20 Ways to Read FREE Books

TW: very brief mention of the Harry Potter books and Colleen Hoover.

Note: most links shared here are normal links but there are a few referral and affiliate links used as well.

In our survey for the Diverse Baseline, we had a few people mentioning that it was hard to find free books to be able to participate regularly in the reading challenge, so I have decided to compile a list of ways people can read for free.

It’s a bit for everyone: for those who can’t afford to buy new books, for the ones who are looking to save money and for readers looking for ways to become book bloggers and reviewers.

Some of these options you might already know, but hopefully I can help you find new and better options that can work for you.

This website is one of the most popular ones for reviewers and bloggers to find ARCs (Advanced Reader Copies) to read and review before their public releases. It has mostly traditionally published books, but sometimes you can find indie and even self-published ones as well.

Ebooks and audiobooks are both available on the platform.

You need to make an account and link your reviewing platforms (can be Goodreads, Storygraph, Instagram, your blog, etc…). Sometimes books are available as “read now” which means you can directly download the books into your kindle (the device, or just the app on the phone is fine), or you can read it directly on the Netgalley app. The “read now” option, however, is not that common. Most of the times you need to request a book, and wait for the publisher to reject you or approve you. It might be hard sometimes to be accepted, since many publishers have very high standards. They’ll look carefully at your profile and your platform links, and they will especially care about your feedback ratio (the % of how many of the books you were approved you actually reviewed). The recommended feedback ratio is 80%.

Note: some books might only be available to US and UK readers. As an Italian reader I had the luck of finding mostly books that were available for me, too, but that might not be the same for readers from all countries.

Edelweiss is a digital publisher catalog platform. It’s almost as famous as Netgalley, but not as used from the general public, from what I’ve seen. As far as I know it’s mostly used by librarians and booksellers, but you can find normal reviewers in there, too.

If you make an account, make sure to curate it well with writing all the important info in your bio (it always helps to say who you are and why you’re passionate about reading, and to list all your platforms and the amount of followers or engagement). From personal experience, publishers seem to be pickier when accepting reviewers on Edelweiss (compared to Netgalley).

While on Netgalley, when you request a book, you can tick the boxes of what made you interested in it (the cover, the blurb, the author, etc…), on Edelweiss, it makes you write a short message about why you are requesting the title. Publishers will be more inclined to approve you if you have a personal reason as to why that specific book is important (aka you read something in the book description that makes you think you could related well to one of the MCs, or you are part of the same minority as one of the characters and want to see yourself in the book, etc…).

Note: some books might only be available to US and UK readers. As an Italian reader I had the luck of finding mostly books that were available for me, too, but that might not be the same for readers from all countries.

Same deal as with Netgalley, but for indie and self-published books.

Again, you need an account, and to list where you post your reviews. You can also link your Goodreads account to your BookSirens account, so that it can show you stats of how much you review and if people find your reviews useful (as well as most read genres, average rating and other cool stuff).

Here, too, books can be downloadable immediately or requested. It’s usually a lot easier to be accepted for ARCs on this site, as it’s for books that usually have smaller reach, so publishers and authors are happy to give copies away to excited readers.

It’s the same as BookSiren, but from what I’ve seen it seems to be just self-published books (and nothing—or almost nothing—from indie publishers).

It has two reviewer levels. The first (base) one allows you to download up to 10 review copies per week and gives you up to 150 total overdue days for all claimed review copies, and the second level allows you unlimited downloads per week and gives you access to ARCs that are only available for “top reviewers”. To be eligible for the “top reviewer” program, you need to write 30 reviews and maintain a 70% on-time review rate.

I’ve used Reedsy as an author, to write my stories and sometimes browse for professionals (mostly for illustrations), but I’ve never tried it on the side of the reader/reviewer. I do know, however, that they have strict guidelines and they don’t approve everyone.

You need to create an account and then submit an application to became a reviewer. The reviews need to follow a clear structure with an introduction (that also offers a brief overview of the book’s premise to give readers some context) and conclusion, it needs to sound more editorial than conversational, and land at around 300-400 words. They have a page about how to write reviews, and while that doesn’t have to be how you write your reviews in general, it does seem to be the only types they accept on their site.

