Zlibrary has caused quite the stir in the book community recently (note: this post was written in Nov 2023 but is updated regularly). Some folks for it. Some against it. Authors hurt. Readers hurt. It’s a mess all-around. But I’m not here to judge you if you were someone who used it. My opinion doesn’t matter, and this topic is immensely nuanced.

However, I did want to provide some great newsletters and websites you may not have known about where you can score some free-to-cheap eBooks. I hope this will help both authors by keeping things legal and also readers by giving you more options.

(Please note: This is specifically about fiction, though some options may offer nonfiction reads.)

Bookbub: You can view all their deals or sort it directly for free eBooks.

Binge Books: They have a “Trending Deals” section.

Hello Books: You can view deals on their website or sign up for emails.

Free Booksy: Free ebooks posted daily, woo! Also offers an email.

Shameless Book Deals: If erotica is your poison, this site sends out a daily newsletter with deals and new releases.

LGBT Romance Deals: New releases and deals from queer romance authors.

KU Obsession: Wanna hear about some of the newest KU romance releases? Subscribe to this newsletter.

Skye Kilaen: This queer author sends out a monthly newsletter of queer romance.

Bargain Booksy: Ran by the same folks behind Freebooksy, except this newsletter has cheap books versus completely free. Deals can be viewed on their website as well.

Booksweeps: They have an entire section devoted to free books. You can even filter by tropes! This site also runs giveaways all the time. Join some!

Red Feather Romance: Another newsletter ran by the company behind Free Booksy, except this one is devoted solely to romance (and I think erotica as well). Deals can be viewed online, too. No need to subscribe.

Stuff Your Kindle: Zoe York is working to compile a list of all the free book blasts that happen throughout the year in the book world, so expect this list to grow. Check out the list here.

Bookspry: Daily updates of free to super cheap ebooks. Focuses mostly on Romance, Erotica, Sci-Fi, and Fantasy.

I Heart SapphFic: Great website for sapphic releases. They even have a free books section.

MyQueerSapphFic: Discounts and new release of WLW fiction. You can join their newsletter or view the deals on their website.

LitRing: They host giveaways, deals, and more. Check out their For Readers section at the top.

Book Rebel: Newsletter of daily deals. Posts trad and indies. Free and cheap books.

Digital Book Today: Another newsletter of daily freebies, but you can also view things on their website.

Excite Steam: With a focus on steamy romance, Selena Kitt compiles free and on sale deals daily for this newsletter.

Excite Spice: Also run by Selena Kitt, Excite Spice focuses on erotica and high, high heat romance, sending out daily freebies and deals.

WOC In Romance: I’m not entirely sure this site posts deals specifically, but they do post new releases and sometimes authors release at lower prices, so I wanted to include it. You can browse books by tropes/themes here. (Update: I’m not sure this site is updated on the regular anymore, but I’m going to leave it.)

Eden Books: They send out free reads weekly. Look for the “SIGNUP TO OUR NEWSLETTER” ticker on their website.

TheBookQueen: She has been posting daily deals on romance books for years now. You can find her on Tumblr and Twitter too.

Amazon: On each genre page, you will find the Top 100 Paid bestselling Kindle eBooks and the Top 100 FREE bestselling eBooks. This changes constantly!

Smashwords: Their front page can be sorted based on price, including free.

Kobo: They have a section for eBook Savings and also Free eBooks. They also have free audiobooks.

Barnes and Noble: Also have a section for Deals and Free eBooks.

Google Play: You can find deals under $5 or sort books by Top Free. They also have free audiobooks.

Prolific Works: Genre-specific promotions run every month with tons of free eBooks. Scroll down to the bottom to see some of the featured current promotions. These will normally require you to subscribe to an author’s newsletter in exchange for the free copy, but you can always unsub.

Bookfunnel: Same as Prolific Works above, subscribing is normally required but not always. And you can unsub if you’d like. However, unlike PW, they don’t list their promotions on their page (which boggles my mind). But if you search for “Bookfunnel promotion” on Twitter, you can usually find some that are open, like this one and this one.

StoryOrigin: In the same vein as Bookfunnel, StoryOrigin hosts group promos with sale and free books all the time. Countless ones!

Ream: New on the book scene, Ream is the author-focused version of Patreon. But one thing, amongst many, that set it apart is, you can actually BROWSE for books!

Early Bird Books: This website sends out daily deals.

Chirp Books: If audio is your preferred flavor, this Bookbub-backed site will send out highly marked down audiobooks daily to your email.

Jeeves Reads: This romance reader creates massive lists of free and discounted books every day. I suggest following them on Twitter.

Goodreads: They have a giveaways section.

The Fussy Librarian: Daily deals posted on their website and sent out in a daily newsletter.

Subscriptions: Other than KU, there’s also Everand and Kobo Plus, which offer unlimited reads per month (Everand ever includes audiobooks in this plan). Also, if you’re already a Spotify premium user, you get 15 FREE hours of audiobook listening in your plan each month.

ARCs: Sign up on places like Netgalley, Booksprout, BookSirens, and Voracious Readers Only, or apply to your fave authors’ teams to get books early and for free. (Please try to actually leave them reviews, though.)

Filthy Rich Romance: If you like billionaire and mafia romance, this site will introduce you to new releases and deals.

Read Me Romance: This romance podcast, curated by Alexa Riley, features free audiobooks every episode. I believe they also have a newsletter.

Coffee Time Romance: This website regularly features deals, contests, and more.

Want to read a specific book? Subscribe to that author’s mailing list. You’ll be the first to know when they have a sale on it or are giving it out for free. Lots of authors also give perks to their subscribers! I’ve given my subscribers books for free that I didn’t offer as such to the general public. Or use your local library or local little library, if you have the ability to.

You can also subscribe to out of state libraries if you’re in the USA. Book Riot has a good list here. This will allow you to tap into bigger catalogs of ebooks and audiobooks, no matter where you live in the States.

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I totally understand that some level of privilege probably still applies here and a simple list can’t solve systemic access issues and such, but I hope I’ve helped some folks out with this list.

If you know of any other legal means of finding free-to-cheap eBooks that I’ve left out, please leave a comment below and I’ll amend my post 😊

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