That’s where Bookbub and similar promotion services come into play. Amazon’s algorithms are sophisticated, but they won’t always deliver you the sorts of books you’re looking for - especially if you limit yourself to their free store. (Just remember to re-select the “free” category at the top if you choose to browse by genre!) The best part? Most stories are available in a wide range of file formats, and you don’t even need an account to download them.īrowsing the Kindle Store for great free books can sometimes be hit-or-miss. With the ability to browse by categories such as “newest,” “bestseller,” and “highest-rated,” as well as filtering by the book’s length and genre, this is an easy way to instantly find free books. Like Amazon, Smashwords has a page where you can easily see all the books authors have chosen to give away for free.

Instead of plodding your way through all of them, start by looking at their bestseller list for the top 100 Free eBooks. If you search for “Free Books” on the Kindle store, you’ll see over 80,000 results. And as the world’s #1 retailer of books, Amazon has become the place where many authors choose to make their titles available at no cost. Giving away free books has proven to be one of publishing’s most effective ways of building up an audience.

Still, when we’re talking about this many ebooks at our fingertips, can we really complain? This is a great source for classics and obscure titles that offer deep dives into arcane topics, though some newer books can also appear. And their website does look like something straight out of 1996. If that’s not enough books for you, The Online Books Page, hosted by the University of Pennsylvania, boasts a staggering list of over three million free ebooks! Unlike Project Gutenberg, they don’t actually host any of the books themselves, instead providing links to where you can download them. Most of the titles available on the platform are in the public domain, meaning that they are no longer subject to copyright and can be freely distributed. Named after the original printing press from the 15th century (and not the beloved star of the Police Academy films), Project Gutenberg is a volunteer-run effort to digitize and preserve books.

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