reader tips

Love the ‘All You can Eat’ Buffet? I do. And I almost always eat too much pie or mac and cheese at these places.

What if there was an unlimited buffet for books? There is, and it is called the Kindle Unlimited program. Just like any buffet, only things that are on the menu are available for consumption. This means that every book in the Amazon store is not part of this program. But plenty of them are.

Authors need to sign their books up for this program and there are pros and cons for this. So authors might only enroll some of their books in the program or take them out after a time. This makes the Kindle Unlimited catalog volatile. But don’t worry. Plenty of new books are being added to it every day.

Is Kindle Unlimited Worth It?

Here are five things about the Kindle Unlimited program. You can decide if it is worth your while.

(You don’t need a Kindle device to read Kindle books. Find out how to read Kindle books without a Kindle.)

1) $9.99 a month or lower if you commit to a longer duration – there is a 30 day free trial you can sign up for.

2) You can read as many books as you want provided they are part of the KU catalog.

3) You can check out only 10 books at a time.

4) You may get access to audio books for free as part of the program.

5) You can cancel anytime.

So is this book subscription service worth your money? Let’s do some simple math. The cheapest book on the Kindle platform is 99 cents. $9.99 gives you 10 such books. If you read more than 10 books a month, this program is definitely worth your while. Another advantage is that you can test drive books without buying them.

Many of the books in the Top 100 are also part of Kindle Unlimited.

So what do you think about Kindle Unlimited? Are you willing to give it a try?

TRY KINDLE UNLIMITED FREE FOR A MONTH

Free Kindle Books? You heard that right.

I have been a reader longer than I have been an author. I still begin and end my day with a book. One of the things that lured me to the Kindle platform was free books. This was many years ago when e-readers were still a new concept. I found that the Kindle platform offered a legitimate way to download and read books without spending a single dime. Now if that isn’t music to a book worm’s ears, I don’t know what is.

(Pssst…you don’t need a Kindle device to read these free kindle books. Read my post on how to read Kindle books without a Kindle.)

You can find fiction and nonfiction books from every category free on the Kindle platform. There are thousands of such books available for readers like you and me. Some authors provide the first book in a series free so that readers can give it a try. They hope readers will buy the other books in the series if they like the first one. Some authors have promo days where they price a book for free for a limited number of days.

Now that you know these free books on the Kindle platform are above board, I’m sure you can’t wait to get your hands on them. There could be more than one way of doing this. I am going to tell you how I get my stack of free books.

How to find Free Kindle Books on Amazon

1. Log in to Amazon.

2. Enter any book name in the search bar like ‘Dan Brown Origin’. Click Enter.

3. Click on the book that comes up in the search results.

4. Once you are on the book page, make sure ‘Kindle’ is selected in the book format. Scroll down to the bottom of the page to the ‘Product Details’ section. You will see a Bestsellers rank for the book.

5. Click on <See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store> in the parentheses next to rank.

6. Click on <Top 100 Free> on the best sellers list page.

7. Scroll through the free books from 1 to 100 and download anyone that strikes your fancy.

Want to dig deeper?

8. Click on <Kindle ebooks> in the left hand column. A list of different book categories will open up.

9. Click on any category like <Romance> for example.

10. Click on a sub-category like <Historical Romance>. You can navigate through the top 100 Free books at this level or you can dig deeper.

11. Click on <Regency> and browse through the Top 100 Free Regency Romance books and download the one you want.

As far as Amazon is concerned, you are buying the book for $0 so you own the book. You can do this exercise once a day or once a week or anytime your reading list is depleted.

Many of the free book deals are time sensitive so some readers like to check these free lists frequently. There are sites like Bookbub that send daily emails about books that are free or discounted on a particular day. You might want to sign in for some of those.

I hope you enjoyed this post. What do you think about free Kindle books? Do you prefer to read a book for free before you buy other books by an author? Please leave a comment and let me know.

Read Kindle books without a Kindle device? Yes, you got that right. You absolutely do not need to buy a Kindle device in order to read Kindle books. Although a basic Kindle device is very affordable, you do not need to invest in it.

If you are an avid reader like me, you are always looking for the next good book. You make plenty of trips to the library and come back home loaded with bagsful of your favorite books. But you still can’t beat the Kindle platform. There are literally millions of books available on the Kindle and many of them are written by indie authors who are probably not available at your library. I have discovered many new authors who are now my favorites since I started reading the Kindle.

How to read Kindle Books without a Kindle device

We live in a gadget infested world. So it is highly likely that you own a computer, laptop, tablet or at least a smart phone. The Kindle software is available for a range of different platforms like PC, Mac, iOS, Android and Windows. Depending on whatever device you use, you can download the Free Kindle Reader software.

Here are the simple steps you need to do to get started.

1.Create an account on Amazon – you probably already have one if you shop at Amazon.

2. Go here -> https://www.amazon.com/kindle-dbs/fd/kcp

3. Choose your platform. For example, if you want to download the software on your laptop, click on <Download for PC & Mac>

4. Save the .EXE file at any location on your computer such as your desktop.

5. After the file downloads, double click on it or click Run to run the installation software. Amazon Kindle Setup will run and install your Kindle Reader software.

6. You will now need to register your Kindle. You need this step in order to associate your account with the software you just downloaded. Sign in with your Amazon account. All your Kindle books will be loaded onto the screen. Now you just have to click on a book in order to read it. The software will automatically sync to the last page you were reading. You can easily navigate through the book using the arrows or the status bar at the bottom.

The software you just downloaded is like a virtual Kindle. You can download multiple such software versions for every device you own like your Android phone, your iPad, etc. Each of them will be named different like ‘Kindle for PC’.

Now when you buy a Kindle book, you just need to choose which Kindle you want to send it to. You can select different Kindles one by one and send the same book to your PC, your phone or your tablet.

Wasn’t that easy peasy?

As I am sure you know, there are thousands of FREE books on the Kindle platform every day. Authors like me have periodic promotions where they price their books for free on certain days. You can search for these free books, send them to your Kindle software and start reading.