# Reading Free Books



## Aenea (Dec 24, 2011)

I'm not quite sure exactly what happened. I downloaded a free book from Amazon and then the next thing I knew a had a hundred or so. It had become some sort of obsession. I just couldn't stop myself. I tried several times, but no matter how much I resisted it, I'd do it. Click click click click click.

The problem is, I just finally got around to reading some of them and I'm finding the experience to be very unsatisfying. Some are not edited well, some are not written well and for the most part they're just not worth reading. I don't know. Maybe it's the genres I'm reading. They are mostly Science Fiction and Mystery/Thrillers. I don't want to name any of the books because I'm sure that some of the authors are close by, but I was curious. Is anyone else experiencing this, or is it just me?


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## Guest (Jan 31, 2012)

My guess is you would have a similar experience if you were to be given a $1,000 ge to a book store and spent wildly.  If you don't discriminate at all you are bound to end up with a lot of things you don't like.

I don't tend to download just anything, regardless of price.  The exception is probably cookbooks... I  almost always grab them and delete them if I don't care for them.


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## SheenahFreitas (Oct 7, 2011)

That's the problem a lot of readers are experiencing, I think. They see a free book and they feel compelled to grab it *because* it's free. And anything could be marked free! Bad novels, great novels, short stories, novellas, etc. Readers learn the hard way that they're going to have to discriminate against free books and do the proper research to see if it's worth reading. Unfortunately, I think some are put off by the free indie books and think that the rest of indie books have to be just as bad. Though placing one's book for free can help an author rise in the rankings, you never know if said reader will ever get around to reading it because they're grabbing the other free books, too.


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## Sean Patrick Fox (Dec 3, 2011)

Welcome to one of the downsides of painless indie publishing.


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## Geoffrey (Jun 20, 2009)

Just a friendly reminder that this a discussion about reading free books and not about marketing them ....

When I first got my kindle, I went a little crazy with the freebies and also picked up some less than spectacular books.  Now, I look through the free books but I scrutinize them as if they were any other books.  It's. A rite of passage of sorts.


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## Aenea (Dec 24, 2011)

Sean Patrick Fox said:


> Welcome to one of the downsides of painless indie publishing.


LOL!! Yeah, I'm finding that out.

I actually do take the time to read the description and the reviews and there have been a lot that I've passed on. I do get the feeling that the reviews may be written by friends of the authors, though. When you see several 5-star reviews and the books end up being really bad it just kind of makes you wonder.


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## MadCityWriter (Dec 8, 2011)

Just as I won't clutter my house with books I'm not interested in reading, even if they are free, I don't clutter my Kindle with e-books I'm not likely to read just because they are free.  However...I have been known to be overambitious in what I think I will get to.  And if I find I don't like a particular book...blip!


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## JFHilborne (Jan 22, 2011)

I've not downloaded that many free books, and of the ones I did, several were not enjoyable due to the reasons originally stated, so I deleted them. I usually buy now from recommendation and am happy to pay for the books. Free is certainly not always a bargain.


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## kaotickitten (Jan 9, 2011)

I am the opposite.  I have found alot of free e-books that I like that I have purchased more from the same author.  You do have to be discriminating towards the books but don't be discouraged if some aren't to your liking.  Also if a book has a few 3 star ratings that is what I will go by.


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## psychotick (Jan 26, 2012)

Hi

There is a lot of poor stuff out there, but there's also a lot of very good stuff too. Both free and paid for. My advice is read the cover and the reviews (ignore the stars just read what the reviewers actually said - some two star ones can be very supportive oddly enough) and then use the 'look inside' button to see if it's what you want.

Cheers, Greg.


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## Guest (Jan 31, 2012)

My rule of thumb is:

What is the review rating?
How many reviews are there?
Does the cover show at least some effort and professionalism?
Is the blurb professional and without errors?  

Even if it was recommended, I won't necessarily just download. I wouldn't buy without the same considerations.  

That said?  I have lots of freebies.  But I also spend 25/30 a week on non-freebies.


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## history_lover (Aug 9, 2010)

Hate to say it but a lot freebies seem to be self published and while there's some great self published work out there, most of it is not so great. This is why I'm cautious about what freebies I download. Same as any paid-book, I only go for the self published ones which have a number of positive reviews. And I don't even look twice at ones with unprofessional covers (if an author won't hire someone to make a decent cover, they probably haven't hired an editor either). Following these rules, I have actually found some really good freebies, though most are indie pubbed and not self pubbed which does give it more credit to begin with, in my opinion.


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## Jeff Shelby (Oct 2, 2011)

I won't download just because they are free.  I try to approach them as if I were paying for them.  Does the sample grab me?  Is the book description engaging?  If those things work for me - HEY FREE BOOK!    But as several people have mentioned above - I don't want to fill my Kindle with books simply because they are free.  I want GOOD books - at any price.


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## Todd Trumpet (Sep 7, 2011)

oliewankanobe said:


> My guess is you would have a similar experience if you were to be given a $1,000 ge to a book store and spent wildly. If you don't discriminate at all you are bound to end up with a lot of things you don't like.


