Where To Download FREE eBooks (No Matter Where You're Located)
AKA How To Support Indie Authors Without Resorting to Piracy đ´ââ ď¸
The collapse and erasure of OceansofPDF has been quite the cause for celebration in the book publishing industry and communityâfor both traditionally-published authors and independent authors alike.
As someone whoâs had her work screenshot off Kindle and uploaded to this site (you bet I sent them a scathing Take This Down NOW email), Iâm relieved to see such a huge digital pirate ship finally sink to the depths of the abyss.
Whatâs come out of this event, however, has been a fascinating discussion and heated debate over the rights of humanity to literature. For people living in countries and regions with limited access to Amazonâs Kindle marketplace, restricted access to materials overall, and public libraries on the decline (a whole other harrowing article to write someday), the websiteâs âsmugglingâ of ebooks has been an invaluable resource.
So they say.
(Yeah, donât exit this article yet đ)
Iâm going to hold your hand with love, with empathy, and with all the compassion in my heart for fellow authors and Broke AF readers who truly cannot afford to constantly buy books (or have them stolen):
âGet a library cardâ is not the answer you think it is.
âFind a similar siteâ also ainât it.
I could go on and on explaining the nuances and limitations of public library access, including my own personal and present situation where my only viable library card is hanging on a keychain somewhere upstairs and is for the Chicago Public Library.
Where I no longer live.
Because where I do live only has a teeny tiny library tucked inside an old elementary school and is currently under attack by the state government which wants to physically rip such libraries out of their housing to âkeep kids safeâ.
Yeah.
Like I mentioned before: that a whole other other article to write.
What Iâve found to be shockingly lacking in the plethora of responses from indie authors to readers crying out for a new solution is the listâa long listâof websites that hand out free books like candy on a daily basis.
Seriously. There are so many websites all over the internet where authors and publishers upload books for readers to access for free, legally, with full permission and encouragement to enjoy as many as you can for one very low, non-monetary price:
LEAVE.
A.
BOOK.
REVIEW.
Iâm emphasizing that because of how easy it is to get as many books as your heart desires, so long as youâre willing to put in a little (and I do mean little) bit of effort into paying back the author of the work with an honest book review posted somewhere. Anywhere. Social media, your blog, StoryGraph, Goodreads, I donât care. We donât care.
One or two sentences.
Click a star somewhere in the 5-Star row.
Boom. Move on to the next book.
And before you give me that face and start mentally whining, âbut I donât wannaâ, just remember that you had to put in the same amount of effort to find, access, and get through the many pop-ups OceansofPDF had in order to steal the same books you couldâve gotten for free with half that effort.
(Yes, I used that site beforeâto download my own books and figure out how the heck they ended up on there in the first place!)
Authors: relax.
I know, I know. âBut now theyâll just try to pirate these books, too!â
Except I had this hunch that the problem was less about actively wanting to steal and more about genuinely not knowing all these sites existed. So I asked people in different countries, like Nigeria, if theyâd ever heard of these resources.
Almost unanimously: no. Which tells meâas it should tell youâthat openly communicating on a consistent basis where people can get free ebooks without library access has a solid chance of changing the tide in book piracy.
So here, because I love you all and have great hope and faith for your redemption arc:
Discover New Authors
These sites are how you get all the best books before the bookstores (say that five times fast!), from debut indie authors to bestselling, movie-in-the-works trad authors.
âGeneral Accessâ means it doesnât really matter who you are or where youâre from: all you have to do is sign up. It does help to have a positive history of reviewing what you read for most of these sites, but they tend to welcome newbies with open arms.
âARC Management Sitesâ are company websites that support indie authors by establishing and managing Advance Reader Copy distributionâand all the follow-ups, reminders, announcements, etc.âfor the author as a service. An application and some vetting may be required, but this is to ensure youâre serious about reading & reviewing (and NOT just trying to perpetuate piracy, coughcoughcough).
As always, if there have been recent changes Iâm not aware of, please let me know in the comments!
General Access SitesâIndie Focused
VoraciousReadersOnly {NOTE: At the time of this articleâs publishing, this site/platform is âon hiatusâ with email signups open for updates}
General Access SitesâTrad Focused
Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) Team Management Sites
BookFunnel {NOTE: You will need to acquire direct access via author links for their specific books, but this is often easily found via social media profiles & websites}
Enjoy Classics & Public Domain Books
These are the books that are typically available at any given library, but you donât need a library card or proof of residence to acquire them.
âPublic Domainâ means the copyright limitations have expired and the story, its artwork, etc. is now available for open use in the general public without penalty. This is why derivative works like Wicked and fairytale retellings are allowed to be so widely publishedâthe stories, such as The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland, now belong to the public.
A Quick Note: I personally looked through these to check the legalities and disclaimers before listing them here. I will include a link to each siteâs information regarding the sourcing of their free ebooks for you to look over. If I have missed an issue regarding any of these, please let me know!
Mark Your Calendars
I am not going to list every single Stuff Your Kindle event here because there are far too many! But I will definitely share the links to both the official organization site and the list of other similar-but-unaffiliated events I know of off the top of my head:
Stuff Your Kindle: Book Blasts
Editorial Note
You may notice that I havenât included Stuff With Fantasy despite it being one of the largest fantasy and romantasy ebook events and indie author resource sites currently available.
This omission is intentional. Based on my own professional experiences, I donât currently feel comfortable recommending or directing readers and authors to this platform. Because this guide is built around resources I personally trust and feel confident recommending, Iâve chosen to leave it off the list.
If communications open up and circumstances change in the future, Iâll happily revisit this decision and (hopefully) delete this note.
Digital Library Websites
These may require a public library membership! But theyâre still worth checking out, especially as the digital world continuously shifts and evolves to adapt to needs and preferences worldwide:
Author Newsletters
Surprise! Thereâs more than one reason to subscribe to an authorâs newsletter (even though you and I know itâs mainly for their work)!
If you subscribe to my Substack, youâve officially subscribed to my Author Newsletterâbecause I am way too overloaded with everything else to maintain a blog/newsletter/website individually. I needed to one-and-done it, so here we are.
Hundreds of other authors maintain newsletters with the added benefit of Group Promos and Book Swaps: smaller collections of free and steeply discounted books to help each other reach more readers.
This is why you may have noticed âadsâ at the bottom of my weekly postsâtheyâre not actually advertisements, but my way of participating in book promos so youâre always âin the knowâ and have access to more free ebooks as they debut. These do have expiration dates, so grab everything while you can!
And this is where Iâll sign off with this gentle, loving, FIRM reminder:
Itâs very silly to steal stuff thatâs offered for free.
For what it's worth, Bookshop.org also offers ebooks now, and they have a whole category of classics that are free to download.