How-To: Get Free eBooks for the Kindle, Nook and more

So if you're one of the lucky folks who got a Kindle or Nook this holiday season, you were probably very excited (THEY'RE SO COOL) but may have been slightly less excited when you realized that putting actual books on the thing was going to be nearly as expensive as buying them at a book store. Boo. Well, have no fear! The Broke Student Guide is here to find you the best resources for getting free e-books and other content to put on your new shiny Kindle, Kindle Fire or Nook. (Or whatever other e-readers are out there.) If you're looking for some good deals on a Kindle, click here for coupons at Overstock.com.

First off, until January 9th, Amazon is offering a $10 Kindle Textbook Credit! Just click here to claim your credit. It will automatically credit to your Amazon account once you claim it and you can use it towards renting or buying e-textbooks for your Kindle. Which is cheaper, not to mention way less heavy and annoying, than lugging around regular textbooks!

Next: free eBook websites! It's like MegaDownload for your Kindle. (If you don't know about MegaDownload yet, well, now you do!) Here we go:

Free Book Spot: If you have a specific book in mind, you'll be able to use this site to search for it and see if it's available for free.

The Book Depository: This site has over 11,000 free eBook options to choose from.

Baen: This site offers free sci-fi and fantasy eBooks.

Pixel of Ink: This blog posts daily free and bargain eBooks, along with reviews about the books listed. Each book has a link for Kindle and Nook downloads.

Free Nook Book Summary: Like Pixel of Ink, this blog posts daily summaries of free books available for the Nook.

E-Pub Books: This site offers books in a format that can be read on ANY electronic book reader. The selection offered is copyright free/public domain works.

ManyBooks : This site mostly has classic books - remember that all copyright free books will always be free - and a huge variety of genres. Search by Author, Title, Genre, and more.

Project Gutenberg offers over 36,000 free ebooks to download to your PC, Kindle, Android, iOS or other portable device. Choose between ePub, Kindle, HTML and simple text formats.

SmashWords: This site offers eBooks from Independent publishers and authors. Find something new that no one else has read! They have a huge free selection to choose from.

Munseys: Offers tons and tons of fiction. Appears to have a particularly high amount of cheesy 1950s-1960s era fiction novels, a la pulp fiction.

Girl eBooks: Offers a large selection of out of copyright classics, focusing on female authors.

And last but not least: The Library! Yes, you can borrow eBooks for free from your local library! Hit up your local branch to take advantage. (While you're there, pick up some free movies and read a couple free magazines too. Aren't libraries great?)

PS: Did you know that you get a FREE month of Amazon Prime along with your Kindle Fire? That means tons of free movies and TV shows, free 2-day shipping, and more! But even without a new Kindle Fire you can get free Prime - if you haven't taken advantage of the free Student Prime membership deal, go get it now! You'll get 6 months of free Amazon Prime benefits.


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