How to Get Free (or Cheap), New Ebooks
The ebook pricing wars are (in theory) over, but who won? Probably not the consumers, who expected lower prices or a magic price point of $9.99. The Wall Street Journal last fall found that ebook sales dipped after publishers hashed out a deal that let them avoid ebook discounts on sites like Amazon.
We're here to help you, the readers. Maybe not the readers who think $2.99 or even 99 cents is too much for a book. They need a stern lecture about how costs are not simply about digital distribution—there are editors and artists and authors who need to be paid to keep this whole literature thing going. However, we do want readers to read, even the latest from the big-name publishing houses. There are plenty of new, modern
Subscription Services
Oyster was one of the first ebook subscription services. But after only a few years of trying to be the "Netflix of Books," it shut down in early 2016. So did the similar Entitle. Their most direct competition was Scribd, and it's still in business.
It's come a long way from simply being a hosting site for documents. But Scribd changed up its plan a bit. Now, instead of unlimited access to everything Scribd has to offer for $8.99 per month (after a 14-day free trial), members only get unlimited access to Scribd Selects, a rotating collection of books and audiobooks, each month, plus three books and one audiobook of your choice from Scribd's full library of books, audiobooks, comics, documents, and sheet music. (Why did it do so? Some blame voracious romance readers.)
Speaking of comic books, Marvel has its own unlimited digital comic book service, Marvel Unlimited, which is priced at $9.99 a month (or $69 a year). For that you can access over 17,000 back issues, saving and reading up to 12 comics at a time on a smartphone or tablet running iOS or Android. The apps are powered by Comixology's smart panel-by-panel reading, which is a vastly better reading experience than comics on Scribd (especially on a smartphone rather than a tablet). Chances are slim you'll find any Marvel book on Scribd that isn't here—but Scribd's not limited to just Marvel. (For more on Marvel Unlimited and other digital comics options, read Everything You Need to Know About Digital Comics.)
Not to be outdone, Amazon launched a competitor called Kindle Unlimited. For $9.99 a month (after 30-day free trial) you get access to 1 million titles on all Kindle devices/apps to read as much as you want. It also extends to some audiobooks, and the audio and text can sync to the last place you listened/read using its Whispersync for Voice feature. It also works with supported books on the Amazon-owned Audible.com app—you just have to find books that say "Kindle Unlimited with narration" in the blurb. The problem is, Amazon's relationship with the big five publishers is so bad, you don't get much of a selection.
Amazon also has a Kindle Owners' Lending Library for those who 1) own a Kindle or Fire Tablet (it doesn't work on the Kindle apps) and 2) subscribe to Amazon Prime, the $99-per-year service that offers up free two-day shipping and unlimited streaming of Amazon Video; it supposedly has about 300,000 titles. Finding a complete listing on the Kindle itself is doable, but not on the Web. Here's a direct link to the Lending Library. Click categories on the left to narrow the selection. Click on the book description and confirm that it says Prime Borrow for Free—you'll still need to go back to your Kindle device to grab it for the borrow period. You can borrow one book per calendar month.
There's another new perk for Amazon Prime members: Prime Reading. For no extra cost (other than that $99/year) you can read from a selection of about 1,000 books and periodicals for free. Most of them are older and feel like they're tantalizing you into buying more; why else would the only Harry Potter book available be the first one? There are a few Kindle Singles (essentially short novels or stories that used to cost a few cents), travel books, even some classics like The Hobbit and The Essential Calvin & Hobbes.
Some other book "rental" services you could try include Bookmate, with 500,000 titles you can read on their mobile app for $4.99 per month (minus new additions and bestsellers—that tier costs $8.99 per month); or Booksfree.com, which actually ships you physical books or CDs for audio, much like DVDs from Netflix. It starts at $8.99 a month for two paperbacks per month, up to $54.99 per month for an unlimited number of paperbacks (though you can only take out 15 at a time).
The problem with almost all of these services is the lag time between the release of the book (or audiobook or comic book) and getting it digitally. It could be months, sometimes years. How do you get the newer stuff without making a purchase? Like you used to in the pre-digital age: go to the library.
