A big ole'\u00a0welcome to all of the\u00a0lucky folks who found a new ereader under their trees this year.\u00a0\u00a0When you\u00a0charged up that device and logged on to download your first ebook, a magical thing happened to you - you threw off your shackles.\u00a0 Did you feel 'em fall away?\u00a0<\/p>\n
I bet you didn't even know that\u00a0up to the point of that first ebook download you'd been a prisoner for your entire life.\u00a0 You'd been chained to the taste, the choices and the whims of\u00a0big publishing.\u00a0 You\u00a0only thought you were deciding what you wanted to read.\u00a0 In reality, you were picking only from the crop of\u00a0what the NY castle dwellers<\/a> decided was \"acceptable.\"\u00a0 But no longer.<\/p>\n Your ereader\u00a0bought your freedom.\u00a0 Now the world that the\u00a0publishing royals fought and held\u00a0away from you for so\u00a0long\u00a0is yours.\u00a0 You just fired the gatekeepers.\u00a0 There are no more literary agents or publishing companies between you and what you read.\u00a0 You're now the gatekeeper and there is a bunch of fine indie writing you can enjoy that was never open to you before.\u00a0<\/p>\n But not all of the big companies fought the erevolution as hard as the\u00a0NY royals.\u00a0\u00a0And some of those companies are flourishing\u00a0in the e-age and they should be rewarded by customer loyalty.\u00a0 On our shores, the big e-winner is Harlequin<\/a>.\u00a0 Overseas, it appears to be a company that (to me, which means little in the scheme of things) looks a lot like Harlequin - Mills & Boon<\/a>.\u00a0 I know that Harlequin's opening its doors so early to the e-changes was likely a natural growth for the company.\u00a0 Harlequin didn't require gatekeepers to the same extent as the NY royals.\u00a0 Harlequin already took unagented submissions for a bunch of its lines.\u00a0\u00a0Harlequin\u00a0adapted\u00a0before the e-age arrived and made further changes and now it's one of the reader's and writer's best friends.<\/p>\n Now that you've got that new ereader, you've likely also acquired a new hobby - filling it with free, or low cost ebooks.\u00a0 Hopefully, most of those are romance ebooks - that's what I write, of course.\u00a0 After you've gone to your favorite etailer and bought the entire catalogue of Quacking Alone Romances<\/a> authored by yours truly, Mary Anne Graham<\/a>, you'll be looking to add some other books to your device.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I recommend that you check out these sites:<\/p>\n 1.\u00a0 Harlequin<\/a>:\u00a0 Harlequin offers 16 free romance ebooks.\u00a0 Yes, free.\u00a0\u00a0If you're a romantic at heart there's no reason on earth not to pick up these freebies.\u00a0 Also, check out Harlequin's ebook store.\u00a0 There, on Fridays, you can buy 2 ebooks and get a 3rd free.\u00a0 Each week the company select a different ebooks.\u00a0 If you're a bargain hunter like me, this is a good site to get comfy with.\u00a0<\/p>\n 2.\u00a0 Mills & Boon,\u00a0Everyone's Reading<\/a>:\u00a0 There are 10 freebies here, one from each of the romance companies' lines.\u00a0 These are great reads and a\u00a0great way to meet a romance\u00a0publisher that's probably new to you.\u00a0 If you like the free ebooks, be sure to go back and buy a few as well. \u00a0<\/p>\n 3.\u00a0 Smashwords<\/a>:\u00a0 SW is an indie ebook distributor, but there are also on its direct site ebooks in every genre, including lots of romances, that are absolutely free and are not distributed anywhere else.\u00a0 Some amazing folks have work up at SW.\u00a0 You should go to the site and try a few of the free ebooks.\u00a0 If you like 'em, remember to go back and buy a few as well.<\/p>\n 4.\u00a0 All Romance<\/a>:\u00a0 There are over 220 free reads at the site.\u00a0 So you can go crazy and download like mad.\u00a0There's a special caution here though - the romances are of all types and traverse all heat levels.\u00a0 So, yes, there are men on men, women on women, bondage, threesomes, etc.\u00a0 However, there are also some milder varieties of romance.\u00a0 More choice always benefits the reader.\u00a0 Clearly, Allromance believes that you should be your own gatekeeper.\u00a0 For that, I reward the site with loyalty.\u00a0 Sign up for a wildfire subscription - it's free. They'll email you about special promos and some of them are things like the 12 days of Christmas where each day a different publisher offered a free romance ebook.\u00a0<\/p>\n 5.\u00a0 Your ereader's home store:\u00a0 Don't forget to check back every week, at least, with your ereader's home store.\u00a0 Each week different publishers will offer a new group of free ebooks.\u00a0 For example, this week at The Sony Ereader Store<\/a>\u00a0I picked up 5 great free romances from Sourcebooks.\u00a0<\/p>\n So, you've got the keys to the Kingdom of Choice.\u00a0 Get out there and download all the freebies.\u00a0\u00a0Just don't forget that some ebooks are worth paying for and that most of the indie romances don't have those high, $9 and over price tags.\u00a0 Typically, you can\u00a0pick up an indie ebook for between 99\u00a2 and $5.99, with the latter being a high price point for an indie.\u00a0<\/p>\n Whether you downloaded an ebook for free or on the cheap, don't forget to pay it back.\u00a0 How do you pay it back?\u00a0 If you enjoy a read, be sure to tweet it, mention it on your blog, link to it on Facebook and tell all your friends.\u00a0 Also, don't forget to pay it back by going back to the site and rating the books.\u00a0 Your opinion matters and a good review will be worth a lot\u00a0to\u00a0the author.\u00a0 I know that all reviews matter to me and there's nothing I adore more than a review from a reader who enjoyed one of my books.<\/p>\n You're free now so go forth and decide for yourself.\u00a0 I hope you'll decide that the cheap price for my ebooks ($2.99 to $3.99 everywhere) is well worth paying.\u00a0 And I hope you'll read the ebooks, enjoy them and return to give me a great review.<\/p>\n Happy downloading!!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A big ole'\u00a0welcome to all of the\u00a0lucky folks who found a new ereader under their trees this year.\u00a0\u00a0When you\u00a0charged up that device and logged on to download your first ebook, a magical thing happened to you - you threw off your shackles.\u00a0 Did you feel 'em fall away?\u00a0 I bet you didn't even know that\u00a0up ...continue reading \"Romancing Your Ereader Without Spending A Fortune\"<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1399"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1399"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1399\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1403,"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1399\/revisions\/1403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}