Free Books!

You don't become a writer if you don't enjoy reading. If you want to be an effective writer, you must read both good and bad writing, so you learn to tell the difference. But where do you get all this reading material? Buy it? Libraries? Trade with friends? All good ideas.

Or you could get free books.

The first place I want to recommend is our Sunday chats. Our guests nearly always give away a free book. All you have to do to be eligible is show up. It doesn't get much easier than that.

There are other places to get free books, and I hit them all. You can too. Most involve signing up for a mailing list. But what's wrong with receiving an email saying "Come over and win a free book!" I welcome emails like that.

If you're into ebooks (and who isn't, especially if they're free!), Tor is sharing. Sign up for their Watch the Skies newsletter, and you will get a free ebook download every week. Yes, EVERY WEEK! A free ebook and book wallpapers you can download to your computer.

This is for a limited time, so don't wait. Go get what they're offering. I got a kick out of their statement on the site: "This program will end when the site launches, but you can keep the free books; we won’t be erasing them with our orbital attack electromagnets. (Yet.) Did we mention, watch the skies?"

Harper Collins is getting into the act too. "Eos is 10 years old! To kick-off our yearlong anniversary party, we're giving away free e-books! Every two months for 2008, we'll give away a new free e-book at www.harpercollinsebooks.com/eos10 ." I just got a new novel by Raymond Feist.

I haven't found anyone who gives away thousands of print books, but there are contests where you get a chance to win them.

Every week, Great American Book Giveaway does exactly what it says it will...it gives books away. All you have to do is visit the website, choose one of the five books they are spotlighting that week, type in your email address and click a button. You will receive an email thanking you for registering. At the end of the week, you will receive an email telling you if you won or not, and inviting you to check out the next week's selections. I haven't won there yet, but I've added a lot of books to my want-to-read list.

Every month, BookBitch offers dozens of free books. All it takes is an email to enter. I just received "Slip of the Knife" by Denise Mina, because I was a winner in February!

A lot of authors have contests for their newsletter members. I've won several books that way too. Found a couple guests for the chatroom by winning free books. Wrote a lot of reviews too.

So there are a few places to start with. Where do you go to get free books?

Audrey