The books on this platform are all self-published.

It’s a platform of indie and self-published books, where you can apply to be a verified blogger and read the books that have review copies available. In their application form they ask for your blog/main platform link, to make sure you are consistent with posting, and they ask reviewers to always include links to the book at the end of the review so that readers can purchase or download it (however, I’ve personally seen some of the reviews of the bloggers and not everyone actually includes the book links).

Libro.fm is an employee-owned Social Purpose Corporation that shares profits from your audiobook purchases with your chosen independent bookstore, giving you the power to keep money within your local economy.

You can apply for the influencer program to get Audiobook Listening Copies (ALCs), sharing the usual links to where you post reviews (which can be a blog, Goodreads, StoryGraph, or just your social media).

Each month they have a new list of audiobooks, and you can choose (redeem) up to 10 books every month! At the end of the month the redemptions will reset, so that you can choose up to 10 other books the following month—but don’t worry, the ones you redeemed the previous months are still in your library and are still available to listen!

I was actually approved for this recently and I’m so excited.

Another website where you can find ARCs of indie books, but this time there are both ebooks and audiobooks available.

From what I’ve seen, you don’t have to fuss too much with making your profile pretty in this one, you can just create an account and go straight to requesting books.

Other than occasionally sharing free books for everyone (you’ll find more about this later on in the post), they also have an influencer newsletter where they share monthly ARC opportunities.

They specifically work with fantasy romance and paranormal books.

If you’re interested in ARCs, and you have a specific title you want to read, you can reach out to the publishers directly via email to ask for a review copy. It’s usually a digital copy, as they normally consider sending paperback ARCs to US or UK residents only (however, from what I’ve seen, since they always only have a limited amount of physical ARCs, they usually send those to reviewers and bloggers with a big follower count).

For the digital ARCs, however, they don’t really have requirements of limited amount of followers. Before sending you the digital ARC, publishers usually want to hear why you are interested in that specific book that you’re requesting (if it has an experience or representation that you see yourself in, make sure to include that), and they want to see the links of where you post your reviews. Stating your follower count and how much interaction you have on your reviews is also a nice touch that might help in making them choose you, but in my life I’ve had the luck of getting ARCs even with limited interaction and low follower counts.

A lot of publishers also have ARC/Influencer teams you can sign up for on their sites, which would result in you getting emails from them every few months, where they give you a list of upcoming books you can pick from. If there’s a specific publisher that interests you, make sure you browse their site carefully to find all their programs or specific emails to contact them about books.

Unfortunately, many of the Influencers teams are open to US only, but it never hurts to try and reach out about them. I’m personally in Italy, but I’ve had the luck of getting into the Harper360 team (that allowed me physical ARCs as well), as well as the PRHIS Influencer Program. I’ve also built contact with two agents from other publishers that sometimes let me get ARCs (paperback ones, too). I need to add though, that it hasn’t been easy, especially the getting physical ARCs outside of the US and UK part. It’s taken me a couple of years before I’ve started getting approved for the books I really wanted, which means that when I started out I just asked for books that sounded good and were easier to be approved for, so that I could get some experience and “build a portfolio”.

This one works for indie & self-published authors, as trad ones don’t usually have much freedom regarding their books.

I recognize that there’s many different types of indie authors and some don’t behave that well, but 98% of the ones I know and am mutuals with would always be up to giving free copies to readers who can’t afford to support monetarily.

I totally understand, however, if this approach is not an option for some readers, because many authors have shamed readers who can’t afford books, or attacked them for trying to ask. I am ashamed, honestly, that there’s people like that in our community, and I hope none of you who try this approach are met with aggressive responses. Sometimes authors who are okay with sharing free copies have it somewhere on their accounts or say it from time to time on socials like twitter or threads, so you can try with the ones that have been public about it, at first, just to be safe.

If you go into an author’s DMs (or emails) asking if this could be an option with them, please always remember to be kind and polite, and not demanding. And if they say yes, consider leaving a review or sharing the book in some way, to repay for the kindness.

If the author says no for that specific title, try kindly asking if you could be considered to join their ARC team, or simply to be considered for an ARC of their next release. I know it’s not the same thing, but it’s still worth a try if that book/author interests you.