Agreed.

A real-life "paper" example I can share is a library sale I went to some years ago where they were essentially giving the books away. I took this as a cue to pick up a number of titles/genres/authors that I recognized but had never read. Dozens of books. Everything from experimental literature to bodice-ripping romance. And guess what?

The vast majority were "very unsatisfying".

It's still easy to pick up stacks of books on the cheap - garage sales, swap meets, thrift shops - but I learned my lesson: You have to exercise some due diligence, using your own well-developed personal filters...

...or even "free" is no deal.

Todd


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## Rejean (Mar 31, 2011)

I think in this house we've used the free books to download a bunch of stuff we might not normally read. That can be a good thing, you are going to find that there are things you never heard of that you kinda like - steampunk for instance - and you will find books that you thought you would like that didn't live up to their promise. In the second instance, I think it becomes very easy to just quit on a book you haven't paid for. 

When you are paying real hard cash for something, you tend to be pickier about what you select in the first place which means you might tend to miss some really good new writers and ideas.


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## PAWilson (Jan 9, 2012)

I mainly download free books to see what a new author is like. I've found the quality is around the same as paid books, but it's easier to try and remove when the book is free.  

I too have stepped down the road of download addiction. I staged an intervention with myself when I got to about 30 books.


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## MariaESchneider (Aug 1, 2009)

Aenea said:


> I'm not quite sure exactly what happened. I downloaded a free book from Amazon and then the next thing I knew a had a hundred or so. It had become some sort of obsession. I just couldn't stop myself. I tried several times, but no matter how much I resisted it, I'd do it. Click click click click click.
> 
> The problem is, I just finally got around to reading some of them and I'm finding the experience to be very unsatisfying. Some are not edited well, some are not written well and for the most part they're just not worth reading. I don't know. Maybe it's the genres I'm reading. They are mostly Science Fiction and Mystery/Thrillers. I don't want to name any of the books because I'm sure that some of the authors are close by, but I was curious. Is anyone else experiencing this, or is it just me?


Yeah, that's about the right of it. I have about that many and I just tried out 4 of them in the last two weeks. The first made it about 5 kindle pages. It just wasn't interesting at all. It was supposed to be funny and wasn't and I actually deleted it off my account. It had font problems too. Another made it probably 30 pages. It was an okay cozy read, well-edited, but I was getting impatient for someone to die (yeah, I know. Morbid of me.) It had humor and was just okay. I might go back to it. Then a third--boy I thought it was a winner. Well edited...but then it began to drag and before it was over it went off the rails into a...weed plot, and I can't even decide if it's a one or a two. BUT Book 4--A Gift of Ghosts, I really enjoyed. It was romance (which I didn't expect) but had these ghost stories woven throughout and I enjoyed it. We are not talking high literature, but it was a good story.

It's very much hit/miss. I go for my freebie list every once in a while. If a book isn't well-edited and I'm in 20 pages, I'm usually done. I don't know that any badly edited books have been able to hold my attention past that point. I guess I figure if the editing isn't there, the story probably isn't either.

I'd say when I go through the list that 1 out of 4 is about right. But there have been times when 4 out of 4 weren't my thing at all and there have been times when going through it that there just isn't a single one I want to read at that time--meaning I downloaded a bunch that probably will never be my thing.


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## MariaESchneider (Aug 1, 2009)

Aenea said:


> LOL!! Yeah, I'm finding that out.
> 
> I actually do take the time to read the description and the reviews and there have been a lot that I've passed on. I do get the feeling that the reviews may be written by friends of the authors, though. When you see several 5-star reviews and the books end up being really bad it just kind of makes you wonder.


Yeah, I felt burned by one of the above books. Nothing but good reviews, and not a single review mentioned plot holes big enough for a swimming pool or weird scenes that didn't fit. Not to say that anyone lied, but even if a person liked the book, surely they noticed the plot holes?


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## Atunah (Nov 20, 2008)

history_lover said:


> Hate to say it but a lot freebies seem to be self published and while there's some great self published work out there, most of it is not so great. This is why I'm cautious about what freebies I download. Same as any paid-book, I only go for the self published ones which have a number of positive reviews. And I don't even look twice at ones with unprofessional covers (if an author won't hire someone to make a decent cover, they probably haven't hired an editor either). Following these rules, I have actually found some really good freebies, though most are indie pubbed and not self pubbed which does give it more credit to begin with, in my opinion.


That has been about my experience too. When I first got my Kindle in 2008 I jumped on free books, it was new. But I also have to say there wasn't as much carp out there then. A lot of the free books where first in series, publisher type, well reviewed books.

The last few months it seems it has gotten totally out of control with free books. So many each day now that I too look at the cover and some of them are an insult to the reader. I just don't have the time to sift through all that stuff to find something. 
Bad cover, no reviews, pass. Even if its free. My time is not free, its valuable. And if there are reviews, they should be of the actual reader type. Not never heard of blogs or other writers. That is just how I look at it. I want regular readers to have an opinion on those books.