OverDrive and Your Own Public Library
The subscription services above are one thing, but even with a million books, that's paltry compared to OverDrive's claim of "2 million premium digital titles from more than 5,000 publishers." More importantly, it links to 30,000 libraries, schools, and colleges across the globe. Meaning, your device has access to digital book collections at the local library, and maybe some not so local. As long as you can get borrowing privileges—aka, get a library card—you can search that library on OverDrive if it's affiliated.
(Last year, OverDrive was acquired by Rakuten—the Japanese company that took over Buy.com years ago—but OverDrive will continue to be operated separately from Rakuten.com.)
You have a couple of options with OverDrive. Go directly to the site and sign up, or access it via links from your own public library's site. You need to log in twice—once to OverDrive, then again for your library. All I had to do was pull out my trusty card and enter the number to get a digital account with my beloved local library, the Tompkins County Public Library. Once logged in, I went to the "digital downloads" section for "eBooks and eAudiobooks" and the site links took me directly to the Finger Lakes Library System—powered by OverDrive. Once I had an OverDrive account, I linked it to my TCPL account and added some other libraries I may later search.
There's an OverDrive app, free for iOS, Android, and many more devices. Even from that, I could get into my account and look for books.
It's a breeze to look up titles, including new releases (I went for Lee Child's latest Jack Reacher novel, Make Me). I put a hold on the title so when it comes available, I'll be notified and can then borrow it to read on my Kindle devices and apps. (Sadly, there are 15 people ahead of me on the hold list. So it might be a while. It pays to plan ahead on popular books.) There's an option to set up an "Auto checkout" so the minute the book is available it'll be checked out to you. Borrowers get a max of 21 days to read it (it may vary per title); how many titles you can check out varies by library, but most allow 5 or more at a time.
Why the wait for something digital? Because this is all above board and legal. The library purchases legal copies of the ebook and loans them out, as it does with legally purchased print copies.
Once you borrow a book on OverDrive, it's placed on your account's virtual bookshelf. Access it by clicking the Account icon. You'll view a list of your books with the option to read it in your browser (if allowed...it isn't an option on Harry Potter
Your options for download borrowing: get a Kindle Book, or download an EPUB eBook. The former shunts you directly to Amazon.com, where you get a page saying "Get your Digital Library Loan." It'll show you the expiration date, let you choose which Kindle device or app to send it to, and with a click of the "Get Library Book" button, it's ready to read.
Why no Nook or Kobo or other readers? Because you probably own a Kindle. That's just how it is. Hey, don't get your book spines in a split: it's also because Kindles
EPUB is a free and open standard for ebooks. OverDrive's option isn't open. The EPUB eBooks option is a direct download of
Downloading/borrowing a book means the "return title" button disappears from your virtual bookshelf on OverDrive. You can still manage a return before the end of your lending period with some titles. Go to the Kindle Digital Library Loan page for a book; there's a link to return it. Other devices make it a little harder and you'll probably just wait until the end of the 21-day period for it to disappear.
The service also offers audiobooks galore from its OverDrive Listen service, which has its own streaming audiobook player that plays through Web browsers, even on mobile devices. If you use the OverDrive mobile app, it offers you the audiobook to listen to via the browser, or as an MP3 played in the app. It's actually a series of MP3. When I downloaded The Drop by Michael Connelly, an 11.5-hour audiobook, it was nine separate files, each about 35MB in size. The app nicely organizes them by chapters, even showing how long each will last. Like Audible and Scribd, it has nice forward/
One thing you won't be borrowing at
It's still a waiting game for the absolutely newest items—assuming your library even bought them to loan out. That's where accessing multiple libraries is key. For example, did you know that every single person who lives or works or goes to school or pays property tax in New York State is allowed to get a library card for the New York Public Library? Even visitors to the state can apply for a temp card. Cards expire, but can later be renewed via your new online account with the NYPL. It's probably/hopefully similar with major city libraries in other states.
Now you've got the tricks—and hopefully the patience—to wait for the latest, greatest books to come to you (or be sought out), for no cost (or relatively close). Even if you're still going to purchase those you can't wait for, these services should fill the rest of your digital bookshelf in no time.
