How to Find Cheap Kindle Books Actually Worth Your Time

find cheap kindle books worth your time

Like many avid readers, I used to declare that real books were the only good books and that I would never be caught dead reading an e-book. then i realized how convenient it was to always have some ebooks in my pocket at all times and how reading ebooks helped save my bank account from my reading habits, and i became a believer.

You are reading: Cheaper books for kindle

Nowadays, I save hardcover book purchases for those books that really “wow” me and the occasional venture into used book stores, and do most of my reading on my kindle. With the dozens of ways to find free and really cheap kindle books, my tbr list is longer and healthier than ever. my husband is happy that we are saving money and that my book shelves have slowed (but definitely not stopped) his takeover of the house.

While there are hundreds of different ways and methods to get free and cheap kindle books, over the years I’ve found that some programs and methods are definitely better than others. I’ve spent a lot of time obsessively wasting e-book lists or poor service. so to keep you from falling down the same traps and rabbit holes i’ve spent so many hours in, here are my tips on how to get great kindle reads for free or very cheap.

track and discover kindle deals with book cave

While there are many services that claim to help you find free and cheap e-books, none of these services seem as comprehensive as book cave. First of all, they take quality control to the next level. They not only review books on the quality of the writing, but also do an in-depth review of the type of content in the book. so you know ahead of time whether you’ll be disappointed or excited by the amount of sex, cursing, violence, and more in one book. There’s nothing worse than finding a book you think you’ll be interested in or buying a book for yourself or your kids only to be put off by poor writing or content you’d rather not read. book cave is the only service that takes care of both problems.

Also, because Book Cave works directly with authors, they can tell you about limited-time and exclusive offers that you might have a hard time discovering on your own. By letting readers know about these deals, they’re not only helping authors expand their reach, but also helping readers land great deals while discovering new authors.

All you have to do to take advantage of Book Cave’s services is enter your email, answer a few questions about your reading preferences, and then sit back while its unique algorithm finds and sends you great deals on new books every day. The best part is that their service is completely free to use, and every book you get through them is yours to keep forever.

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book cave has literally saved me a lot of time searching through “free book lists” and trying to figure out what books are new each day. I can’t believe I didn’t start using it sooner. there are other sites that also help users find free and cheap kindle deals, but of the several i have found, book cave has been the most comprehensive site and i have found the best books from their services. They also track deals across different retailers, so you’ll also be on top of book deals running on nook, ibooks, kobo, google books, and smashwords.

avoid falling down the rabbit hole of searching for “free books”

This search seems simple enough, but unfortunately, Amazon takes this vague search as a way to complicate things. this is the first trap i fell into when i started looking for free kindle books.

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Amazon will use this opportunity to try to sell you all the books that could be “free” if you subscribe to one of their many additional services, such as Kindle Unlimited or an Audible subscription. (I’ll explain below why I don’t think these services are worth it.) this is very frustrating for a reader who just wants to see the truly free e-books. you’ll also get really messy results because all books with “free” in the title will show up, regardless of price. many of these books will be marketing scams and other junk as well.

so instead of looking for free books, you’ll want to go to the price books section and filter by price “low to high”. this will sort the books by their actual price, but you’ll still have a lot of work to do to find the good books.

There are literally thousands of pages of free and cheap kindle books, so before you get too lost clicking through these search results, you’ll definitely want to take advantage of the extra filters. the star rating filter is excellent. setting it to 4 or 3 stars will help you weed out a lot of the really bad books. but for books with only a couple of reviews, this system is not completely reliable as just a few more reviews can change the rating completely. Genre sorting is another thing I highly recommend. this can help you quickly select the free books you’re really interested in.

Unfortunately, sometimes Amazon also likes to get involved and decide which books are worth showing, whether readers feel the same way or not. For example, if you’re looking to get great erotic reads, you’ll find that many erotic novels no longer show up in search results, ever. you can only access them if you know the title you want and go directly to them. a bummer if you were hoping to be able to just browse through a list, looking for new novels.

search for free classic books in the public domain

Did you know that many classics, along with other great books, are in the public domain? and that since they are in the public domain, the Good Samaritans have created free versions of these books in electronic format for you to enjoy, you guessed it, for free. So while you’re browsing the free book lists, it’s definitely worth spending some time looking at the classics. I love being able to have so many great novels on hand. I especially love that the complete works of one of my favorite classic authors, Jane Austen, are available this way for free.

