Brooke Vitale

Children’s Book Editorial Services

The Top 20 Free eBook Sites to Download Free eBooks in 2023

The Top 20 Free eBook Sites to Download Free eBooks in 2023

Free eBooks. They’re the best way to test out a new author, or even a new book genre. And for children’s books, they’re a great way for a parent to test out a book with their kids before spending money on a book that will never be read again. But does getting free eBooks mean only getting the books no one else wants to read? Absolutely not! For publishers, free eBook promotions are a great way to draw attention to upcoming books in a series, which means eBook promotion sites will often offer free eBook versions of popular books a few weeks before the author’s new launch. And for smaller presses and independent authors, eBooks promotions are a way to generate traffic and reviews to their books. The truth is, yes, some of the free eBooks out there may not be your style. But the good news is, they’re free! So if you don’t like them, no harm done. And if you do, well you may just find a new favorite author!

So, what are the best free eBook promotion sites? Let’s take a look!


BookBub

BookBub is a free book promotion service that offers free eBooks and deeply discounted eBooks. Members are encouraged to pick the book categories they like to read. They then receive daily emails featuring eBook promotions (both free eBooks and discounted eBooks) in those genres, as well as a weekly wrap-up of the best books of the week.

Because BookBub is a favorite eBook promotion site for publishers, you can get some really great deals here. (Even books that aren’t free will be highly discounted!)

BookBub works Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble Nook, Apple Books,Google Play, and Kobo.


Freebooksy

Freebooksy is a free eBook promotion site that allows readers to select the book genres they want to read. Members then receive daily emails about free eBooks in their chosen genres. eBook promotions are also listed on the website, however they are not updated regularly, so be sure before clicking “buy” that the book is still listed as free.


Booksends

Booksends is a free eBook promotion site that allows readers to select the book genres they want to read. Members then receive daily emails about free eBooks in their chosen genres. Daily eBook promotions are also listed on the website for anyone who wants to do their own digging. Unlike other book promotion services, Booksends only offers Kindle book promotions.


Manybooks

Manybooks is a free eBook promotion site that allows readers to download free eBooks. Unlike other eBook promotion services that link to third-party sources to download the book, Manybooks offers download directly from their site. Manybooks also has the distinction of being one of the few free eBook sites that allows readers to sort their books by rating (based on 5 star). There is a strong focus on classics books here, though other genres do exist as well.


The Fussy Librarian

The Fussy Librarian is a free eBook promotion site that offers free eBooks and discounted eBooks. Like most Ebook promotion services, readers are encouraged to select the book genres they want to read. Once those have been selected, readers will receive emails listing the eBook promotions. Unlike most free eBook sites, The Fussy Librarian does not necessarily send out emails every day. Rather, the reader chooses what day(s) of the week they want to get emails. The Fussy Librarian also allows readers to filter their free eBooks based on preferences for language (profanity), sexual content, and violence.


Book Gorilla

Book Gorilla is a free eBook promotion site that sends readers a single daily email based on their reading preferences. Unlike other eBook promotion services that offer a set number of offers in each email, Book Gorilla allows readers to choose whether they’d like to see 12, 25, or 50 deals. Book Gorilla’s promise is that all books they feature will be bestsellers, written by authors with previous bestsellers to their credit, published by a highly respected publisher, or highly rated by readers and reviewers. Book Gorilla exclusively offers Kindle book promotions.


Free-eBooks.net

Free-eBooks.net is a free eBook promotion site offers readers direct download of eBooks. Readers who subscribe to the service can download 5 free eBooks each month. Free-eBooks.net also allows authors to publish their eBooks directly to their website, which means that a large part of the free eBook offerings come from independent authors. Most of the rest are classics.


Book Cave

Book Cave is a free eBook promotion site offers readers direct download of eBooks from independent authors, as well as free eBooks and discounted eBooks from publishers. Like most eBook promotion services, readers are encouraged to select the book genres they want to read. Once those have been selected, readers will receive emails listing the eBook promotions. Book Cave allows readers to sort eBook promotions by retailer, genre, and sexual content.

