Indie authors offer their books here for nothing. You download one, you read it, and that is the end of your obligation. If you feel like leaving a review afterwards, that helps them. If you do not, keep the book anyway.
Create a free reader accountNo payment details, ever. We are not going to pay you either, and the rest of this page explains why.
Some services pay readers per book and lean on a careful line: you are paid to read, not to review. The wording holds up. The trouble is that the wording is not what gets judged.
Amazon does not evaluate your intention. It evaluates the pattern.
The pattern is value moving from an author to a person who subsequently reviews that author's book. Whether the money was labelled as payment for reading time, for a report, for a "reading slot", or for anything else, the shape of the data is identical. When that shape is detected the reviews come off, and if the account looks like the source of it, the account goes too.
Authors do not get a warning shot. They lose the reviews, sometimes the listing, and occasionally the entire publishing account along with pending royalties. That is why this page pays no one. Free copies carry none of that risk.
Giving away a free copy of a book is explicitly allowed. An author or publisher may provide free or discounted copies, on one condition: they must not require a review in exchange, and they must not try to influence what it says. That is the entire model of this page. You pay nothing, you owe nothing, and nobody sees your review before it is posted.
Worth knowing whichever side of the transaction you are on. These are the categories that get stripped, and the ones most "review services" are quietly built on.
Money, gift cards, points redeemable for money, or a free product conditional on reviewing. Amazon does not weigh the wording of the offer, it weighs the pattern: value moving from a seller to someone who then reviews that seller's product.
Two authors reviewing each other, or a group taking turns. Amazon links accounts by far more than name: shared devices, addresses, payment methods, IP ranges and reviewing patterns across time. Rings are visible from the outside in a way their members rarely believe.
Anyone with a close personal or financial relationship to the author. This is the single most common reason a debut author's first handful of reviews vanish overnight.
"Review my book and I will format yours" is still compensation. So is a free course, a newsletter swap, or a promised mention.
Including an author supplying a draft for a reader to post, and any AI-generated text posted as a genuine reader opinion.
Even when the service insists the reviews are organic. If the reviewer was sourced by payment somewhere up the chain, the review is compensated.
A review from a free copy is not a Verified Purchase, because no purchase happened. Amazon weighs those less and filters them harder. Any platform promising a predictable number of reviews from free copies is promising something outside its control. We are telling you this before you sign up rather than after.
Browse the shelf and download anything that appeals. No credits, no queue, no minimum.
The PDF is yours to keep. It carries a small watermark with your name, which is how authors are protected from their book being passed around.
If you want to say what you thought, Amazon is the place that helps the author most. Nothing happens if you skip it.
No, and we are not going to. The section above explains why: paying readers is what puts an author's account at risk. Free copies are the version of this that Amazon actually permits.
No. You will get one email a few days after downloading, mentioning that a review helps if you feel like it. That is the only time we will ask, and you can unsubscribe from it.
No, and we would rather it were honest. A shelf of glowing reviews on a book that does not deserve them helps nobody, and readers can tell.
Yes. It is yours either way.
No. It is used to send you the file and the single follow-up, and nothing else.
