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Free or significantly discounted ebooks
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Jeanne
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Feb 04, 2012 02:31pm
As ereaders become more and more popular, many publishers are offering the first book in a series for free or significantly cheap to get you hooked in to the series hoping you'll buy the other books in the series at full price. This thread is a place to share those findings with others so we may all benefit from the bargains.
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While not exactly fantasy, it is by a great fantasy author: Amazon has Piers Anthony’s epic six book sci-fi series, Bio of a Space Tyrant on sale now through February 6th. Read Volume 1: Refugee FREE (regularly 2.99) and Volumes 2-6 for ONLY .99 (regularly 3.99-4.99).
Great. Thanks for the tip, I now have volume 1 on my Kindle and will look forward to reading it when my To Read list is a little shorter. I much prefer Fantasy but do like the occasional Sci-Fi.
I haven't found any that are free yet, but I'll keep an eye on this thread. If it sounds interesting I'll probably add to my TBR list. Smart idea :)
They don't necessarily need to be free. I've seen some pretty good ebooks that are normally $10-$25 offered for $.99 which is great deal!
Shannon wrote: "Are the Piers Anthony ones the Thomas Covenant series?"Thomas Covenant is the series by Stephen R. Donaldson. I believe Anthony is most well know for his Xanth series.
Stephen wrote: "Shannon wrote: "Are the Piers Anthony ones the Thomas Covenant series?"Thomas Covenant is the series by Stephen R. Donaldson. I believe Anthony is most well know for his Xanth se..."
You're right, of course. It's all a muddle in my brain of things I keep meaning to read and haven't gotten around to yet. Thanks.
Check out this site: Baen Free Library.Their self-description: "Baen Books is now making available — for free — a number of its titles in electronic format. We're calling it the Baen Free Library. Anyone who wishes can read these titles online — no conditions, no strings attached."
I downloaded 1632 and On Basilisk Station for free. See if they have anything you want!
Will wrote: "Anything by Piers Anthony has to be worth a look"Yes, but, fair warning, the Bio of A Space Pirate books are not his usual style. More intense, grimmer, explicit.
On facebook and their individual websites checkout Ereader News Today, Daily Cheap Reads, Pixel of Ink, and Freebooksy
Ben, I love Baen books...not only do they have the free library, but things seem to be cheaper there for all titles.
Maggie wrote: "Ben, I love Baen books...not only do they have the free library, but things seem to be cheaper there for all titles."The selection is a bit slim since I am not into a lot of the authors they carry but with the free books and my Kindle... who knows?
I currently reading The Book of Deacon by Joseph Lallo. It's the first in a trilogy and it's free on Amazon. I'm enjoying it so far and I'll post a reveiw when I've finished it.
Also, works that are old enough to be part of the public domain can be found a lot of times at Project Gutenberg. http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page
Jeanne wrote: "They don't necessarily need to be free. I've seen some pretty good ebooks that are normally $10-$25 offered for $.99 which is great deal!"This is what makes ebooks so awesome. Only got my Kindle at Christmas but now I'd never be without it. So many good books and so cheap!
I said this on another thread, but I'm currently reading John Carter of Mars Series on my Kindle -- it's got 3 books for 99 cents, which is a killer deal if you like the olf ER Burroughs style (I do). Also, back in Sept I read The Gamble of the Godless and really enjoyed it; it's recently dropped to 99 cents, maybe for the reasons Jeanne mentions in her first post. It's a good book.
Joseph wrote: "Another one: The Darkening Dream by Andy Gavin free on Kindle."Thanks - downloading this now.
The Kindle daily deal for today is Against the Light.
It's on sale for $0.99
www.amazon.com/kindledailydeal
The indie eBook The Universal Mirror is free through today (2/9). Haven't read it but downloaded it; looks promising.
Barry wrote: "Omensent: Birth of a Dragon Lord Book one of the Dragon Lord series 2.99 Amazonhttp://www.amazon.com/Birth-Dragon-Lo...
Omensent: Rise of the Shadow Dragons Book two of..."
This is not the place to promote your own books. Please put these things in the Author Self Promotion folder after this.
Sandra aka Sleo wrote: "Barry wrote: "Omensent: Birth of a Dragon Lord Book one of the Dragon Lord series 2.99 Amazonhttp://www.amazon.com/Birth-Dragon-Lo...
Omensent: Rise of the Shadow Drago..."
Oh okay, sorry. Still learning what's acceptable, what's not.
And if anyone wants free H.P. Lovecraft (all of his solo stories, I believe), check out http://cthulhuchick.com/.
I believe that Dragon Fate is going to be free all day Friday, March 9th, in celebration of "Read an E-Book Week".
Santa Olivia by Jacqueline Carey is $2.99 at Amazon and the other Usual Suspects.http://www.amazon.com/Santa-Olivia-eb...
Today (3/23/12) Amazon has 5 YA Kindle books for $1.99 each:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Scorpio-Rac...
http://www.amazon.com/The-Eleventh-Pl...
http://www.amazon.com/Green-Heart-ebo...
http://www.amazon.com/Ashes-ebook/dp/...
http://www.amazon.com/Empty-ebook/dp/...
Joseph wrote: "Amazon has Hollowland by Amanda Hocking available for free."Gives me a great excuse to finally read her work.
Matt wrote: "Joseph wrote: "Amazon has Hollowland by Amanda Hocking available for free."Gives me a great excuse to finally read her work."