So I still find a few freebies and those I do intent do reading, but I do vetting on free just like I do on paid. In the end I want to read good books. Free or not, I expect the same from them. Most of what I get as free now, if they aren't from a publisher, are the backlist titles an author puts out. So there are usually reviews found and there is a history there for me to vet with.

There are only so many hours in a day to read and although I read a lot each year, I still want each book I read to be a potentially good book. Free or not.

I am actually slowly going through my archive and permanently removing some of the free books I got and will never read. Just wish it was a bit easier process though.


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## Carol (was Dara) (Feb 19, 2011)

I operate under the assumption most free books are sloppy and low quality, and have to be weeded through if I don't want to clutter my Kindle with junk. I usually watch Pixel of Ink for free book alerts because they seem to have some standards about what they'll feature and they attempt to pick out the better freebies. I also look for a nice cover and blurb because I assume if little effort was put into those, the inside of the book won't be well formatted or edited either.


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## padowd (Jan 14, 2010)

I have noticed that since all the free indie books on Amazon they have just about stopped giving us the non indie books. When all the free books started I was like alot of people and downloaded lots of them and then I got tired of it and stopped. I do try to read the reviews but you can't always go by that because friends and family can be posting those but I do try to look at the description and the cover and go from there. I can tell you that L J Sellers books are very good and my husband loves her books. So there are some good books out there you just have to look. I usually look at the reduced books and buy those and the deal of the day. I can usually find good books for $1.00 to $3.00. I have more books on my Kindle now then I will ever read but I just keep on buying. I think alot of people do this. LOL


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## MariaESchneider (Aug 1, 2009)

Dara England said:


> I operate under the assumption most free books are sloppy and low quality, and have to be weeded through if I don't want to clutter my Kindle with junk. I usually watch Pixel of Ink for free book alerts because they seem to have some standards about what they'll feature and they attempt to pick out the better freebies. I also look for a nice cover and blurb because I assume if little effort was put into those, the inside of the book won't be well formatted or edited either.


Seriously? Pixel is 99 percent ad based. I doubt seriously that they vet anything. I haven't seen any evidence of it (Not saying they should either). I see pretty much the same freebies listed there as on the other sites.


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## tamaraheiner (Apr 23, 2011)

I've experienced this often. But among all the bad ones, there will be good ones. I give a book about ten pages and then I move on. I know by then if I'll like it or not.


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## ddarol (Feb 5, 2009)

I'm the same way.  Although, I am descriminate about what I download.  I read the description, check the reviews.  If it sounds like something I might be interested in, then I go for it.  But, if after downloading, I read 10 to 20 pages in and it hasn't grabbed me, I delete it.


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## lea_owens (Dec 5, 2011)

Even though they're free, I always read the worst of the reviews to check if the 1 star rating was just a cranky competitor for that market or if there are several 1 star ratings with valid points (I do like good spelling, grammar and syntax, so if a well written reviewer slams that about the book, I walk away then). I usually make use of the 'look inside' option as at least half the time I can eliminate a book right there. Then, if I do download one, I'm aware of the fact that if I like it, I 'owe' the author a good review and star rating as thanks for letting me have the book for free. Quite often I don't read all of the book as it just doesn't grab me but, hey, I've paid good money for paperbacks that I couldn't finish, either, so I'm not complaining. 

I love the free books. I have more than I can possibly read in this next few months, and yet I still like shopping for them, but I have become very fussy now.


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## corpsjustice (Jan 27, 2012)

Totally agree. I go for aesthetics first. My first check is the Book Cover. If it doesn't look sharp, I rarely move on to the description.


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## Carol (was Dara) (Feb 19, 2011)

MariaESchneider said:


> Seriously? Pixel is 99 percent ad based. I doubt seriously that they vet anything. I haven't seen any evidence of it (Not saying they should either). I see pretty much the same freebies listed there as on the other sites.


It's true that POI is very ad based but they don't charge for the free book listings, so I don't see an ulterior motive there. It's in their interests to feature the freebies they think will appeal to the broadest number of readers. I'm not claiming they read freebies before posting them or that the ones they post are automatically awesome. But they appear to have a general system of picking up the freebies with the highest ratings and reviews, and that's a quality filter, however slight. Many other sites just do a general dump of all the new freebies, rather than posting a select handful.

For example, I know lots of people love A Site Which Shall Remain Nameless but the last time I visited, it was swimming with freebies than appeared to be collections of lifted internet articles with hasty covers slapped on. There were also about fifty versions of what seemed to be the same book with only a slightly different cover and title on each version. Either that or the same author truly did write over fifty how-to guides to seducing young Russian women.  I'm not saying nothing like that has ever slipped past POI but they make an effort to avoid it, and for that reason I use them as a time-saver.


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## history_lover (Aug 9, 2010)

Atunah said:


> That has been about my experience too. When I first got my Kindle in 2008 I jumped on free books, it was new. But I also have to say there wasn't as much carp out there then. A lot of the free books where first in series, publisher type, well reviewed books.
> 
> The last few months it seems it has gotten totally out of control with free books. So many each day now that I too look at the cover and some of them are an insult to the reader. I just don't have the time to sift through all that stuff to find something.


