Looking for a good book should be fun, whether you want romantic erotica, explicit, hardcore erotica, BDSM with love, hot bisexual menage, steamy romance–or a sexy read in Science Fiction, Dark Fantasy, Mystery, or Thriller. It shouldn’t require the frustration of wading through books unrelated to your interests, nor scrolling past careless covers and low-quality books. I’ve listed some of my favorite newsletters and websites for hot free books at the bottom of this post. Feel free to head right to the free ebooks. 🙂
The self-publishing revolution changed book buying forever. It expanded our choices as readers—and increased our access to topics, niches, and voices that are under represented and unavailable via major publishing houses. Representation of diversity and access to views that diverge from the mainstream continue to improve in this era of accessible publishing. But this boon for expression also spawned legions of books by people who exercise little or no quality control on their products.
If you’ve browsed for books on Amazon and most other online book retailers, you know it’s a pain to find good books that truly belong in the genres where they’re listed. When I’m looking for Dark Fantasy, I’m not seeking werebear romance. If I want to get bummed out or angry, all I have do do is scan the Kindle Top 100 list for one of my favorite genres on Amazon. Miscategorized books abound, crass copycatting is epidemic, and quality is uneven. The technical term crap crosses my mind often.
In the early days of self-published ebooks, I stopped looking at them. I couldn’t stand all the typos and horrible grammar. Now some of the most exciting books in the world are self-published. Many self-published books meet the same standards of editing and production as books from major publishing houses. Outstanding authors have gone independent from the beginning, or during their careers due to greater control and a better cut of book profits.
If I’d continued being unwilling to bother with independent ebooks because of those early experiences with dreadful ones, I would have missed Hugh Howey’s Wool and many other fine reads unavailable through traditional publishers. Parts of that book continue to play through my mind. It’s a vivid, visceral reading experience.
Newsletters are my best tools for cutting through the dross. If you’ve read any of my books, you know I’m drawn to dark and sexual fiction. I read other things, too. I grew up on mysteries. I binge on thrillers. Non-fiction books on topics such as archeology, travel, history, biography, mythology, art, and the craft of writing are constant companions.
The key to saving time and money is to subscribe to newsletters targeted to your interests. Another good option is to get curated newsletters with a wide range of books, for those of us with eclectic tastes. The best newsletters perform at least minimal quality control, meaning you won’t have to wade through loads of hideous book covers, rampant typos, and abject inanity. I don’t have time for that, and I bet you don’t either.
I’ve been self-publishing since 2014. I subscribe to every newsletter I consider for promoting my books. Most of them don’t make the cut. I unsubscribe from every newsletter that has more than one or two subpar books per issue. Giving new people a chance matters, so I can stand seeing a minimal number of iffy books. There’s no place in my inbox for the newsletters full books I’d never buy or download for free.
It’s worth noting that authors and publishers of all sizes have no control over where our books are promoted. Many of my books get picked up by promoters I’ve never contacted. As long as they link to authorized copies, fine. Early on, I thought if an author I recognized was in a specific newsletter or on a certain promotional book site, the ads must be good. Once I started finding my listings all over the place, I realized that the presence of authors on mailings and websites is no endorsement at all. On the positive side, my books have been boosted readers at no charge by quality promoters, including One Hundred Free Books (OHFB) and Freebooksy.
If you find free downloads of my books on sites other than reputable book retailers, they are pirated copies.
Here are a few newsletters that make my cut as worth your time to browse for hot, free books. The links in the title of each site goes to the newsletter signup. Each signup will open in a new page, so you won’t lose your place on this page.
I’m listing them as a thank you. Without amazing promoters, I wouldn’t have made it this far. Chances are, I might not have found you, dear reader. I would certainly not have survived Amazon’s drastic change to Kindle Unlimited that decimated my income.
There are many others worthy of thanks, including Awesome Gang and Sweet Free Books. I’m stealing time from the next book to write this post, so this is only a start on newsletters worth a subscription. I don’t intend to slight anyone, and I don’t have an affiliate relationship with any of them. These are a few I use the most often. As a bonus, some of them give you freebies for subscribing. 🙂
Freebooksy, with a huge thank you.
