3 Ways to Get FREE Books

Reading Time: 7 minutes

Don’t let your reading habit eat up your budget. There are some great ways to get free books (beyond the library)! Read on to find out three of my favorite ways to get free books. You don’t even have to leave your house for these ways to get free books. 

As a lifelong, self-proclaimed bookworm, I’m always looking for free or affordable ways to add to my book collection. I was thrilled to recently discover three new-to-me ways to do just that!

3 Ways to Get FREE Books

1. Free Kindle Unlimited Trial

I read more on my Kindle Paperwhite than on any other device. In fact, I credit my Kindle with the reason why I’ve been able to read so much more in recent years.

If you describe yourself as a bookworm, then you absolutely must give Kindle Unlimited a try.

With Kindle Unlimited, you have access to more than 1 million digital books, magazines, and even audio books that will seamlessly sync across your devices as long as you have the Kindle app. I just spent an embarrassingly long time browsing titles and adding them to my free membership. I can’t believe I waited so long to give this a try!

You can keep up to 10 titles at a time, and they will sync across your devices! This is a great way to not only get some free reading in for yourself, but you can also borrow Kindle titles for your kids! You can always get another book by returning ones that you currently have. I personally think 10 books at one time is a really good deal!

You do not have to own a Kindle for this to work! You just have to have the free Kindle app on your device!

At this writing, you can actually get TWO months FREE with this trial (they will switch back and forth between one month and two, as they run this promo often, so be sure to check when you sign up).

Don’t want to be charged after the free trial ends?

Here is the really amazing thing! You can actually sign up for the free trial here, immediately cancel your account, and still have access to all of the books until the trial ends! I recommend this if you don’t think you will ever want to be a paying member. Here are the exact steps to cancel your membership:

Step 1: When you’re logged into your Amazon account, click “Account & Lists” and then click either “Memberships & Subscriptions” OR “Your Kindle Unlimited.”

Step 2: Under “Kindle Unlimited Subscription,” click “Manage Subscription.”

Step 3: Under “Manage Subscription” to the left of the screen, click “Cancel Kindle Unlimited Membership.”

You can either do this immediately, or you can set an alarm on your phone to cancel closer to the end of the trial, if you think you may want to keep the membership and want to give it a solid try before canceling it.

Find Books on Kindle Unlimited

I spent an embarrassingly long time browsing titles this morning to make sure this is a legit a good deal. Let me assure you–it is. It blows my mind how many titles are available to read–for free!

Even though I know I won’t be able to read all of the titles this quickly, I went ahead and added ten titles that interested me to my account. Here is how to do that:

1. Under “Your Account,” click “Manage Your Kindle Unlimited Membership.”
2. There is a tool bar on this page. Click “Kindle Unlimited” on the toolbar, and begin making book selections! I suggest searching for books this way, so you can automatically filter out any books that are not in the Kindle Unlimited program.
3. Once you are in the “Kindle Unlimited” program, you can search for books based on their genre to the left of the screen. I mostly looked at Biographies/Memoir, Parenting, and Christian Living book. For Christian Living, you will need to click on “Religion and Spirituality” and then you will be given more options to look for Christian-specific books–from Christian fiction to Bibles and more.

Don’t Think You Will Finish the Books in a Month or Two?

This has always been my concern too, and it’s why I had never tried Kindle Unlimited before. At the end of your subscription, the books will automatically turn back in if you are connected to wifi. If your device is not connected to wifi, it will remain on your device until you connect it. So if you need a bit more time to read, you should be able to keep the book as long as you keep it on airplane mode.

2. Free Audible Trial

Amazon Prime members get 2 free audio books with the 30-day free trial.

Here is how to take advantage of this and get your 2 free books: 

1. Sign up for a FREE, 30-day trial to Amazon Prime here.
2. Sign up for a FREE 30-day Audible account here.
3. Choose your FREE audio books. (I recommend you do this quickly, so you don’t forget!)
4. Download the free Audible app, sign into your Audible account, and your audio books should automatically show up!
5. Download your books to your device.

Your two free Audible books are yours to keep forever! You do not have to have an Audible account to listen to your books! You do have to have the Audible app, which is completely free. Once your trial ends, your books will still be available in your Audible library, to listen to whenever you want!

Good news! BOTH of my books are available with this offer, so you can get both for free!!

You can get More Than Just Making It: Hope for the Heart of the Financially Frustrated, for free, with your free Audible trial here.

You can get You Can Stay Home With Your Kids: 100 Tips, Tricks, and Ways to Make It Work on a Budget, for free, with your free Audible trial here.

I absolutely love getting my books into readers’ hands for free!

If you keep the membership, it’s $14.95/month and that includes one book per month. Your credits will accrue, so you can use the credits at any time. You won’t “lose” books if you don’t redeem the credits each month.

3. Free Audiobooks.com Trial

I had never heard of Audiobooks.com until very recently, and I am so glad I did! It is an app very similar to Audible, but you don’t have to have a Prime membership to try it.

(I still fully recommend you sign up for the free Prime trial and try the free Audible trial as well. That way, you can get more free books!)

With the Audiobooks.com FREE, 30-day trial, you get 3 free books! Two of the books are your books of choice, and the third book is a bonus VIP book.

Audiobooks.com boasts access to a premium library of more than 150,000 books, plus 8,000+ free audiobooks and access to 700,000+ podcasts. That’s a lot of books to choose from!

Both of my books are available at Audiobooks.com! Yay! Simply search for More Than Just Making It and You Can Stay Home With Your Kids. Or, you can simply search for my name.

Here is how you can get your free books:

1. Sign up for a FREE, 30-day trial at Audiobooks.com. 
2. Choose your books.
3. Add the Audiobooks.com app to your phone.
4. Your books should automatically show up in your account.
5. Don’t forget to cancel your account. You should continue to have access to your free books in your library as long as you keep the app!

If you choose to keep your account, it’s $14.95 per month. Sign up for a FREE, 30-day trial at Audiobooks.com. 

What are some ways that you get free books?