Yeah, the crap factor has definitely increased. I like using www.ereaderiq.com to filter certain genres (while listing the most recently added first so I don't have to wade through everything to find the new ones). Only problem is, not all books are correctly categorized. But it narrows things down so I then can scan for good covers.


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## Atunah (Nov 20, 2008)

Yep, I use Ereaderiq too. The filters they added are great now. You are right, they aren't always correct, but what makes me even more mad is authors/publishers marking their books with genre's they do not belong too. Apparently its the thing to mark anything romance now. But it certainly cuts down on the time it takes to go through the list. I do it every morning if I can so I can use the last 24 hour listed. 
I also like using the site for stuff that went on sale.


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## destill (Oct 5, 2010)

My reading time is limited, much like my finances. I read the reviews and often download a sample of a free book before deciding whether to click that "buy" button. If I think I might enjoy a book, I'll buy it at any reasonable price. But a free book doesn't entice me simply because it's free.


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## MariaESchneider (Aug 1, 2009)

Dara England said:


> It's true that POI is very ad based but they don't charge for the free book listings, so I don't see an ulterior motive there. It's in their interests to feature the freebies they think will appeal to the broadest number of readers. I'm not claiming they read freebies before posting them or that the ones they post are automatically awesome. But they appear to have a general system of picking up the freebies with the highest ratings and reviews, and that's a quality filter, however slight. Many other sites just do a general dump of all the new freebies, rather than posting a select handful.
> 
> For example, I know lots of people love A Site Which Shall Remain Nameless but the last time I visited, it was swimming with freebies than appeared to be collections of lifted internet articles with hasty covers slapped on. There were also about fifty versions of what seemed to be the same book with only a slightly different cover and title on each version. Either that or the same author truly did write over fifty how-to guides to seducing young Russian women.  I'm not saying nothing like that has ever slipped past POI but they make an effort to avoid it, and for that reason I use them as a time-saver.


Hmm. I thought she charged for many of the freebies as well, but perhaps that's just the giveaways and the bargains of the day. At any rate, I haven't noticed any sorting or much different there than any other site. No site grabs as many as ereaderiq because they use the Amazon API to feed it to the site. With all the freebies there are lately, it is harder to sort!!!


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## AnitaBartholomew (Jun 27, 2011)

Aenea said:


> I'm not quite sure exactly what happened. I downloaded a free book from Amazon and then the next thing I knew a had a hundred or so. It had become some sort of obsession. I just couldn't stop myself. I tried several times, but no matter how much I resisted it, I'd do it. Click click click click click.
> 
> The problem is, I just finally got around to reading some of them and I'm finding the experience to be very unsatisfying. Some are not edited well, some are not written well and for the most part they're just not worth reading. I don't know. Maybe it's the genres I'm reading. They are mostly Science Fiction and Mystery/Thrillers. I don't want to name any of the books because I'm sure that some of the authors are close by, but I was curious. Is anyone else experiencing this, or is it just me?


I've had this experience, too, and also won't name names.

I think you need to first read the sample chapters online. You'll very quickly figure out which books are worth your time and which are just taking up space on your Kindle.

Also, read the reviews. If they offer no detail about what's in the book, the reviews might not be by actual readers. Readers will typically say something about a plot line, character, the dialogue--something.

Lastly, make certain that the book is of a type you enjoy. I can't tell you how many bestsellers I couldn't finish because they simply weren't my taste.

I can say that I'm reading a book now, The King's X, that I nabbed when it was free. And it's terrific, in my estimation. Reading the reviews, I found that some didn't like that it jumped around quite a bit, and kept the reader in suspense about what was going on. I, however, like that in a book.

Remember that books that go free on Amazon under the KDP Select program are free for at least 24 hours, so you don't have to "buy" one the moment you see it. Take the time to find out if it's right for you. And, since it's free, if you discover it isn't, just delete it without finishing it. Life is too short to spend time with a story or characters that don't appeal.

Best,
Anita


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## tinytoy (Jun 15, 2011)

I went crazy downloading free books when I first got my Kindle. I haven't read any of them yet!  Reason being that I have a bunch if not-free books that are higher on my priority list that I haven't gotten to yet. And, I seem to always be adding to the not-free list so who knows if or when I'll ever get around to reading some of the free stuff.  At this point I've stopped downloading them. 

I have over 40 books on a "to read" bookshelf and none of them are free.  Go figure.


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## Pixilox (Jun 22, 2011)

Hi there, I am Pixilox and I am a free-book addict .  I have a love/hate relationship with the free books I get.  Sometimes I wonder why in the world I ever decided to grab them and others have opened up new authors and genres.  At least with the free ones that I don't enjoy I don't feel so guilty about hitting delete.


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## MariaESchneider (Aug 1, 2009)

Pixilox said:


> Hi there, I am Pixilox and I am a free-book addict . I have a love/hate relationship with the free books I get. Sometimes I wonder why in the world I ever decided to grab them and others have opened up new authors and genres. At least with the free ones that I don't enjoy I don't feel so guilty about hitting delete.


