# Read an E-Book Week - March 7-13, lots of freebies



## Steph H (Oct 28, 2008)

*Read an E-Book Week is coming up next week * and there will be a ton of freebies available all over the web. I got a lot of books last year, some I still haven't even read yet.  It was my first year participating, but as I understand it, the event has been going on for several years. As with anything, your mileage may vary as to how many of those free books you find appealing and how many you actually enjoy after reading -- but you might as well get anything that sounds interesting while it's available. Some books are available free the whole week (or the whole month or even always), while some are only available for the day (some sites will do a different book each day, for instance).

This site is kind of the main site for the event and pulling info together -- http://www.ebookweek.com/ -- but last year we had a dedicated thread here on KB for posting info too; no reason we can't do that again this year, I'd guess.

So get ready -- *freebies are coming*!! 

_(Apologies if I've re-posted something already mentioned in one of the other KB forums, I didn't see it in a quick look but didn't look at all of them and this seemed like the logical place since it's the freebie forum...)_


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## drenee (Nov 11, 2008)

Thanks for the heads up.  I don't recall seeing a thread that has addressed this yet.  So thank you again.
deb


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## Dana (Dec 4, 2009)

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## Anso (Jan 27, 2010)

Thanks for the info - this is really interesting 

Sorry if this is an obvious question, but can I ask how this affects us non-US-Kindle-owners please? What I mean is that "free" Amazon books are never free for us ("free" ones cost $2.35 for me in the UK). Will the books for this event actually be FREE for us too or...anyone know please? Before I get too excited about it LOL!


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## sierra09 (Jun 20, 2009)

I signed up for this via Smashwords. I just have to figure out how to get word out.


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## koland (Nov 24, 2008)

Anso said:


> Sorry if this is an obvious question, but can I ask how this affects us non-US-Kindle-owners please? What I mean is that "free" Amazon books are never free for us ("free" ones cost $2.35 for me in the UK). Will the books for this event actually be FREE for us too or...anyone know please? Before I get too excited about it LOL!


They should be, yes. Almost all of these end up being downloads at author and publishing sites (and some one smashwords). Few have any geographic restrictions and I didn't see any that charged anyone. If there end up being extra freebies at Amazon, Sony, B&N or the major ebookstores, they do often have either surcharges, different prices or restrictions on non-US locations (but most of the books won't be there).

One the negative side, often the books are PDF's. A few end up with DRM. And one or two were actually short term rentals, which expired after a bit (adobe ADE and EPUB both support this as part of the DRM).


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## theraven (Dec 30, 2009)

Thank you for sharing this. I've put it on my favorites (and will mark it on my calendar) so I remember to check it out.


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## cheerio (May 16, 2009)

Got our own week, when is KB week, lol


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## 3pointers (Jan 8, 2010)

Do you know what this means?  More pages of unread books!  But it certainly sounds like fun.


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## TheSeagull (Oct 25, 2009)

Anso said:


> Thanks for the info - this is really interesting
> 
> Sorry if this is an obvious question, but can I ask how this affects us non-US-Kindle-owners please? What I mean is that "free" Amazon books are never free for us ("free" ones cost $2.35 for me in the UK). Will the books for this event actually be FREE for us too or...anyone know please? Before I get too excited about it LOL!


There are a few free books here in the UK, I downloaded a few the other day. And I don't think this event influences Amazon much.


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## Carol Collett (Oct 4, 2009)

Thanks for the info. I've bookmarked the page and Tweeted about it!


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## dnagirl (Oct 21, 2009)

Very cool, thank you so much for posting!  I had no idea there was such a thing.


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## plumboz (Sep 24, 2009)

Quick question for the folks here who like to stock up on free books. What kind of percentage do you think actually get read by you? And of those that are read, how many do you find are good enough that if the author had an established reputation, you would have gladly spent money on the book? Ah, and one last question: Do you make it a practice to check out the samples that most ebooks make available before choosing to download?

Thanks,
Alan


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## MariaESchneider (Aug 1, 2009)

Anso said:


> Thanks for the info - this is really interesting
> 
> Sorry if this is an obvious question, but can I ask how this affects us non-US-Kindle-owners please? What I mean is that "free" Amazon books are never free for us ("free" ones cost $2.35 for me in the UK). Will the books for this event actually be FREE for us too or...anyone know please? Before I get too excited about it LOL!


