By Marie Sinadjan
And, no, I don’t mean taking to the high seas. (IYKYK.)
Readers all over the world often face the same problem: we always want more books. And it’s not the lack of time that worries us (a TBR pile the height of Mount Everest is a bragging right, not a point of shame) but rather, the budget. We might have enough to splurge on a couple of books when fairs and sales like the Manila International Book Fair (MIBF) or Big Bad Wolf roll around, but we, inevitably, will still want more.
The good news is there’s a way to have more.
By reading digital.
Sure, it might not be as sexy as having physical copies that you can display on a shelf or with pages you can smell. But with ebooks, you can read practically everywhere, since we’re almost always on our phones these days anyway. (Yes, you don’t need a Kindle. Whatever smartphone you have is fine.) There’s no clutter, too, except perhaps for that little dent in your phone storage.
The best part? There are easy, legitimate ways to get ebooks for free!
- Request copies directly from authors.
Yes, “ask and you shall receive” actually works. Most authors can be found on social media these days and they are often more than happy to provide a digital copy of their book/s in exchange for an honest review on Goodreads or Amazon. - Subscribe to author newsletters.
Most authors also offer a free prequel novella or short story if you sign up for their newsletter. You can find a link to that on their website or social media profile.
- Become a book reviewer.
Websites like NetGalley, Booksprout, BookSirens, BookFunnel, and StoryOrigin have digital review copies—usually referred to as ARCs or Advance Reader Copies—available in exchange for reviews. These are often titles that are still about to be published by both big-name publishers and independent authors or small presses. - Sign up for book tours.
A book tour is a promotion for a newly published book. It’s a step up from reading and reviewing ARCs as book tour hosts are also expected to have a blog or a social media platform through which they post their reviews and spotlights.
There are plenty of tour groups based on Instagram alone; just search for Accounts under “book tour” and check the links on their profiles to subscribe to their mailing list or watch out for their posts and/or stories. Some tour groups cover all sorts of genres, others are more specialized, and while you’ll get the email for every book going on tour, you only have to participate when you want. (And you can join more than one tour group.) - Become a panelist for the Book Bloggers’ Novel of the Year Award.
BBNYA (over at www.bbnya.com) is an annual award for independently published books hosted and judged completely by book bloggers around the world. As with book tours, you’ll at least need a social media platform to participate, but this isn’t just a way to get free books, it’s also a very rewarding experience, as BBNYA’s goal is to give underappreciated indie authors a chance to shine (and help clear the stigma of indie books being subpar to traditionally published ones). Panelists first read and score 2K word excerpts, then 10K word excerpts, then entire books. After the competition, the organizers run tours for all the finalists, so there’s a chance to read all the books that made it to the top. I’ve been a panelist for two years now and I’ve discovered so many amazing books!
But what if you can’t read digital? The glare of the screen hurts your eyes, your head swims no matter how large you make your fonts, you don’t have a smartphone, you don’t really do the Internet thing…
Well, why not go to your local library?
Marie Sinadjan is a Filipino fantasy author, singer-songwriter, musical theatre actress, and book reviewer. She loves coffee, traveling, and watching the stars.