You are so right about guilt-free. I just wish that amazon had a way for me to jot notes down in the manage kindle area (anyone know of a way?) I just read bits of 3 more last night (8 chapters of the one before I decided it wasn't my thing). I ended up putting my notes in the review box at goodreads, because I want to keep track of the why I stopped and whether it's worth another look, but I don't have a place to keep these notes! They aren't reviews so they don't really belong where I put them. I suppose I could do a blog entry, but I normally don't just blog notes. And a blog entry isn't right there with the TBR pile when I'm sorting through looking for what to read next.

I think I'll write to Amazon and suggest a "note" box on the Manage Kindle page. Or if someone knows where I can do something like this in the cloud or whatever, let me know. I do scan books (two or three chapters) periodically from the tbr and would like to be able to keep better track.


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## Neil Ostroff (Mar 25, 2011)

What you're doing is weeding out the trash to find the gems. I live close to a used bookshop that sells old paperbacks for a dime each. I'll spend five bucks and fill two bags. Then I go home and start reading. If the book doesn't have my attention by the third page I'm on to the next one. When I find a gem I then google the author and check out if they have other books. Then I know what to buy.


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## anguabell (Jan 9, 2011)

Neil Ostroff said:


> I live close to a used bookshop that sells old paperbacks for a dime each. I'll spend five bucks and fill two bags. Then I go home and start reading. If the book doesn't have my attention by the third page I'm on to the next one. When I find a gem I then google the author and check out if they have other books. Then I know what to buy.


I used to buy tons of used books.... until I moved to South Florida. Here I found some really nasty bugs living their happy lives in the pages of my lucky hauls. I mean, really nasty ones. One more major benefit of Kindle - it is so hygienic 

Free books are not really free if I am to waste my time with something I don't enjoy reading (have you noticed how sample chapters are sometimes so much better than the rest of the book?). I became quite leery of free books, including free classics, and prefer to pay a reasonable amount to get a decent formatting and editing. There are of course exceptions. But these days, I would hardly ever download a book only because it's free.


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## AnitaBartholomew (Jun 27, 2011)

anguabell said:


> have you noticed how sample chapters are sometimes so much better than the rest of the book?


Maybe it's because I make my living as a writer-editor, but I can tell within a few pages whether a book is going to hold my interest. Dead giveaways that the novel won't:

- Dialogue that reads like a conversation: ("Hello, how are you?" "I'm fine, and you?") No decent writer includes such incidental conversation in dialogue. Next time you watch a film, notice that the characters don't even say hello or good-bye, let alone other extraneous stuff, when speaking on the phone. Shouldn't happen in a novel, either.

- Voluminous backstory: any author who gives you a character's life history in the first chapter--or anywhere that it's not absolutely needed -- is going to bore you for the next 250+ pages.

- Explanations within quotation marks: If an author can't figure out how to impart background information without putting it into a character's mouth, the story is only going downhill from there.

All the above might be written in lovely prose and often are. But structural issues like these get magnified as the book moves along (usually at the pace of a crippled beetle).

Anita


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## history_lover (Aug 9, 2010)

AnitaBartholomew said:


> Maybe it's because I make my living as a writer-editor, but I can tell within a few pages whether a book is going to hold my interest. Dead giveaways that the novel won't:
> 
> - Dialogue that reads like a conversation: ("Hello, how are you?" "I'm fine, and you?") No decent writer includes such incidental conversation in dialogue. Next time you watch a film, notice that the characters don't even say hello or good-bye, let alone other extraneous stuff, when speaking on the phone. Shouldn't happen in a novel, either.
> 
> ...


I notice these things too and I'm not an editor. The last two points fall under my blanket "unrealistic characters and dialogue". I read one sample where the main character told the story of her rape to someone she'd known for a few hours, max (and it wasn't a police or counselling situation, just a random stranger). And I thought "what an incredibly unrealistic way to tell a character's back story". Why did it have to be done with dialogue? And why in the first couple chapters? I felt like the author was in a mad rush to tell the character's back story and there was no need for it. Needless to say, I did not buy it.


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## QuantumIguana (Dec 29, 2010)

I won't just get anything that is free. If the premise is intriguing, I'll give a free book a try. For an interesting take on an idea, I might be more forgiving of a book.


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## Anette_Darbyshire (Jan 22, 2012)

I know what you mean.  I tend to think that as they're free, I've got nothing to lose, so if a free book doesn't grab me after the first few chapters, I'll just stop reading it.  On the other hand, if I happen to have found one I really enjoy, then its a bonus.


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## Tamara Rose Blodgett (Apr 1, 2011)

My hubby peruses the "free" section each day and picks up a handful of novels, usually. He has a system. Out of the literal hundreds he's downloaded for me I've only had to delete 2! They were not my thing but otherwise fine for someone else. He uses a combination of reviews/genre and his own "secret sauce!" to determine its one-click potential. It's a great way to stumble across a new author. Like I've mentioned here before, I read about five books per week and this keeps us out of bankruptcy!   jk. But seriously, if a person reads a lot, it could get horrendous fiscally. Mixing free with discerning purchases is a great way to read!