Book Cave works Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble Nook, Apple Books,Google Play, Smashwords, and Kobo.4


CentslessBooks

Centsless Books is a free eBook promotion site offers readers direct download of eBooks from independent authors, as well as free eBooks and discounted eBooks from publishers. Like most eBook promotion services, readers are encouraged to select the book genres they want to read. Once those have been selected, readers will receive emails listing the eBook promotions.


Book Boon

Book Boon is a unique free eBook site. Instead of typical free eBooks, it offers free textbooks. A big win for students who have high bills to pay, but not for everyone.


Free Kids Books

Free Kids Books is a free eBook promotions site that offers readers a wide variety of children’s books (and math activities) divided by grade level. Rather than send readers an email featuring eBook promotions, readers are invited to browse the site for eBooks, coloring pages, and math activities. Free eBooks can be read online or downloaded as a PDF.


Project Gutenberg

Project Gutenberg is an entirely public-domain-based free eBook site. It offers over 60,000 eBooks, all of which are no longer covered by US copyright. Books can be downloaded as ePubs or as Kindle ebooks, or can be read online. The online books are written in plain text, which makes copying and pasting passages (especially for book reports) easy!


Overdrive

Overdrive is, hands-down, one of the best free eBook sites available. But there’s a catch. Unlike most free eBook promotion sites, Overdrive does not allow readers to buy eBooks. Instead, it has partnered with more than 43,000 libraries to allow readers to borrow digital materials. Which means that in order to use Overdrive, you need to have an active Library card. With that, you can sign up for an Overdrive account and check out any eBooks, audio books, or digital magazines offered by your local library. Free eBooks can either be downloaded as ePub files or can be downloaded from Amazon as Kindle eBooks.


Open Library

Open Library is another free eBook lending site. Unlike Overdrive, which requires a library card, Open Library simply requires a subscription. The site offers millions of free eBooks, though they don’t tend to have recent books. Readers are able to check out check out up to ten books at a time.


Kindle Unlimited

Unlike most of the free eBook promotion sites, Amazon offers a paid service that allows readers to download unlimited eBooks. A Kindle Unlimited membership is $9.99 per month, and offers over a million eBooks, audio books, and magazines.


Apple Books

Though not as extensive as Kindle Unlimited, Apple Books offers a wide selection of free eBooks for download.


Google Play

Google Play offers an extensive collection of free eBooks. Though most of the free books do not come from top publishers, readers who are willing to spend time searching can still find good options. To find free eBooks, simply type “free eBooks” in the search bar on Google Books.


Barnes and Noble

Barnes & Noble offers an extensive collection of free eBooks. To find free eBooks, simply type “free eBooks” in the search bar on Google Books. These lists are curated by Barnes and Noble to offer the staff’s top picks for free eBooks. Because books are being downloaded by Barnes and Noble, they can usually only be read on Nook, Barnes and Nobel’s proprietary eBook reader.


Kobo

Kobo is an eBook retailer. It offers a wide array of free eBooks, most notably in the romance and thriller genres. A search of “free eBooks” in the search bar will provide a long list of available eBooks.


Ebooks.com

Ebooks.com is a traditional eBook retailer, offering a wide selection of eBooks for purchase. It does offer a variety of free eBooks, particularly classics already in the public domain.


Smashwords

Smashwords is a traditional eBook retailer, offering a wide selection of eBooks for purchase. But Smashwords is also a publisher, allowing independent authors to publish their books directly to the site for sale. The result is a abundance of discounted and free eBooks for purchase.


Oxford Owl

Oxford Owl is a UK-based eBook retailer founded by the Oxford University Press. Oxford Owl offers a wide selection of free eBooks based on learning and literacy. eBooks are divided by age, grade, and reading level to help parents find the best fit for their children.

If you are an author trying to decide whether producing an eBook is worthwhile, you should check out my article Publish an eBook to Drive Book Reviews and Book Sales.

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Children's book editor Brooke Vitale

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