Reading free ebooks & (mostly) not regret it

This week's Top Ten Tuesday is a Freebie so I thought I share some thoughts about the free ebooks I had read. I think I'm engined to flock to free stuff so maybe it's why I like reading free ebooks. There are tons of free ebooks but the genre I like to read the most is paranormal cozy murder mysteries although there is no such category on amazon, they only have the cozy option. The books I'm referring to on this list are paranormal cozy murder mysteries and a few fantasies.
    It's pretty easy to look for free ebooks at amazon since amazon allows you to sort books by price from low to high but of course, you still have to go through various menu clicks. (I should mention I mostly read kindle ebooks because I have a kindle but you do not need a kindle to read kindle books, you can use their app on your phone, tablet or computer.) (And yes, I can read all the free ebooks from the public library but this is not about that.)

Some of the things I learned & thoughts I had while reading free ebooks:

01 | They are usually the first book in a series and are under 300 pages or less — These free ebooks are usually part of a series sometimes with 10 or more books. I guess it's nice to read a long series but when you think how short the books are, it's really like reading short stories. Now some of these are novellas but they never actually say they are novellas but some of these are just under 200 pages per book. I actually do like short books in a series because I find it easier to digest and I have the attention span of a five-year-old on occasions.

02 | They are oddly priced — The pricing of ebooks are ridiculous because it keeps going up and down for no reason (but I can say the same thing for paper books). Now for these free ebooks, they are usually priced at 4.99 (US dollars) or under as the regular price. The free price is sometimes for a limited time so other times, it's 99 cents which I supposed is almost free.
    I think it's a great idea to offer the first book in a series free. Since it was free, I was willing to take the chance on them otherwise I honestly would not have purchased any of these books. I did end up purchasing a couple of the sequels for whatever series I had read for free.

03 | Sometimes they come in a collection — Some of these ebooks are packaged with the first 3 or 5 books in a series. Sometimes you even see them at 99 cents for these collections for a limited time. Heck, sometimes you can get the first 3 books as a set for free. There's also instances where the first books of an author's various series are packaged in a collection which sometimes goes on sale for 99 cents or occasionally for free.
     I honestly do not know if any of these promotional packages or these free ebooks does anything to the sales number. If a reader pays nothing for a book, does the book's ranking changes or do they even count as part of a sale?

04 | They have grammar and spelling errors — I have accepted that books can have an error or two but simple errors somehow stands out so much in these ebooks that I'm thinking, perhaps it hasn't gotten enough proof reading. I may have tried to edit while I was reading some of these books. I even read an author's bio that needed editing which is a bit surprising because usually an author's bio rarely have mistakes.

04 | They have really good titles — I really like all the puns and the funny titles that are used. Even if the book does not really live up to the title, at least the title is fun and creative.

05 | They sometimes uses the same art or photo for the cover — Some of them even use the exact art or photo with the same models that are slightly altered. Does nobody notice these things or nobody cares? I guess it's harder to have original cover art if you're on a budget. It's possible to mistake one book for another as I have seen a few books that I thought I had read but it turned out, it was a different book by a different author - I can't say if this is a good thing or a bad thing.

Examples of covers using the same art/photo

06 | They are most likely self-published — I think most of them are self-published because of the amateur covers and also because if you check out the credits, it's most likely put out from some unknown company or the copyright is in the author's name only. But I can never tell for sure. I don't mind self-published books because they are sometimes almost as good as those published by big companies.

07 | They are most likely unavailable at your public library — Mostly I think because they are self-published. I don't know if that's the reason but I've never seen any of these titles available at my public library.

08 | They are mostly written by women — Not to say there aren't any paranormal cozy murder mysteries written by men, it's just that, I don't seem to come across them as much. It's not a big deal but it's something I have noticed. I think I have read only one of these ebooks with a male author.

09 | Verdict: They are fun, quick reads. Some of these are rather amateurish because the writing isn't all that great but most of the time, I find I enjoy the story even when the writing is so-so. I complain about them but I think they are good reads even if I maybe sometimes forgot I had read them.

10 | Here are three places I look for free or discounted ebooks:
BookBub
Free Booksy
Amazon Kindle Best Sellers Top 100 Free

How about you? Are you into reading ebooks (free or otherwise)?

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