Amazon Hacks to Get FREE Books for Kindle! [Legal Ways!]

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If you are an avid reader like me, you are probably always looking for ways to find free Amazon books to read or reduce the money you spend on books! 

Over the years of reading Kindle books, I’ve come across several different ways of reading free books. Some of the methods have ceased to exist, and many are illegal and frowned upon by the book owners and readers alike.

But, in this article, I’ll share with you some of the best and my personal favorite ways to find free books to read or methods to reduce the cost of reading books on Kindle. These are all legitimate and legal ways that work even today!

So, buckle up and bookmark this page as I’m going to share some really cool hacks! 

Let’s get started, shall we?

Method 1 – Access Best Selling FREE Books on Amazon

One of my top methods of finding free books to read on Kindle is by accessing Amazon’s “Best Seller” list. 

Amazon publishes the best sellers list of books (and other items as well). These are books that are most downloaded and liked by the readers and Amazon just gives it away to the users. 

The really cool part is that not only does Amazon publish the list of top 100 paid books, it also shares a list of top 100 free books! And, this list is frequently updated. 

However, the challenging part is knowing how to access this list. Amazon doesn’t want its users to just read free books (for obvious reasons). Fortunately for you, I’m here to share the complete process with you. 

To access the best selling free books on Amazon, you can either click on this link to directly access the page. Alternatively, follow the steps described below to navigate through the Amazon website and find the best selling free books yourself:

Step 1 – Open the Amazon website 

Step 2 – Click on the “Books” option on the main menu

Step 3 – On the next page, click on the “Best Sellers & More” tab

Step 4 – On the best sellers page, click on “Kindle Best Sellers”

Step 5 – Finally, on the “Kindle Best Sellers” page, click on the “Top 100 Free” tab to access the top Amazon books that are completely free for reading on your Kindle

Step 6 – On the book purchase page, click on the “Buy now with 1-click” option

Step 7 – On the next page, you may need to sign in to your Amazon account (if you aren’t signed in already). Proceed with the login and the book will be added to your library.

The chart for the top 100 best selling free books on Amazon keeps changing every few days. So, you can repeat the process once you’re done reading your first free book.

Method 2 – Using Advanced Search Feature

Another legitimate way to find completely free books on Amazon for your Kindle is using the “Advanced Search” feature. Using this in combination with the “Sort by” feature can reveal hidden gems on Amazon! Not many people are aware of this method.

Once again, you can click on this link to directly see all the free books on Amazon that you can download for your Kindle. Alternatively, you can follow the steps mentioned below –

Step 1 – Open the Amazon website

Step 2 – Click on the “Books” option in the main navigation menu on the website

Step 3 – Next, click on the “Advanced Search” option in the secondary navigation menu.

Step 4 – On the advanced search page, select “Kindle Edition” in the format field.

Step 5 – Next, change the “Sort Results by” field to “Price: Low to High”

Step 6 – Click on the “Search” button to see the results

Step 7 – On the results page, you will see thousands of book options. However, the first few hundreds of results will be Kindle books that are completely free to read!

Step 8 – Choose the book as per your preference, and click on it to open the book purchase page.

– On the next page, simply click on the “Buy now with 1-click” option.

One pro tip here is that you can filter the free book using the options mentioned in the left part of the screen and find free Amazon books in each category or at least your preferred category!

Method 3 – Become a Member of a Public Library

Another great way to get Kindle books for free is using the public library. This method is often overlooked but can be one of the best ways to get amazing and really expensive books for a very low cost!

What’s really cool about this method is getting a library card at most public libraries in the USA is free or available at a very low cost (like $1 to $5). Once you have the card, you can borrow books at no additional cost and essentially read books on your Kindle for free!

Most public libraries offer the option to borrow the ebook version of their books. All you need is a library card and the Libby app. The Libby app is a library reading app for smartphones that makes accessing and borrowing library books convenient and easy!

Once you have the app setup, you can start reading directly on the libby app. If you are living in the USA, you can even send the book to your Kindle and read on it! [Check out this article on how to send books to your Kindle using your send-to Kindle email address]

You are allowed to borrow books for 21 days after which the borrowed books are returned to the library automatically. 

Overall, this is a really cool way to read Kindle books for free that is often overlooked! I will write a detailed guide on how to borrow and read ebooks from your library. I’ll remember to leave a link in this article.

Method 4 – Use Kindle Unlimited

Another way to greatly reduce your reading costs is by using Kindle Unlimited!

Kindle Unlimited is a special service provided by Amazon that allows you to read unlimited books on Amazon at a fixed monthly subscription.

You can access over 2 million titles including books, comics, magazines, and audiobooks at a fixed monthly subscription fee of $9.99!

If you are not familiar with this service, I’d highly recommend you to check out my other article on Kindle Unlimited for beginners where I share everything you need to know about Kindle Unlimited. In it, I also share ways to get Kindle Unlimited for FREE, and a secret hack to save money when using the Kindle Unlimited subscription. So, do check it out before you subscribe.

There are a few quirks about Kindle Unlimited that you should be aware of before making a decision to subscribe (I wish I knew these before I subscribed). For instance, although you can access unlimited books, but you can only download 20 books at a time. You have to return the previously downloaded books before you can access more.

Likewise, the selection of books available in the Kindle Unlimited library is often a bone of content for many. However, if you know how to find amazing books on Kindle Unlimited, this won’t be a problem for you.

All in all, I really think Kindle Unlimited is worth it as you can easily recover the cost of your monthly subscription even if you read just 2 books in a month! 

If you are interested in using Kindle Unlimited, make sure to check out my full step-by-step guide on how to sign up for Kindle Unlimited.

Method 5 – Use Prime Reading

Not many people are aware that you can get free books every month if you are an Amazon Prime member. This service is called Prime Reading [check out my other article to know everything about Prime Reading].

You can read 2 free books every month if you are a prime member. Many people confuse Prime Reading with Kindle Unlimited. However, there are several differences between Kindle Unlimited and Prime Reading!

What’s really cool is unlike Kindle Unlimited, you don’t have to return the books that you get with Prime Reading! You actually own the books for life!

Additionally, the collection of books is really good. So, this is a great way to read free books on your Kindle from Amazon.

Method 6 – Find Free Books Using Project Gutenberg

Another great way to find free books to read on your Kindle is using Project Gutenberg.

Project Gutenberg is an open source project and it has one of the oldest and the largest collection of free ebooks online! You get access to over 60,000 free ebooks using Project Gutenberg. 

There is no fee, or registration required to access the books. Additionally, the books can be accessed online on a web browser, or through any ebook reader on your phone. You can also download and read the books on your Kindle using the send-to-Kindle email address [click on the link to read more on how to use your Kindle email address].

You may be wondering if this website is illegal or legitimate. You can rest assured, this site is 100% legal. Most of the books available on the platform are the classics or older works for which the US copyright has expired. Thus, these books can now be accessed by the public.

There are some exceptional books you can find on this website. You will need to spend some time digging through the library, but you shall find some really cool classics!

Furthermore, there is a small section of recent self-published books that the authors have made available directly in the public domain.

You can search or browse books by author, title, language, and other fields. You can also see the frequently downloaded books list, or check out the recently added books to the library!

Photo by Maarten van den Heuvel on Unsplash