I thought it was an appropriate time to remind you of the free sample option Amazon has with the Kindle program: consider it like going to the bookstore (well, that is if there are many of them still open these days) and turning a few pages before buying it. You can get a free sample of a Kindle book – usually a few chapters to just a couple of pages – to try out and see if the book is something you are interested in prior to buying. I use the feature quite a bit, as I get extremely annoyed in shelling out money for a book and realizing about 10% of the way through it I think it’s not for me.
If I am interested in the book, I will do one of two things:
- If it is a free book and I am even remotely interested in it, I will download the whole thing. What do I have to lose? Nothing (e.g., it’s free!). Should I complain because I don’t like it or the genre? No. Again, it’s free – why the sense of entitlement? Over the past several years I get complaints emailed to me from time-to-time about too much of one genre or the other being available for free. Why? I don’t know – a publisher or independent author is making it available for free which sounds great to me. Like I said before, you don’t have anything to lose! Maybe these folks should redirect their energies and complain directly to the dysfunctional US Congress – both parties – about getting their act together and behaving as adults…but that’s another blog post for another venue.
- If it is not a free book (gasp!), I usually will download the sample in order to see if I like the first couple of pages, then I will make my buying decision. Why waste money sight unseen when I can have a sample downloaded to my Kindle for free?
I bring this up as I don’t want any of you to forget about the free sample option. I have a separate folder / category devoted to samples on my Kindle, and I select and download 3-4 samples at a time when I see something after trolling through the Amazon store, but I may not check the sample out until later. Why wait so long? Usually, it is because I am in the middle of another book – I’m not one of those people who can multitask between three and four books at the same time. When I’m reading a book I’m usually pretty absorbed and get deep into the story, characters, etc. and can look up at the clock and realize three hours have quickly passed.
So, how do you find / download the free Kindle sample? Go to any Kindle book available for sale – not free, as Amazon doesn’t send a free sample of a free book – on Amazon’s website and on the right-hand side of the page you will see another icon titled “Send a free sample.” Click that button – if you have multiple Kindles, please make sure you have the correct Kindle listed in the drop-down menu. If you are looking at a book via shopping directly on your Kindle, one of the options is to check out the free sample, click that item and the sample will be delivered to you.
With the free samples, plus the books on my Kindle now, I should be set for a long time…
Hope that helps!
Michael
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