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## liafairchild (Apr 2, 2011)

OK, so I admit that recently I have joined in and downloaded a ton of freebies. I'm sure some I'll never end up reading some. For me, I give each book some time and if it's not working I let it go. But, here's my problem. I still find it hard to hit that delete button on my kindle. I noticed I have something called "archived books" but I have no idea how to get books over there. Anyone here know how to move a book from your list to the archive?

Thanks,
Lia


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## Atunah (Nov 20, 2008)

Lia, if you bought the book from Amazon, no matter with what device, it will be in the Archives stored at Amazon. When you delete a book from your kindle or other device, it will only delete it from that device. It will still be there in the Archive. 

You can access the archive from the devices and pull the books wireless, or you can go to your "Manage your Kindle" page and either send the books to other devices you have registered on your account, or permanently delete it there. 

Its the only place you can get rid of a book for good, so make sure you really want to do that. Or you have to buy it again.  

So you can delete anything you bought (from Amazon), or got free, off your Kindle anytime, no worries. It will always be in the Archive for you to re download.


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## MariaESchneider (Aug 1, 2009)

I recently started keeping notes in the 'private' notes area of shelfari (under each book listing that you have on your shelf).  Whew, glad to have finally found that.  This week I went through 4 freebies to try and find something I wanted.  No luck.  Two were maybes, all four were well-edited and none grabbed me enough to make me continue.  A friend happened to be reading one of them and she said it was just "okay."  That was one of the maybes so I'll make note of that and probably not give it another try. 

All of these freebies seemed like something I *might* like when I downloaded them.  I tend not to willy-nilly download (although we all have our days.)  None that I tried this week were in my two favorite categories (UF, cozies...closely followed by general mystery).  Just didn't grab me.  Oh wait.  One of them might indeed have been UF.  I take that back.  It was just too slow in the first few pages to interest me.

(The above paragraph is my attempt to stay on topic and explain the luck I'm having or not having with freebies.  No really, I wasn't just babbling!)


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## liafairchild (Apr 2, 2011)

Thanks, Atunah. I appreciate the help. I don't like to have to weed through so many books but I always feared deleting them. Speaking of that, one thing I don't like about the kindle version I have is that you can easily accidentally delete. If the button is pushed slightly to the side instead of straight in, it thinks you want to delete.


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## martaszemik (Dec 4, 2011)

Whether free or not, I will always read the sample work. It's the best way to gauge the author's writing. Otherwise, you're just using the the space up on your kindle or PC for something you may not enjoy or ever want to read.  
So no, I will not download just anything for free.


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## Meka (Sep 8, 2011)

For me it's not that big of a deal if a free book turns out to be a bad read, I simply stop reading it and delete it from my account. Easy breezy!


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## Guest (Feb 5, 2012)

That's why returns of free books always confuse me.  Delete it.


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## history_lover (Aug 9, 2010)

martaszemik said:


> Whether free or not, I will always read the sample work. It's the best way to gauge the author's writing. Otherwise, you're just using the the space up on your kindle or PC for something you may not enjoy or ever want to read.
> So no, I will not download just anything for free.


Free books no longer have samples from what I can see. I was annoyed about that because I felt it's easier to quickly read the sample in the Cloud Reader than it is to "buy" it, read it, and delete it if it turns out to be bad.


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## Harry Shannon (Jul 30, 2010)

Agreed


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

Folks, I've deleted some posts that were self-promotional in nature (remember, we're in the book Corner ) or were not about the subject of reading free books but rather about whether books should be free. _THAT_ is a good discussion for the Writer's Cafe -- in fact has been had there many times.

Personally, I like free books: sometimes I'm on the fence about trying an author and one of their titles free might be what tips me over. And, hey, if I like that one, I may buy more. And of course I LOVE the free classics. . . .picked up another Dickens yesterday in honor of the 200th anniversary of his birth tomorrow!


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## Pamela (Oct 6, 2010)

I like the free books, but I'm careful about those I download.  I don't get more than I can read in a few days.  My mind would explode with too many choices.

I have found some I wanted to try anyway, new authors, and they were excellent.  Hope it's okay to mention one.  It was Replica.  I got it free and loved it.  Sometimes a favorite author of mine will go free too!  I'm happy with the free books.


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## Phyllis Lily Jules (Dec 5, 2011)

I bought my kindle three months ago and have almost one hundred free books ready to read. What can I say, I'm looking for an interesting book, and many times I find one. I've sharpened my hunting skills over all these book-loving years and do pretty well with the ones I've carefully chosen. I give them forty pages to prove their worth, though, and have only tossed out about ten percent of my picks so far.

But I know exactly what you mean. So many choices and temptations. Too much hype and over-promising. Then at the grocery store it's the same thing, terrible food that looked delicious in the ads. Shampoo that almost guarantees shine, but I end up with frizz. Turn on the TV with hundreds of channels but nothing to watch. Buy a CD with that one amazing song, and all the rest are dull letdowns. I become exasperated over and over again. 

I think the market gave us what we wanted, choices. But now we have the problem of finding our preferences among the masses of items. Not too much fun. But I'm still very happy to have all these free books. I've read some amazing ones, just have to put some work into finding them.


