If you own an e-reader, or just a simple computer or smart phone, you can find a virtual gold rush of free acim. You can read these on your e-readers, smart phones, or your personal computer. The main complaint about all of these free books is that people figure that anything that is given away cannot be all that good.
It is true that most free e-books are self-published. There are many professional authors who self-publish who produce very high quality work. Some of them are well known or are becoming well known. Some of the authors are not very well know, but they hope to establish themselves as fan favorites.
Producing high quality work involves writing a good story, making sure that the manuscript is proof-read and edited, and having it formatted correctly. Because the barriers to entry are low in the self-publishing world, some new authors may skip some of the steps. You may find some free or cheap e-books that are not well written, have a lot of grammar errors, or do not seem to be well formatted when you read them.
However, you can find some very good free and bargain priced e-books today. The cost to distribute and produce an electronic version of a book is somewhat cheaper. Though you should understand that it is not free. An author still has to spend a lot of time writing a book. Many will pay for professional editing services and artwork. Why would an author go to all that trouble and then give their book away?
Why Are Good E-Books Free?
There are a few reasons why authors may give away books. If you can understand these reasons, then it should help you search for some true bargains to fill up your e-reader!
Actually, some classics and older books have expired copyrights, and they have moved into the public domain. There are organizations that accept donations and use volunteers in order to publish these books so people can download and enjoy them.
There are still costs associated with putting the books on the web, but they are not as high as the costs for printing and distributing a paperback or hard cover book. You absolutely can find thousands of books, that used to be published traditionally, offered for free this way.
Some authors just want to publicize themselves or their other books. They may make one book free. The book may always be free, or it may be offered for free for a limited time.
If you want to make sure you are downloading a quality book, because your time is worth something too, you may look at the reviews that other readers have left. If the book is new, and has new reviews, can you find how well other books by the same author were reviewed?
If the author is very new, nobody may have left any comments left. This hardly means that the book was bad, but just that no readers left a review. Most readers do not bother to comment on books they read. If the book’s description looks interesting and well written, I’d take a chance! After all, the book is free!