It has many sponsors that aren't amazon. Smashwords is participating by creating a catalogue with free and reduced priced books for the week. I think you can access Smashwords selection via the link that was provided above (where a lot of of the reduced priced/free books will be advertised.)

Smashwords provides formats that have no DRM and are readable on sony, and other devices (including PDF, HTML and so on) and does not charge the wire fee. The tax may still be charged; I'm not sure how that works.

Happy Reading!!!


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## austenfiend (Nov 17, 2009)

What is it about free books that makes me all tingly!?!  I have so many books downloaded that it will take me forever to read them, but yet am very excited about getting more books.

In answer to someone's earlier questions - I download a LOT of free books and have noticed a few things:
1)  I've tried genres that I normally wouldn't try
2)  There are a quite a number of books that I have been SO glad they're free, because I would have been mad to have paid money for them
3)  However, I got my Kindle in December, and since that time there have probably been at least three authors that I have gotten a free book, read it and loved it, and have then gone back to the Kindle store and bought other books by the same author.


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## Rebekah (Oct 9, 2009)

plumboz said:


> Quick question for the folks here who like to stock up on free books. What kind of percentage do you think actually get read by you? And of those that are read, how many do you find are good enough that if the author had an established reputation, you would have gladly spent money on the book? Ah, and one last question: Do you make it a practice to check out the samples that most ebooks make available before choosing to download?


When I got my Kindle a year ago, I had no idea there would be so many free books! I knew about the public domain classics, but didn't know about the free "modern day" books. I was honestly concerned that I would spend more per book as pre-Kindle I was a discount paperback reader for the most part, and 9.99 seemed high. I must admit, I've been pleasantly surprised by the large amount of free books. In the past year, I have downloaded almost 100 books, probably 70-75 of them have been free. So far I've read 52 books, out of those, about 35 or 40 were freebies. I've honestly only discarded about 2 or 3 freebies that I couldn't get into. So, quite a large percentage get read, some even before my favorite authors that I've paid for. I've discovered new authors, and have subsequently bought books from those authors based on enjoying a free one. Would I have spent money on their books? Some yes, others, it would depend on how much they were. The reason I discovered many of these new (to me) authors is due to the fact that one of their books was on the free list, something I enjoy taking advantage of, so I might not have ever heard of them otherwise. I don't use the sample feature; I read the blurb about the book and never have much of a problem trusting my own instincts.


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## VictoriaP (Mar 1, 2009)

plumboz said:


> Quick question for the folks here who like to stock up on free books. What kind of percentage do you think actually get read by you? And of those that are read, how many do you find are good enough that if the author had an established reputation, you would have gladly spent money on the book? Ah, and one last question: Do you make it a practice to check out the samples that most ebooks make available before choosing to download?
> 
> Thanks,
> Alan


I'm relatively selective about which free books I download. Because of that, ultimately nearly all DO actually get read, although at this point I have a backlog of them because I've been working through a couple of large series instead. And in most cases, once read, I will then buy the sequels, or other books by the author. In one case, I bought all the sequels, all the other books in another genre by the same author, copies of most of her books in print form as presents, and have coaxed about 10 people into reading her stuff. Through reading her books, I also found a number of other series recommended by people who read the same thing, and I've bought those. That one free book has probably cost me upwards of $300, and I've been introduced to half a dozen new to me authors. Freebies are the smartest marketing tool an author or publisher can use, though they do take time, because many people have a TBR pile full of them and may not get around to reading them for months.

I definitely have downloaded freebies I'd hated, and therefore I usually do check the samples, but not always. A lot of free deals expire quickly, and if I don't think I'll get to the sample within a day, I may just go on the strength of the reviews.

Some of the freebies I've read are by authors who are already well established in their genres, I just hadn't heard of them. Name recognition doesn't count anywhere near as much as telling a good story does. So the answer to your question on that front is no, I wouldn't've paid money for them unless I'd had a few dozen people here or on another forum I frequent telling me, "You HAVE to read this book!" I simply never would have come across them any other way.


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## Thalia the Muse (Jan 20, 2010)

I'm pretty selective about what I download -- if I wouldn't check it out of the library for free (which covers a boatload of books!), I'm not going to bother putting it on the Kindle either.

So far I've read three non-public-domain freebies.