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## Aenea (Dec 24, 2011)

I think I failed to mention that I have read some good free books and have bought a few series' because of the first one being free and I do appreciate authors giving them away. It's just that really good books have been hard to find lately for me. The thing that turns me off the most is bad grammar, spelling and missing words. If a person can't write well and won't bother getting their work edited, they shouldn't be writing, in my opinion.


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## corpsjustice (Jan 27, 2012)

How are you guys finding the best free books available. Pixel of Ink seems to be decent. The other option is searching the top 100. Any other EASY ideas?


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## Eliza Baum (Jul 16, 2011)

history_lover said:


> Yeah, the crap factor has definitely increased. I like using www.ereaderiq.com to filter certain genres (while listing the most recently added first so I don't have to wade through everything to find the new ones). Only problem is, not all books are correctly categorized. But it narrows things down so I then can scan for good covers.





Atunah said:


> Yep, I use Ereaderiq too. The filters they added are great now. You are right, they aren't always correct, but what makes me even more mad is authors/publishers marking their books with genre's they do not belong too. Apparently its the thing to mark anything romance now. But it certainly cuts down on the time it takes to go through the list. I do it every morning if I can so I can use the last 24 hour listed.
> I also like using the site for stuff that went on sale.


You guys are amazing! This site ROCKS. Being a cover junkie, I love that you can view your search results by cover. 

I downloaded a ton of freebies right after I got my kindle, most of which were public domain books. Now, I don't really download many. I'll watch for books I've been eyeing (I have a long wish list) to go free (or cheap, for that matter), but otherwise I don't download unless it's something for which I would have paid money.


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## HeidiHall (Sep 5, 2010)

corpsjustice said:


> How are you guys finding the best free books available. Pixel of Ink seems to be decent. The other option is searching the top 100. Any other EASY ideas?


I think the easiest way to find the best freebies is to sort by favorite genre(s), then refine by price lowest-highest and make sure to check the reviews.

As for my own free book addiction... it was a lesson learned the hard way. I used to be a voracious reader, so when I first got my kindle, of course I loaded it up with my favorite authors' new releases and as many freebies as I could find within the genres I typically enjoyed. About a month later I realized I had almost completely lost my appetite to read . There really is a whole lot of less than mediocre books out there. It took almost a year, but I do occasionally browse the freebies now - I'm just very selective in what I chose to download. The fault is completely my own though because I'm stubborn and refused to stop reading when I knew the disappointment was only going to get worse. Nowadays, there isn't much time in my life to simply read, so when I do it better be good. Free really is a great way to try new authors and personally, I'm very appreciative when I discover those gems (I show this by buying everything else they've written even if I won't get to it for quite some time). Yup, even with the extra work it takes to find the greats, I am definitely a fan of free.


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## By The Book (Feb 4, 2012)

I used to have the free-book problem -- I was always so worried about missing out on something good that I instantly downloaded anything that struck my fancy. After cluttering my Kindle with more books than I could _ever_ read, I'm a bit more discretionary now and _always_ download the sample pages first. Yep, it's an extra step but if those first pages grab me, I go back and download the rest. And I've found lots of gems for free.


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## Pamela (Oct 6, 2010)

ENT does filter the books that they show as free.  And I know eReader IQ does as well.  I went free with one of mine and asked eReader IQ how they picked the books, because mine was on the site.  It does have to do with the star rating on Amazon.  If it's high, the books will be shown on the site under Free books.

It's unfortunate that some people think that because a book is being promoted as free it must be terrible, and they go into the book with that mind-set.  I found some wonderful free books.  Aiden James has a free book today that I downloaded.  He's a very good writer.


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## Atunah (Nov 20, 2008)

Actually ereaderiq lists all freebies, not just those with ratings. There are 100's every day and many do not have any reviews. But one can sort on the site by everything from genre, to number of stars, filesize etc. 

One has to do their own filtering. And I like it this way. Some of the other sites are very much ad driven only at this point, so I want to see everything and then do my sorting as I see fit.


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## GerrieFerrisFinger (Jun 1, 2011)

oliewankanobe said:


> My guess is you would have a similar experience if you were to be given a $1,000 ge to a book store and spent wildly. If you don't discriminate at all you are bound to end up with a lot of things you don't like.
> 
> I don't tend to download just anything, regardless of price. The exception is probably cookbooks... I almost always grab them and delete them if I don't care for them.


I agree. I can tell after a few pages that the freebies are stinkers. Off they go.
But I've come across some trad books that had multiple errors and huge gaffs in logic and fact.

but true


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## history_lover (Aug 9, 2010)

Pamela said:


> ENT does filter the books that they show as free. And I know eReader IQ does as well. I went free with one of mine and asked eReader IQ how they picked the books, because mine was on the site. It does have to do with the star rating on Amazon. If it's high, the books will be shown on the site under Free books.


eReaderIQ definitely lists all freebies, maybe there was a misunderstanding when you got info from them or perhaps the info is just outdated but all you have to do is go to their site because they list the star rating right underneath the title and some have no star rating.