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score and cash in amazon digital credits

sometimes when you make a purchase through amazon they offer you free credits if you are willing to delay your shipment by a few days. they usually offer anywhere from 50 cents to $2.00 depending on your order. You’ll especially see these orders start arriving during peak and busier times, like the holidays. Last year, while completing my Christmas shopping, I earned about $25 dollars worth of credits. these credits became an additional gift to me in the form of some new e-books that I had been looking at.

don’t give in to peer pressure to buy a kindle unlimited or audible subscription

if you’re looking for books on amazon, you’ll find that they push these two services like crazy, and many of the books you click on will be part of one or both of these services, as there are literally millions of books included. . and at first, it may sound like a reader’s dream come true. access to millions of books for only 9.99 per month? score! or is it?

On second thought, you’ll realize that you can’t really keep any of the books you borrow and that $120 a year is a lot of money to spend on a glorified library subscription. especially when you can go through an actual virtual library system and borrow many of the same books without a paid subscription.

Many libraries also offer eBook lending services these days, and their services are really free. they offer both ebooks and audible books to borrow and some of them link directly to the kindle store, making unlimited and audible kindle feel like money’s on me.

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plus, with all the truly free and cheap ways to get kindle books you can actually keep, kindle unlimited just doesn’t sound like a deal to me.

your local library’s digital lending options

I love libraries. I really do and while I don’t always make it to my physical library these days, I was thrilled when I discovered I could still borrow many of the great books online. most libraries are now part of a virtual lending service. So if you have a library card, and if you don’t, you really should because they’re free, services like Overdrive work with your local library to provide digital lending options. Just like a regular library, there are some waiting lists and loan time limits that differ depending on your library, but you’ll also have access to many current and popular books that you won’t be able to read for free anywhere else. once you find a book you’d like to borrow, or a book on your waiting list becomes available, you’ll be directed to the kindle store to borrow your books. I love that libraries have made this option available.

if you are already paying for prime, check out the benefits of prime ebook

If you’re a prime member (and who isn’t these days), you have access to a small rotating sample of unlimited Kindle books that you can borrow for free. So, if you’re still convinced that Kindle Unlimited might be a service you’d enjoy, here’s a good way to test out the service by reviewing and borrowing some of the best-performing Kindle Unlimited books for free. however, while I did find some good books included, I also discovered that there aren’t enough books in this selection to keep me interested long-term. While they rotate some of the included books each month, I’ve found that many of the more popular books seem to stick around for the long haul, and it’s the less popular books that get tossed in and out. and those popular books don’t usually catch my interest.

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rates some new kindle reads

This is a fun show featuring Amazon Publishing books that are about to be released to the public. each month, if you’re a prime member, you can choose one (or sometimes two) of these featured books to add to your library. it’s 1.99 if you’re not a primary member, or if you want to buy an additional book because more than one has caught your eye. the price of these books will usually increase after the month is up, so it’s a great way to read an engaging new novel for little money.

check out kindle countdown deals

amazon has a section that features limited time kindle deals. While these books aren’t usually free, they can be a good way to discover some cheaper Kindle deals. however, you’ll need to remember to check back often and often spend time reading reviews to determine if a book is really a good fit for you before spending any money. Because it’s so time-consuming and, as a busy mom, I don’t remember checking these deals constantly, this isn’t my favorite method of finding books. Personally, I’ve only bought a couple of deals through this method, as I believe that even though they’re supposed to be deals, they’re usually priced above what I’m willing to pay without a personal recommendation from a friend. but you might have better luck than me here.

take advantage of the kindle owners lending library if you own a kindle

If you have a Kindle eReader or an Amazon Library, you have access to the Kindle Owners Lending Library. This allows you to borrow one book a month from millions of novels in the Kindle Store. If you do not have an Amazon device, you will have no way to access this benefit. but if you do, it’s just one more way to read some kindle books for free.

in conclusion: already drowning in cheap kindle books?

Now that you’ve learned all the different ways to find, discover, and read Kindle books for free or cheap, I’m sure your virtual library is already growing by leaps and bounds. my advice to you, to avoid feeling like you’re drowning in new ebooks, is to stay on top of your kindle library organization.

I like to organize my books by the ones I’m most excited to read, the genre so I can quickly find something I’m in the mood for, books I’ve read and enjoyed, books I want to read again, and books I’ve read and didn’t like. I used to delete the books I didn’t like, but after a while, you start to forget if a book sounds familiar because someone recommended it to you at some point, or if you recognize it because you’ve tried it before. So now I keep them all in my kindle dungeon so I can quickly see if I’ve already downloaded the book and remind myself not to waste any more time on them.

Happy reading!

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