Two Rivers was pretty good, a nice literary novel that I enjoyed. I would definitely pick something else by this author up, so mission accomplished.
The Equivoque Principle I thought was terribly, terribly badly written and completely unimaginative. I only finished it because I was reading choice gems of prose aloud in the car on a road trip. Holy cow, it was just dreadful (and NOT an indie book! From an actual publishing house!)
Going Gray (an entire book-length memoir about the author deciding to stop dyeing her hair) I would never have paid for, but ended up finishing and finding less shallow than I expected. Glad I read it, and glad I didn't pay for it. 


I just downloaded Booth's Sister from Amazon as a free book -- we'll see where it falls on the free-book-o-meter.


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## Steph H (Oct 28, 2008)

VictoriaP said:


> In one case, I bought all the sequels, all the other books in another genre by the same author, copies of most of her books in print form as presents, and have coaxed about 10 people into reading her stuff. Through reading her books, I also found a number of other series recommended by people who read the same thing, and I've bought those.


Inquiring minds (or at least my inquiring mind ) want to know...who? (or is that 'whom'?) I seem to recall your having many similar tastes to mine, I'm always up for new-to-me suggestions, if in fact it would be.


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## VictoriaP (Mar 1, 2009)

Steph H said:


> Inquiring minds (or at least my inquiring mind ) want to know...who? (or is that 'whom'?) I seem to recall your having many similar tastes to mine, I'm always up for new-to-me suggestions, if in fact it would be.


LOL; I'm almost positive you and I have discussed this one, and I'm reasonably sure you read it too. The freebie was Darkfever, Karen Marie Moning, which came out in midsummer. Ended up buying the four Fever books (fifth out in December this year), all of her Highlander books (not a genre I normally read, 8 in total), copies of 6 of them for a friend, and the CD that goes with the books. (Oh, and when my husband decided to read them: One print hardcover of Bloodfever that I had to repay the library for when my dog ate it. Literally. $22 since it's out of print.)

From recommendations on her forum, I ended up reading the Black Dagger Brotherhood books (J.R. Ward; 7 books, going on #, the Weather Warden series (Rachel Caine; 8, going on 9), started the Night Huntress series (Jeanine Frost; read 1 & 2, downloaded but haven't started #3 of 4), and as a combined effort between readers there and here, started the In Death books (J.D. Robb; recently started #5 of 30+).

Jeez, I don't even know what that totals out to, it gets worse every time I look at it and I'll bet I missed a few books here and there. The publishers are making a killing on my reading addiction...I mean, _habit_! All from one freaking free book. Maybe I should stop advocating downloading them--this is like a drug dealer offering your first dose free and then they'll nail you once you're hooked. 

Obviously they're not all going to end up with that kind of crazy spending, but the two standouts from last year's ebook week that I remember were His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik (book six comes out later this year; read the first 5) and Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb (three linked trilogies so far; I read the first three books). And I sometimes think half this forum read those and their sequels; even a year later they still come up in threads pretty regularly. Both were downloaded through Amazon.


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## Steph H (Oct 28, 2008)

Ah yes, I believe I do recall that conversation. I haven't actually read Darkfever yet though I do have it, so I haven't gotten sucked into her others yet either. LOL  I've got samples of Black Dagger and Weather Warden series first books but haven't read yet; I've read 3 of 4 of Night Huntress but not the 4th yet.  Completely caught up on In Death, I've been reading that series for years, pre-Kindle and read Fantasy In Death, the latest, on Saturday afternoon.

And even though I remember having a sample of His Majesty's Dragon, I was still a bit wary of the premise so hadn't yet bought it when it became free (same with Darkfever, actually), and read it a couple of months later and immediately bought the rest of them too. That was a fun series, looking forward to the next one.

Have you read the newest one by Robin Hobb in the same world as the Liveship trilogy, that just came out last month or maybe late January? Probably not if you've only read the first trilogy. I think the second one in that new trilogy comes out this summer (Rain Wild trilogy or something similar, without looking it up).  I'd read the first three trilogies pre-Kindle also...but that didn't stop me from re-reading once Assassin's Apprentice came out free (well, grabbing that one free and then buying the rest and re-reading a few months later).

Love me some freebies...


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## worktolive (Feb 3, 2009)

VictoriaP said:


> LOL; I'm almost positive you and I have discussed this one, and I'm reasonably sure you read it too. The freebie was Darkfever, Karen Marie Moning, which came out in midsummer.