A note for the authors: while there are some readers who betray our trust and put the books on pirating sites themselves, most of the books on those sites are not readers’s fault. I can guarantee you that 90% (or even more) of those were taken directly from the Amazon listing. I did an experiment and made two copies of my most popular book (the ARCs/free copies and the one to sell), and the one that ended up on pirating sites was the Amazon version. So please, put watermarks on your books to protect yourself, but don’t penalize readers for it.

This one is likely the one everyone will tell you about, and while I agree we need to support our local libraries, I also want to explain how tricky this can be for a lot of people (and how not so obvious it might be in the end).

If you’re in the US, you’re generally able to access physical books, ebooks and also audiobooks with your library card (and the Libby app). I’m not fully sure how it works in other countries, but in Italy (where I’m from) we can access physical books, and sometimes if we’re lucky we get some ebooks as well (although the process of reading the digital copies is a nightmare and sometimes down right impossible to make it work).

But even if they could be well supplied with all the new books, libraries are not an option for a lot of people, maybe because there’s none near them at all, or because they come from countries where reading specific types of books might put them in danger, and so they can’t fully take advantage of them even if they happen to have them.

If you do have access to a library, and you read in English but don’t come from an English speaking country, it might be hard to find books in the language you want. I will speak for my personal experience with Italian libraries, and I can tell you that usually the only English books we can find are the classics (and, unfortunately, Colleen Hoover and Harry Potter). At that you might ask, “why don’t you just read books in your language then?”. Well, that is also tricky. I’m in a small town, so even the books in Italian in my library are old (and, you guessed it, mostly written by men with very racist, ableist, homophobic and misogynistic views), and there’s almost nothing of the romance or fantasy books that are coming out now (which is what I mostly read). But even if there were, I would be hesitant to trust them. Unfortunately, a lot of the books that have come to Italy lately have been terribly translated.

Personally, I mostly used my local library when I needed books for university, but not for personal reading as the selection is terrible and they can’t afford to buy more books (they also don’t have the space—as they have told me when I tried to donate my unhauled books to them). The few times I tried to pick up contemporary translated books I was physically in pain reading how badly translated they were. I’m lucky enough that I have a friend in the US with a library card, who lets me use it on my Libby app to access ebooks and audiobooks, so I at least have that alternative.

In a lot (if not most) US libraries it seems you have to pay for a library card, but for anyone interested I know two that offer free cards, whose collections are mostly Queer and BIPOC: Books Unbanned and Queer Liberation Library.

The bookish community can be toxic (like all online spaces), but there’s also many kind people in it, too. If you’re from a country where accessing libraries is a problem (for one reason or another) it might be worth a try to find a friend from a country like the US, who would be available to share access to their library card so that you can also take advantage of their online catalogues. The Libby app works with library cards of different countries, not just the US, but that is also limited (for example, it doesn’t work with Italian library cards).

Open Library is an online project attempting to make all the published works of humankind available to everyone in the world. They provide online digital copies in multiple formats, created from images of many public domain, out-of-print, and in-print books.

The author Zoe York created the first even in 2014. It’s usually one date (that often happens 2 or 3 times during the year) where hundreds of authors come together and make their books free for the day.

In the last couple of years many authors have started organizing their own versions of this event, for different genres or kinds of books. Here are the links of the ones I know:

Most of these events have official newsletters (if not, they post updates on official social media accounts), where they send information to the readers about dates of when their events will be happening. On their websites/pages you can find all the important information.

These events each categorize their books by subgenre, but most of them also have sections were they are tagged as being by Queer, or BIPOC, or neurodiverse/disabled authors. This is very useful for people looking for diverse reads.

SimonTeen is the young adult section of the publisher Simon & Schuster. On their website they have a page dedicated to free ya books, which they change regularly. Sometimes you only have one specific day to access and read these books, sometimes they give you a little bit more time (a week or a month). This option is definitely more suited for fast readers, as you have a specific set of time to read the book by, and it’s not downloadable or in your personal library, so once the time is up the book is not accessible anymore.

BookBub is a free service that helps millions of readers discover books they'll love while providing publishers and authors with a way to drive sales and find new fans.