I'm also curious just because I'm originally from Austin, Minnesota, where she lives, although I think I had moved out of town long before she arrived there.
I'm reading Dave maine's The Gamble of the Godless and I'm really liking it. It's 99 cents now, I guess discounted from a higher price (4.99?) because he is releasing the second book in the series soon. This is the first in the series and it's really fun. Here's the link (eBook only I think). http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005...
Also, The Hunger Games is $5 on Amazon, or free if you join Amazon Prime (but I don't really know how that works). Probably everybody has already read it but me lol. http://www.amazon.com/The-Hunger-Game...
William King (probably best known for his books in the Warhammer universe, especially Gotrik & Felix) has a bunch of self-published stuff on Amazon for anywhere from $0.00 to $5.99. I've read most of it and have been reasonably entertained -- it's a bargain at the price.http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_nr_p_n...
For those of you who have not yet tried Janny Wurts' Wars of Light and Shadows series, here's a give away of the first and last books in the series. Stefan Raets, who has reviewed for Fantasyliterature.com and Tor.com has his own blog now and is offering a give away of The Curse of the Mistwraith, the first book; and Initiate's Trial, the most recent book in the series. Go to his blog to read the details.http://farbeyondreality.com/author/fa...
Besides, it's a good blog to follow. His reviews are excellent.
There's a great site which has lists of free books for Kindle. They will send you a daily email with 25 recommended free books, or there are full lists on the website. If you have DRM-stripping software, you can read the books on other devices too. Here's the UK site (click the flag on the home page to jump to the US site):
http://www.ereaderiq.co.uk/
Also, don't forget the Kindle Daily Deal - a book every day reduced to a nominal price.
Amber wrote: "Well, darn, I don't have a kindle. I am still attached to my sony. :("You can read Kindle books on your computer or your smartphone, if something you want is only available on Kindle.
Jeannette wrote: "Amber wrote: "Well, darn, I don't have a kindle. I am still attached to my sony. :("You can read Kindle books on your computer or your smartphone, if something you want is only available on Kindle."
I wish!! :) But, I have five kids and a husband that I share the computer with. I don't have much time on it. I don't use the smartphone either. :)
many of the books marked down by Amazon are also marked down by Kobo and Sony. I love my Sony had have zero desire for a Kindle.
Amber wrote: "But, I have five kids and a husband that I share the computer with. I don't have much time on it. "Oh, that's not right. Sounds to me like you need an iPad :-)
Alternatively, you could ask the family members hogging the computer to look into ways of converting Kindle ebooks to Sony format for you. It can be done with Calibre (and other free software), but it involves stripping off the DRM, which you may not be comfortable with (the legality of it is a bit of a grey area, and varies from country to country).
Apparently you can convert Kindle books to whatever format you want by downloading the free program Calibre.
Sandra aka Sleo wrote: "Apparently you can convert Kindle books to whatever format you want by downloading the free program Calibre."Really? If that's true, I really want a copy of the Kurt Vonnegut single that's topping the charts right now (I believe it's called Basic Training). However, I can't bring myself to break my boycott with Amazon, even for a couple of bucks, especially after reading a couple of articles posted yesterday in the Seattle Times (Part 1 http://t.co/VTu4pSO and Part 2 http://t.co/lvW7IVl)
Sandra aka Sleo wrote: "Apparently you can convert Kindle books to whatever format you want by downloading the free program Calibre."Actually, Calipre will only convert books that are DRM free. Most Kindle books contain DRM. To remive DRM, you'll need to use another program to strip the DRM from the file, which, as Pauline noted, is a legally gray area.
DRM is designed to control where a product ends up and what happens to it so it can't be copied and resold, similar to bootlegging or those "authors' that change a few characters names and the title resell the book on Amazon as original.
Jon wrote: "Sandra aka Sleo wrote: "Apparently you can convert Kindle books to whatever format you want by downloading the free program Calibre."Really? If that's true, I really want a copy of the Kurt Vonn..."
I'm going by the conversation in the Barnes & Noble Nook club. I haven't tried it myself.
The DRM remover for Kindle docs looks like a bear to use & I wasn't positive that it didn't contain bad stuff, so I never tried it. I just don't get Kindle books, ever. If Amazon wants to be proprietary & lock out all other devices, they don't get my money. There are plenty of non-DRM books out there. Amazon should buy a clue from Apple & their music sales.
Lara wrote: "Actually, Calibre will only convert books that are DRM free. Most Kindle books contain DRM. To remove DRM, you'll need to use another program to strip the DRM from the file, which, as Pauline noted, is a legally gray area."You can now get a plug-in for Calibre which does the DRM-stripping automatically as you import, which is very convenient.
As for the legal grey area - DRM-stripping for personal use (so you can backup your ebooks or read them on a different device) is the grey area, and probably Amazon's corporate lawyers have better things to do with their time than chase round after people reading Kindle books on a Sony. Uploading the DRM-free ebooks to the internet, selling or otherwise distributing them is not a grey area at all - it's illegal, plain and simple. Thought it best to make that clear.
Fantasy Book Club
Books mentioned in this topic
The Goose Girl (other topics)Hollowland (other topics)
1632 (other topics)
On Basilisk Station (other topics)
The Darkening Dream (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Amanda Hocking (other topics)Stephen R. Donaldson (other topics)
Andy Gavin (other topics)
Neil Gaiman (other topics)
H.P. Lovecraft (other topics)
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