It's Good To Be FREE

Are you one of those horrible last-minute christmas shoppers? Been going crazy looking high and low for the perfect gift for that special bookish someone in your life? Well, look no further friends. Do I have the list for you!

Everything you see here is free, or as close to free as you're ever gonna get. It's ok. You can thank me later!!

1. M. Clifford put his incredibly timely novel THE BOOK on his website for free download; a decision he made after hearing about the forcible removal of "the people's library" at Occupy Wall Street. It's interesting to note the parallel there. A book, whose story is based on the fact that the government controls what everyone is reading, put up for free because of a library of books that was taken away from people protesting the government. Sure to appeal to the masses, THE BOOK covers taboo topics such as banning books, digitally altering texts, and underground black market libraries.

2. Rachel in the OC has put her book, A WALK IN THE SNARK, up on Amazon for free. If you like cheeky, sarcastic girl-humor, Rachel is your gal. I met this witty woman at the NYC Indie Book Event a few months back and love her to pieces, and I'm thrilled to see her book getting rave reviews. Everyone else is in love with her tell-it-like-it-is views on men and women, and now you can be too! Get it while the getting is free, will ya?!

3. Ugly Duckling Presse has put a large library of their chapbooks up for free. I just discovered this goodness last night via Twitter. If you are not familiar with chapbooks, they are low cost, pocket sized collections of flash fiction, prose, and/or poetry. It's a great way to sample authors and writing styles. Some are incredibly beautiful, while others are odd and make your brain hurt. Of course, if you like what you see, they have subscriptions to their 2012 releases available on the website. Happy reading!!

4. E-Fiction Magazine is another way to sample free, online short stories and flash fiction from a variety of authors. Doug Lance, the magazine's founder, prides himself in finding the freshest voices to give entertaining insights into human relationships. I've been known to download an issue here and there when I find time, and browse through the collection. Have you given it a try? You never know what you might find and fall in love with!

5. Indie Book Blowout's "12 Days of Christmas" Event is almost over. If you'll recall, we did a post on this right as it kicked off. All indie ebooks listed through them are marked down to the incredibly unreasonable price of .99 cents. How can you not want to download each and every one of those???

Give the (free) gift of a book this holiday season and discover your next best book or author while you do it!