Regular readers will know that we’re lovers of the free eBook service from Amazon and other booksellers, and although Amazon ticked us off recently by removing the ability to log RSS feeds of new books in particular genres, it seems there’s now an alternative option which is almost as useful.
The Daily Free Books service offers a daily updated listing of US and UK free eBooks culled from the Amazon and Smashwords sites. The site really just acts as a front end for the Amazon and Smashwords book catalogs, but what makes it so special is the fact that you can slice and dice the search results just about any way you want.
So if you want Science Fiction titles which are medium length and have been offered free for the first time (or are new since your last visit) then you can set that search criteria up on the sidebar. And what’s more you can save these filters for subsequent use. Brilliant!
If you’re too lazy to pop along to the site, you can sign up for an email list, which will send you the new free eBook titles for the day, which means you can load up your Kindle or other reader really easily with great stuff. It’s great for authors too, because it’s an excellent way for people to find new authors without risking their wallet.
There’s also an RSS feed of daily free releases, but in this case you can’t specify genres, which means you’ll have to actually visit the site to select the book you want. Shame, but we can understand why they’ve done it this way.
But all in all this is a great little service, and we’re hoping Amazon won’t shut it down like they did the RSS feeds on their main bookstore. That was just a petty mean spirited move.
But as for Daily Free Books, we’re happy to give them the Recommended badge of honor.