How to Get Publishers to Give You Free Books

Looking for something new to read? Short on cash? Well, there's a way to get books for free, and a lot of people don't even know about it!

And no, I'm not just talking about free online book sites like Project Gutenberg, neither am I talking about illegally downloading books. I'm talking about a way that publishing companies will give you copies of their new releases for free!

Now, just because it's for free doesn't mean it doesn't involve a little bit of work. It's free in the sense that it doesn't cost any actual money. All you need is an Internet connection and some time on your hands and you're ready to go!

How do you get to take advantage of this? Read on, friends, and find out!

Step 1 - Sign up for a free blog. This can be with any number of free blogging sites online, like Blogspot, Wordpress, Livejournal, and so on. There are a lot of options for free blogs these days, so go and sign up for one. That's the real key to this, because what you're going to do is...

Step 2 - Start a book review blog. Now that you have a blog, start grabbing books that you've read and have an opinion on, and talk about it on that blog. Whether you liked the book, hated it, would recommend it to a friend, or burn it, if you have an opinion, post about it. Give a basic summary of the book, and talk about your feelings, the writing style, parts that particularly made you feel something, anything.

Step 2.5 - Sign up for Amazon Associates. Link to the book you're talking about through Amazon Associates, and if people happen to like your review and want to read the book, there's a convenient link right there for them to do so. And a little bit of referral money will go into your account with Amazon, too. This isn't a necessary step, but most book review bloggers these days do it.

Step 3 - Read other book review blogs. Particularly blogs that review the same kinds of books that you review. Comment on their reviews, and leave links to your own blog there. Don't spam their blogs, of course, but getting into discussions and spreading your name around is the real name of the game here. Doing so brings more hits to your blog, gets more people reading your reviews, and that's important for step number 3. Also, as a bonus, you'll probably find other books that might interest you by checking other blogs, and when you find opinions you agree with and trust, it'll help you better choose your own books in the future.

Step 4 - Email publishing companies. When your blog's getting a decent amount of hits per day, start emailing publishing companies and ask them for a review copy of one of their upcoming books. I find it's best to start with smaller publishing companies, since big companies often don't need the help of small-time bloggers to help boost their publicity and sales. But smaller companies often appreciate the help, and sometimes will send you a free review copy of one of their books in exchange for you posting a review on your blog and on a few other sites like Amazon or Barnes & Noble. They don't expect you to heap praise upon the book, though it helps. But if your blog has a decent readership, one single review there could increase their chances of getting increased sales, and to some companies, that's worth the cost of sending somebody a free book now and again.

Keep in mind that these review copies often cannot be legally sold once you're done reading them. Most review copies say right on the cover that they're review copies and are not for sale or resale. However, there's nothing saying you can't exchange them or give them away to others if you don't want to keep them when you're done. Just don't sell them.

There's no guarantee that companies will bite every time you send them an email requesting a free book. More often than not, they'll probably ignore your message, or refuse to take a chance on you. That's okay. Just keep asking around, and eventually you'll have free books coming to your door, all for a promise to write a small review. That really isn't much to ask for in exchange for getting something for free. Half an hour of your time, at most, after reading the book, and you've just saved yourself $10-20, depending on how much the book typically retails for.

I do this. I've had books arrive at my door for me to review. Not from huge publishing companies, but then again my own book review blog hasn't been around for a long time yet. Give it time, and more companies will start taking the bait.