You can choose the genres you want/like on the site, and get regular emails about deals in those genres (which include both discounted and free books). If you follow the authors you like, you will also get emails when their books are on sale or when they have a new release.

If Bookbub doesn’t work for you because the books they send in their newsletter are not always your cup of tea even if they are in the genre you chose, you can try looking directly on retailer sites.

The ones I personally check are usually Amazon, Smashwords and Kobo (I don’t have an e-reader but I have the apps on my phone so I read the books there). All you have to do is choose a retailer, go to the free book section, and browse in the genres you want. If you check regularly every couple of days, there will always be at least one or two interesting books that will catch your attention. Sure, it’s a bit more work and you have to remember to check again every now and then, but this was I found so many interesting books (even ones that were already on my TBR and that I didn’t know were temporarily free because I didn’t see the author’s announcement on their socials)

You can check some publisher sites as well. Today I came across two indie publishers that are sharing free nonfiction books due to the current political times: Haymarket Books (10 free books), AK Press (6 free books).

A lot of authors share reader magnets in their newsletter. Sometimes these are previews of books, and sometimes they are short stories or full on novellas.

In addition to that, authors sometimes use their newsletters to share BookFunnel promos. These promos are landing pages with groups of books of the same genre or niche, and they can either be all at full/normal price (and sometimes on sale), or they can be all free.

These BookFunnel promos unfortunately are not used by everyone, and as far as I’ve seen it’s mostly popular with fantasy romance authors (especially monster romance) and spicy romances.

The one thing about this that might bother some people is that you have to sign up to the author’s newsletter to download the free books.

They provide an online and postal audiobook lending service to thousands of UK residents who have a disability or illness that impacts their ability to read the printed word. Other than audiobooks you can also access thousands of newspapers and magazines as part of the membership.

However, the only problem with this is that it’s for UK residents only.

Both of these are reviewing platforms, but they both offer book giveaways.

Goodreads only offers paperback giveaways, and it’s unfortunately only available for US and Canada residents.

StoryGraph offers giveaways for both ebooks and physical copies, and they are available for more countries (each giveaway listing will have a section with the list of countries you can participate from for that specific book).

When I made this post I mostly had in mind books that have been published and are being published in contemporary times, but if you’re looking for older fiction books, domain-free books, and even some types of nonfiction, you can also try checking out Project Gutenberg and Standard Ebooks.

This is another bonus, as it’s not really for free books, but I thought it would still be nice to add it, in case this could be a good option for some people.

Some retailers that have subscription services:

Kindle Unlimited: probably the most popular one. You pay $11.99 USD/month (or 9.99€, or other equivalents in different countries) and you can read as many books as you want that are part of the program with no additional cost. It’s for ebooks only, and while it’s super popular with indie authors, it has some trad books as well (trad books, however, don’t have the exclusivity clause that indie authors are bound to, which is pretty much a scam… and a complaint for another time).

Kobo Plus: works like KU, but has three different plans. The first option is for ebooks only and it’s $7.99 USD/month (9,99€), the second is for audiobooks only and it’s the same price, and the third option is for both audiobooks and ebooks and it’s $9.99 USD/month (12.99€). This is mostly for indie books, too. As to not give more money to Amazon, many are switching from KU to Kobo (because Kobo doesn’t have an exclusivity clause for their books), but their catalogue is unfortunately still not as big as KU’s.

Everand: works in the same way, but it has a Standard plan of $11.99 USD/month (€10,99), and a Premium plan of $16.99 USD/month. Both plans include both audiobooks and ebooks, but I’m not fully sure about the difference in how many books you can access which each plan, as the Premium one is very new (I literally found out about it as I made this post… and I had an Everand subscription till last week). You won’t find every book you’re looking for obviously (that would be impossible in any of these services), but it has a fairly big catalogue with both trad and indie books.

These are all the options I know of, most of which I also use regularly. If you know more ways to get free books legally, you’re welcome to share them in the comments so that people can have even more options. (Please, do not use this opportunity to share illegal/pirating sites).

Margherita is a queer and disabled reader and indie author from Italy. Xe can be found on instagram, tiktok and substack.

You can support xem on ko-fi with a tip, buy a book on xyr bookshop.org shop, or subscribe to libro.fm via xyr link.