I picked up Darkfever last summer when it was free. It's taken me this long to get around to it, but I just finished it and loved it and can't wait to read the rest of the series. Since the final book won't come out until December though, I'm trying to space them out.  I'm not usually into Highlander type books, but on the strength of Darkfever, I'm also planning on reading her Immortal Highlander series (what is that, 6 books?). So yes, the free book gimmick has yielded Karen Marie Moning a bunch of additional sales that she otherwise might not have gotten.

Another author that I started reading thanks to a really cheap book offer is Lilith Saint Crow. I picked up the first book in her Jill Kismet series when it was featured as a $1 Orbit download last year. I promptly got hooked, have read the rest of the Kismets, a stand-alone of hers, and am planning to read her Dante Valentine series (5 books I think). Yet another example is Laurel Hamilton's Meredith Gentry series. I'd been put off by its reviews and hadn't planned to read it, but it was offered as a free book so I downloaded it, read it, loved it, and proceeded to tear through the other 7 books in that series. I'll probably try the Anita Blake series also.

In answer to the question that was asked earlier in this thread, I download free books although I'm somewhat selective - I usually don't like mysteries/thrillers/horror, am not wild about straight fantasy, and don't like books where you are beaten over the head with religion, so I usually don't download any of those, but if the book is anything even close to a genre I might like, I get it. I don't usually bother with samples because free offers often disappear quickly and why bother reading a sample when you can just get the whole book? I think I've read about 50% of the free books I've downloaded. I read 15-20+ books per month so I make an effort every month to read at least a couple of the freebies I've picked up. Of the ones I've started, I'd say I've enjoyed about half of them.

Also, if the freebie is by an established author, I'm more likely to download it. When I first got my K, I downloaded a bunch of free or very cheap Indie releases and for me at least, the quality was just not there in the majority of them. Nowadays, unless the plot really appeals to me, I don't usually download Indie releases even if they are freebies.


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## David.Niall.Wilson (Feb 28, 2010)

I may decide to make one of mine free, but I made all of them (at Smashwords) fifty percent off.  I think it's cool to see a week dedicated to e-books..and even cooler to see enthusiasm about it.


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## pomlover2586 (Feb 14, 2009)

Does Amazon also participate in this week? More freebies than usual? Or is it just smashwords, gutenberg etc?


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## VictoriaP (Mar 1, 2009)

pomlover2586 said:


> Does Amazon also participate in this week? More freebies than usual? Or is it just smashwords, gutenberg etc?


Seems to be up to the publishers to decide which books they're going to put up. Amazon had several last year.


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## mlewis78 (Apr 19, 2009)

I wasn't aware of this last year and that was probably because I had not yet discovered kindleboards.


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## chipotle (Jan 1, 2010)

I do better with free nonfiction books - those usually appeal to me more and are more likely to actually get read. There were a couple books on longevity in the Kindle store at New Year's that I found interesting. I do download some free fiction but I haven't yet found a free novel that would make me go buy more by the author.


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## JennaAnderson (Dec 25, 2009)

Thalia the Muse said:


> [*]The Equivoque Principle I thought was terribly, terribly badly written
> I just downloaded Booth's Sister from Amazon as a free book -- we'll see where it falls on the free-book-o-meter.


Thanks for the heads up on The Equivoque Principle. I have it on my Kindle and will probably delete.
I am reading Booth's Sister right now and am about 15% into it. Umm - well, it started out good but got weird.

Back to the subject of this thread... I will check out Smashwords and Amazon next week for some good deals. I don't know how to get the books from Smashwords onto my Kindle yet but I'll visit the tips thread and figure it out.

If you buy a book off of Smashwords the author gets a bigger cut. Amazon takes much more for their pockets than the Smashwords people do.

Jenna


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## ChatNoir (Dec 21, 2009)

Kim Harrison's "Dead Witch Walking" is currently a freebie on Amazon.  It's the first book in 'The Hollows' series.  If you're not familiar with the series, it falls under the 'urban fantasy' genre like Jim Butler's Harry Dresden books.

I'm sure it's a teaser promo, as the eighth book in the series "Black Magic Sanction" is due out April 6th.  Nothing wrong with that.  I have the DTB version in a box somewhere, nice to have it on my Kindle.


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## worktolive (Feb 3, 2009)

JennaAnderson said:


> I am reading Booth's Sister right now and am about 15% into it. Umm - well, it started out good but got weird.


I like historical fiction so I thought Booth's Sister would be interesting, but by the time I was 20% into it, I decided it was a DNF. At least it was free so I didn't waste any money on it.


