How to get Kindle ebooks for less.
Kindles can be great ways to read on the move. Though I prefer to hold a proper paperback or hardback, my Kindle has been essential on holidays helping me avoid carrying more than one heavy book around with me.
It’s also possible to save a lot of money on the books you buy with hundreds of titles on sale at just 99p, and many more available for free.
And these aren’t just books you’ve never heard of. Though selections change all the time I’ve picked up bestsellers like Ready Player One and Vox alongside Booker and Pulitzer Prize nominated titles.
Here are the best ways to get free or cheap ebooks for your Kindle.
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Free Kindle books for all
Kindle Unlimited free trials
For £9.49 a month you can get access to Kindle Unlimited – a library of over 1 million Kindle books (as well as magazines and audiobooks). This is a subscription so you’ll keep paying every month unless you cancel it.
However, there’s also a 30-day trial to give it a go. After that, it’s £9.49 a month.). You should be able to take a free trial every 13 months (so 12 months after a 30-day trial ends).
Amazon Prime members can sometimes get a longer trial though the offer you’ll get can vary. Click the link below to see what you can get.
Free “Amazon Classics”
It’s possible to pick up free Kindle copies of older books that are no longer under copyright.
For example, a quick look has found titles like Homer’s The Odyssey, Tolstoy’s War and Peace and HG Wells’ The Time Machine all part of a series called Amazon Classics. And the vast majority of the titles in this group are free with only a handful coming in at £1.99.
Free Kindle book lists
You can also see all the free Kindle books via the EReaderIQ website. However, there are so many books listed that it could take you hours to go through them all and find anything decent.
You can filter by rating to help weed out the trash, and personally I’d select “also available in paperback” (not that there won’t be some decent self-published books).
Free Kindle books for Amazon Prime members
You’ll need to be signed up to Amazon Prime to get these freebies.
> Not got Prime? Try a 30-day free trial
Prime Reading selection
If you have Amazon Prime then you’ve got access to Prime Reading, a selection of titles you can read for free, including the Harry Potter series. It’s a smaller version of Kindle Unlimited.
Free First Reads every month
Another offer for Prime members, First Reads gets you a copy of a new title that hasn’t been released yet. A new selection is released on the 1st of each month.
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Cheap Kindle books
You can also pick up very cheap books every day on Amazon. Prices can go up and down all the time, but there are a couple of regular offers to keep an eye on.
99p daily deals
Every day Amazon sells five or six titles for just 99p (or just over). These deals last just 24 hours before new offers replace them. I’ve picked up quite a few titles from this deal and have signed up for a daily email so I get a nudge to check what is in offer.
£1 monthly offers
On the 15th of every month a new selection of 80 different Kindle books is made available at just £1 each. These titles are usually also available via Kindle Unlimited.
Kindle book price tracker
Prices of Kindle books can jump up and down all the time and it’s easy to miss a book your after at a lower price.
However you can actively track specific books and set up alerts so you’ll know if it drops to a price you are happy to pay. You can also track by author.
It’s back on that EreaderIQ website. You do need to enter your email address to access this feature and though a donation is welcome you don’t have to pay.
Kindle device deals
You don’t actually need a Kindle to read Kindle books – you can download the free Kindle app to your computer, phone or tablet.
However it’s a better reading experience if you do get one, and there are often deals to bring down the cost.
Prime Day: Kids edition deal stack
Ahead of the 2023 Prime Day sale (11 and 12 July) members can save 36% on a Kindle Paperwhite Kids edition,bringing the price down to £89.99.
This is the same as the adult version but you’ll get a free case and 2-year warranty. You’ll need to set it up with a kids account, then log out and log in with your own – and it’ll work as normal.
If you already have a Kindle you can get 20% off if you trade it in, which brings the price down to £71.99. And there’s up to £15 as an Amazon gift voucher on top – the value depends on the condition.
Another way of getting ebooks for free is via local libraries and the Libby app. I don’t think there is a limit to the number of libraries you can join and, quite often, I’ve found, if they don’t have a book you can “recommend” it and they buy it in.
Thanks for this! I just bought a kindle and despite having prime membership, I couldn’t figure out the different options between prime reading, kindle unlimited and all the stuff in between!
Great! Hope you get some bargains
Very comprehensive.
I only bought a Kindle in September 2019, after years of resistance, but now I am hooked.
I just wish the deals were less focused on popular fiction and included a few more serious books.
There do seem to be other titles out there but they’re just harder to find! I only recently discovered the tracker tool so I hope that could help get away from the thrillers and romance titles that do seem to dominate.