> It's unfortunate that some people think that because a book is being promoted as free it must be terrible, and they go into the book with that mind-set. I found some wonderful free books. Aiden James has a free book today that I downloaded. He's a very good writer.


It's a long topic so maybe I've missed something but I don't recall anyone saying that if a book is free it must be terrible. Some people agree that many free books are pretty bad but some are pretty good and therefore it becomes a matter of trying to weed through the crap to find the good stuff. But I don't remember anyone saying ALL free promos are terrible. I have found some really great freebies but honestly, I've found more duds than gems.


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## Laura Lond (Nov 6, 2010)

Like many others who have posted here, I have been very picky with my freebies, and probably for that reason I haven't encountered anything terrible yet. I'll usually only grab a freebie in my preferred genres, after I check the blurb and reviews. If I'm venturing into a genre I don't normally read, I'll be even more picky = do more research. It's been paying off so far.


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## Harry Shannon (Jul 30, 2010)

Been thinking about this. I'm slowly going back to word of mouth, grabbing things someone I trust has already suggested. That's what book sellers used to do for us, and quality magazine reviewers we'd come to believe had good taste. Perhaps after all this chaos things will settle down to a 21st Century version of that model. There are so many people desperately trying to game the Amazon system it's become a crowded, loud marketplace full of people screaming about their wares. That's not all bad, we certainly have variety now, but not particularly beneficial either.


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## Gone To Croatan (Jun 24, 2011)

oliewankanobe said:


> That's why returns of free books always confuse me. Delete it.


Sometimes a free book is so bad that you have to consider returning it just to make a point. So far I've managed to not do so .

And, to be fair, if 10,000 people download a free book you'll almost certainly find a few who didn't like it or don't remember why they did, or did it by accident and then return it because they think they were charged for it. With the recent spate of one-day freebies people can easily get confused about which books were free and which weren't.


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## Gone To Croatan (Jun 24, 2011)

AnitaBartholomew said:


> Dialogue that reads like a conversation: ("Hello, how are you?" "I'm fine, and you?") No decent writer includes such incidental conversation in dialogue. Next time you watch a film, notice that the characters don't even say hello or good-bye, let alone other extraneous stuff, when speaking on the phone. Shouldn't happen in a novel, either.


I've been in a critiquing group for several years and that's one of my personal bugbears: 'Your short story is four thousand words long and the first five hundred are just people walking into a room and introducing themselves'. I've read an awful lot of stories which would benefit from losing the first quarter where nothing happens.

As you say, movies really can't afford any time wasted on such things; back when I was editing indie movies I've often cut out half the dialogue before the edit was done.

Back more on topic, I generally go by the first two or three pages as well; I've become more choosy as I'm beginning to run out of space on my Kindle, but in the past I've treated free books as 'extended samples' and if I don't want to read beyond those few pages I just moved on to the next one. Sometimes I've been disappointed, but normally if those pages are readable and interesting the rest of the story is too.


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## MariaESchneider (Aug 1, 2009)

Did my usual weekly pick through the freebies. The first one I tried was an absolute GEM. I LOVED IT. Unicorn on Speed Dial by Jeanette Cottrell.

http://www.amazon.com/Unicorn-on-Speed-Dial-ebook/dp/B004RHWQ40/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1328994441&sr=8-1

It's not free anymore, but it's 2.99 (I think.) I reviewed it at my blog and I highly recommend it for cozy fantasy readers, cozy mystery readers and anyone who needs a good adventure with a laugh.

These are the ones that keep me looking. (The cover sort of indicates a children's story--I almost didn't download, but something in the blurb caught my attention. Probably the unicorn.) Glad I did.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

Edward M. Grant said:


> Sometimes a free book is so bad that you have to consider returning it just to make a point. So far I've managed to not do so .


I don't think you _can_ 'return' a free book any more. When I look at MYK, even for books acquired within the last 7 days, the 'return' option isn't there if I got it free.


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## John Barlow (Oct 16, 2011)

I never download free books.
Until I read this post, I hadn't really thought about it.
It's prejudice, obviously, but from what people are saying here, there's some justification to it.

I also don't understand what a writer gets out of having a book published for free, if 'free' has such a bad reputation.

Best, JohnB


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## HeidiHall (Sep 5, 2010)

John Barlow said:


> I also don't understand what a writer gets out of having a book published for free, if 'free' has such a bad reputation.
> 
> Best, JohnB


It's all about exposure... it is easier to rise through the ranks as a freebie and when you return to paid status your visibility remains higher for a bit. I think it is losing its shine because of so many freebies, but it does help some people for a limited amount of time. Even with the bad reputation freebies have, I love being able to sample new authors without feeling guilty for setting it aside if it doesn't grab me. It also lets me experiment outside my normal genres without hesitation for the same reason.


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## planet_janet (Feb 23, 2010)

I'm incredibly picky about freebies.  Even when I first got my Kindle, I was very selective about what free content I downloaded.  I have roughly 20 freebies (including public domain classics) that I've accumulated over the two-year span that I've owned my Kindle.


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