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## mlewis78 (Apr 19, 2009)

worktolive said:


> I like historical fiction so I thought Booth's Sister would be interesting, but by the time I was 20% into it, I decided it was a DNF. At least it was free so I didn't waste any money on it.


What does DNF stand for?


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## angel_b (Nov 18, 2009)

I think it means 'Do Not Finish'.

I went to Cory Doctorow's site to try to download his freebie. Instead of downloading, the azw file opened and same for the prc file. I know I've had this problem before but I can't remember how I solved it, and the search function didn't help.

Anybody have a solution?


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## MariaESchneider (Aug 1, 2009)

Right click the file instead of clicking.  Then you'll get a menu (that varies by OS) but there will be some sort of save file choice!

Maria


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## worktolive (Feb 3, 2009)

mlewis78 said:


> What does DNF stand for?


DNF = Did not finish. If the book is bad enough or offensive enough, it's also a wallbanger (ie, I hated it so much that I threw it against the wall  ). In general, I always try to finish a book if I've started it, so DNF rarely happens with books that I've picked out myself, but it happens about 50% of the time with free or really cheap bargain books. I've really cut down on downloading those, because I don't want them cluttering up my TBR pile and I'd so much rather read books that I really want to read instead of reading something I picked up just because it was free.


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## David.Niall.Wilson (Feb 28, 2010)

In Honor of eBOOK Week, All titles published through Macabre Ink Digital Publishing will be 50% off from the 7th to the 13th of March. If you purchase through the site, use the coupon code eBOOKWeek when you check out. This only applies to products under the Macabre Ink Digital link on the site...the Darkside Digital and Print books will not be on sale during this promotion. This will make most of the short stories and novelettes about $.50 apiece...and most of the books about $2.50.

David


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## angel_b (Nov 18, 2009)

MariaESchneider said:


> Right click the file instead of clicking. Then you'll get a menu (that varies by OS) but there will be some sort of save file choice!
> 
> Maria


Thanks for the suggestion Maria, but right-clicking only brought up options for the link itself.

I now remember the solution, and I also remember posting 'stupid Firefox'. 

It downloaded using Google Chrome.


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## JennaAnderson (Dec 25, 2009)

worktolive said:


> I like historical fiction so I thought Booth's Sister would be interesting, but by the time I was 20% into it, I decided it was a DNF. At least it was free so I didn't waste any money on it.


OK - I gave Booth's Sister until 30% and then gave up. The description does not reflect the contents of the book at all. There were too many times I thought "What the heck is happening?" that I gave up.

Jenna


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## danfan (Apr 17, 2009)

I'm planning to promote a different genre every day this week on my blog. Today I looked at kids and teen books. I just listed a few of our favorites at home (free and paid books), but if anyone has any input for others YA/ Kids ebooks to help others, please feel free to add them to my blog comments!

Link: Kids ebooks


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## TC Beacham (Nov 23, 2009)

Wow, thanks Steph!

I didn't even have my Kindle this time last year and hadn't heard of this.


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## SimonWood (Nov 13, 2009)

Don't forget to use the coupon codes over at Smashwords.  Books are either designated with a RAE25, RAE50 OR RFREE code.


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## David.Niall.Wilson (Feb 28, 2010)

Added a free e-Book - a novelette originally published in my collection "Defining Moments" - sort of Lovecraftian ******* humorous horror...and free. Did I mention that?

Cockroach Suckers - download from Smashwords - Coupon code is: RFREE


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## plumboz (Sep 24, 2009)

At this time last year I hadn't paid much attention to the whole ebook phenomenon. Certainly hadn't considered doing an ebook version of my book. But every day that goes by I am happier about making the decision to do so. The readership for Boomerang has increased immensely, and now that my "publisher" had decided to impose an annual fee to keep the paperback version available (a fee I won't be paying), the ebook will soon be the only version. Which is fine with me since the cost to readers is substantially lower and my earnings are in most cases better than with the paperback.

So I just wanted to say thanks to the readers here who have helped make this writer a convert to ebooks. I'm even reading them on my web book computer now, athough one day I hope to have a dedicated device.

Best,
Alan


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## chiefdalek (Jan 25, 2010)

I have two novels going free on Smashwords. One is permanently free and the other is free only during Read an E-Book Week -> http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/PatrickWhittaker

Enjoy!


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