. I picked up The Woman Who Smashed Codes for $2.99 last night. This is a huge discount over the price when it put it on my wishlist!

Kindle Unlimited

For $11 a month, I get access to as many Kindle Unlimited books as I want. There are major authors in KU, but there is also a lot of self-published. I do most of my fiction reading through books I find on KU. I often will be browsing another site and pop over to Amazon to see if I can read it for free under KU.

Kindle Unlimited also allows you to read two magazines per month. I like the ability to get my favorite magazines without having the slush pile on my desk.

Bundle Sites

There are several bundle sites out there where you can get a large number of books for a very cheap bundle price. These bundles are curated, and are usually geared toward a particular topic. Some of the bundle sites I have used are:

• HumbleBundle.com: this site specializes in video games, but puts together bundles on topics. I have purchased many of the IT bundles, and one on food prep. You get to choose how much you want to spend on the bundle. Part of your purchase price goes to the charity assigned to the bundle.
• Fanatical.com: This focuses on fantasy bundles.
• StoryBundle.com: This is a mix of fiction and non-fiction. I have purchased a set on noveling and sets of fiction books.

Gutenberg

Project Gutenberg has been around since the last century with the goal of digitizing out of copyright books. There are over 75,000 books available in a multitude of languages. The major formats for ebooks are available so you can download directly to your reader of choice.

I go to Gutenberg to find books that are out of copyright, such as the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Little Women and Jane Austen books.

In Conclusion

There are a lot of places out there that allow you to get quality free and low-cost ebooks

without compromising on quality. Whether you choose to explore library options, subscribe to services like Kindle Unlimited, or hunt for deals on BookBub, there are plenty of ways to feed your reading habit without breaking the bank. With these resources at your disposal, you can build an impressive digital library while keeping your budget intact.

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If you have a lot of Kindle ebooks and want to get a list, check out my free Kindle Inventory Sheets.