This book promoter sets a high bar. The requirement for good reviews, the cost of the ads, and their curating keep the selections at the upper end of the quality spectrum. On Freebooksy, you get to specify your preferred reading device, and they allow you to narrow your choices to specific subgenres. This is a time saver for mystery and romance. I never read cozies or sweet romance. By leaving those boxes unchecked, I get to focus on books I want to peruse. They also offer subcategories of non-fiction, and they’re one of the few newsletters I know of that has an LGBTQ category. BTW, they don’t promote outright erotica, but they do have an erotic romance category for high-quality books with a high review average. If you have minors in your household, you could get separate newsletter subscriptions for children’s books or young adult books. This makes it easy to keep your dark or steamy reads to yourself, and browse age-appropriate books with your loved ones.
I love Reader Rewards for so many reasons. E.B. Brown is a terrific inspiration. Her Time Walkers series transports me, and she’s a top author in historical romance. She’s big-hearted, organized and wicked-funny. One of the joys of the Readers Rewards newsletter and website: The books are categorized accurately. Books in Science Fiction belong there. This thrills me. Each month there are great giveaways. The selection of free books is terrific, and the ones free only via Kindle Unlimited are in a separate category from the ones free to everyone. This is a site with a delicious selection of quality books in all my favorite genres. Reader Rewards was a major influence in my book cover upgrades. I was so excited to participate, I’ve been working to get all of my books to the best quality possible on my tiny budget. Many of my favorite authors participate in Reader Rewards, so I know you’ll find books you’ll love so much, you’ll tell your friends to subscribe, too. 🙂
I get most of my free and discount books from ReadFreely. I enjoy their website, which has a countdown feature so I know the deals are live—and how long I have to act on them. There are enough books for variety, but not too many. I’ve never encountered an expired deal via ReadFree.ly. You identify your preferred genres when you sign up, so you get notified of deals and freebies that match your interests. I’ve found good science fiction, fantasy, horror, mysteries, erotic books in a range of flavors, and solid non-fiction here. It’s delightful to browse non-fiction without time-waster listings. I enjoy supporting ReadFree.ly by clicking through for books from their newsletter and website. They’re among the most talented and generous promoters of indie books in existence. They’re a couple based in London, and their love of books shows through on their website and in their annual awards, which include readers, too. These indie supporters have featured several of my books in their newsletters and made my day by highlighting one of my fairy tale erotica box sets as a recommended book.
Shameless Book Deals is one the all-erotic newsletters I find most comfortable to browse. It includes many exciting flavors in all sexual persuasions. You get to customize the niches you want to see in the newsletter. Bear in mind some books fit into more than one niche, and special deals might go out to all subscribers. This is a wonderful feature for targeting the types of erotica you want, and filtering out most of the topics you don’t find erotic. Scarlett Cox excludes books that don’t meet the standards of her quality-control salmon. I used to picture them in a bathtub, but I’m sure she gives them more swimming room than that. I submit many new releases to salmon judgement. My California residence is on a salmon migration route, but all they care about is quality and heat. Shameless Book Deals is located in New Zealand. I like that the newsletter includes erotic romance as well as erotica.
Excite Spice —Reach the signup form via “Readers Subscribe Here” at the top of the site.
This website and newsletter from Erotica maven Selena Kitt feature the widest range of sexual material of any I’ve used. You can find most of my new releases as Q. Zayne and Viv Phoenix via Excite Spice. Many top erotica authors appear here. The site’s search function is a handy feature if you want to find books in a favorite niche, from erotic romance to group action, and lots of kinks. There are extreme titles I’d rather not see, and there’s no option to filter the newsletter by interest. As with my books, what’s repellent to one reader is hot stuff for another. If you have difficulty finding smut on topics banned by the major retailers, some of your interests—other than outright illegal ones—might be covered here. There’s also Excite Steam for romance, with books less likely to be triggering.
Enjoy your newsletters. Life is short, indulge in reading often. 🙂
PS: It’s no secret. I’m the author known as Q. Zayne, Viv Phoenix, Aly First, and others.
Q . Z a y n e B o o k s 
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