How to get ebooks on your Kindle

December 31, 2018

How to get ebooks on your Kindle — and other expert tips and tricks

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Amazon makes the best ebook readers you can buy hands down. Depending on your needs and budget, you might choose the entry-level Kindle, the mid-range Paperwhite, or the high-end Kindle Oasis. No matter your choice, every one of these ebook readers is excellent.

Note that all Kindles come in two versions: with special offers and without. If you choose the ones with special offers, you will see ads on the lock screen and potentially elsewhere, but you will save money.

If you haven't bought a Kindle yet, you can read our full guide to the best ebook readers to help you choose. Or, you can see our favorites — and why we love them — listed below:

Kindle Oasis: Page-turning buttons, waterproofing, a slim design, and a sharp screen make it the best Kindle you can buy, though it is expensive.
Kindle: Its $79.99 price makes the original Kindle a bargain even though it lacks a backlight and it's not waterproof.
Kindle Paperwhite: The new waterproof design makes the 2018 Paperwhite an excellent buy, as does its reasonable price tag, sharp screen, and backlight.
Kindle for Kids Bundle: If you have kids, you'll want the kids bundle because it comes with a case and a two-year warranty in case of any damage.

Once you've got your Kindle, all that remains is to set it up and get some ebooks on it. The Kindle is fairly simple to use, but it does take some learning to unlock all its secrets.

We've put together a few handy tips and expert tricks to help you make the most of your new Kindle.

Click on a link to jump to a topic:

How to get started with your Kindle
How to buy ebooks on your Kindle
How to get free ebooks on your Kindle
How to share ebooks with friends and family
How to get articles and PDFs on your Kindle
How to save and share quotations from ebooks
The best Kindle cases and chargers

Read on in the slides below for all our Kindle tips and tricks.

How to get started with your Kindle

Once you've bought your Kindle, all that remains is to set it up. Charge your Kindle fully with the Micro-USB cord included in the box and an outlet adapter (not included — we recommend AUKEY's Wall Charger).

Then, you'll be prompted to sign into your Wi-Fi network so you can complete the setup process. You'll be asked to sign in or create your Amazon account, add a credit card for purchases, and more.

After you've entered your info, you can start downloading books and so on. If you have already bought ebooks from Amazon with this account, you can download those right away.

It's all fairly simple, but Amazon has a breakdown of all the features and settings here.

How to preserve your Kindle's battery life:

Turn on Airplane Mode when you don't need to be connected to the internet. This will save battery. Just tap the Gear icon, and then tap the Airplane icon to turn it on and off.
You can adjust the brightness to save your battery and your eyes by tapping the Gear icon and then sliding the light bar back and forth. You can also see your battery percentage here.

How to adjust the font size on your Kindle:

When you're reading, tap on the upper part of your screen, and you'll see menus pop up. Tap the Aa symbol and choose the font style and size you want.

How to navigate your Kindle:

Tap on the Home (house-shaped icon) to go back to the main page at any point. You can also tap the arrow button to go back at any point.
Tap on the Gear icon to access All Settings. There, you'll find My Account, Household & Family Library, Wireless, Device Options, Reading Options, Language & Dictionaries, Parental Controls, and Legal. We go into many of these options later in this guide.
To see all your library books, tap My Library on the homepage.
When you're reading, tap on the upper part of your screen, and you'll see menus pop up. Tap Go To and you'll see the table of contents of the book. You can jump from chapter to chapter. You can also tap Notes to see your highlighted passages.
When you're reading, tap on the upper part of your screen, and you'll see menus pop up. Tap the Share icon (it looks like three dots connected by lines), and you can share the page to Twitter, Goodreads, and Facebook.

How to highlight quotations on your Kindle:

To highlight quotations as you're reading, simply press down on a word, maintain slight pressure, and slide your finger along until you reach the end of the passage you wish to highlight. You'll see options, but highlighting is the default.
You can look back on all the parts you've highlighted at any time or even share them on Goodreads, a social media app for bookworms.
When you highlight a word, you'll also get definitions from the Kindle's dictionary.

How to reset your Kindle:

Tap the Gear icon, tap All Settings, tap My Account, and select Deregister Device.

Buy ebooks from Amazon's Kindle store

Amazon has millions of ebooks on its store, so odds are, you'll find what you're looking for. To get started, make sure you're connected to the internet and click on the little store shopping cart icon at the top of your Kindle. There, you can browse through all the categories, genres, deals, recommendations, and more.

When you find a title you want, click on it to see the price. If you're okay with the price tag, just click the Buy for $X.XX button. Your ebook will download, and you'll be set to read it.

You can also click Try a Sample, so you can read the first chapter or so before you decide to buy it.

If you're not ready to buy, but want to remember the title, you can click Add to List and it'll pop the ebook on your Kindle Wish List. You can see your Kindle Wish List by clicking the three menu dots in the upper left corner of your Kindle and selecting My Reading Lists. There you'll see any samples you've downloaded and your wish list.

If you want to get ebooks on your Kindle that you previously downloaded on your computer or phone, make sure you're connected to the internet by turning off Airplane Mode, tap the Gear icon, and then tap Sync My Kindle. Your new titles should start downloading.

The Kindle store also has a Deals section where you can see all the discounted ebook deals that are currently on offer. You'd be surprised how many great titles go on sale. To get notified about ebook sales, you should sign up for BookBub, which we explain further down on this page.

If you find yourself spending more than $10 a month on ebooks, you'll want to look into a Kindle Unlimited subscription (which we describe below) to get access to as many of the one-million-plus titles as you can read in a month.

Join Kindle Unlimited for $9.99 a month

Kindle Unlimited lets you read as many of the one-million-plus titles as you want for $9.99 a month. The selection includes audiobooks and the latest issues of popular magazines. You can have up to 10 Kindle Unlimited titles in your library at a time before you need to delete any. The 30-day free trial lets you try it before you buy it.

Kindle Unlimited ebooks are easy to spot in the store, because they have the words, Kindle Unlimited next to the listing. If you have Kindle Unlimited, when you click on the ebook, it gives you the option to Read for free with Kindle Unlimited. If you don't have it yet, you see the purchase price in one box and the option to get Kindle Unlimited in the other.

You can sign up for Kindle Unlimited in the store by clicking on Kindle Unlimited and starting your 30-day free trial.

Subscribe to BookBub emails to hear about ebook discounts

BookBub is a free service that sends you a daily email with ebook deals and discounts. You simply enter your email address, confirm it's you, select the types of ebook deals you want to know about, select Amazon Kindle as the ebook store you use, and follow some of your favorite authors.

From there, you'll get special deal alerts on ebooks you'll love. Often, you can get ebooks for free or for as little as $1.99 or $2.99. In the email, just click on the link and you'll be directed to Amazon's store on your phone, tablet, or computer. Click on the buy button, and your ebook should be sent directly to your Kindle when it's connected to Wi-Fi. You can read our full review of BookBub for more details.

How to get free ebooks on your Kindle

Borrow ebooks from the Kindle Lending Library

If you own a Kindle and you're a Prime Member, you have access to the Kindle Lending Library, which houses more than 800,000 titles that you can borrow for free.

To find the free ebooks, go on your Kindle to the store, click on All Categories or the three menu dots, click on Kindle Owner's Lending Library, and look through the ebooks below to see all the ones that are available to you. When you find the ebook you want, click on it and select Borrow for Free.

You can only borrow one ebook at a time. When you finish the book, go to My Library, click on the three dots in the lower left corner of the ebook and select Remove From Device. Then you'll be able to borrow a new ebook.

Read ebooks for free with Prime Reading

Amazon's Prime Reading is a perk for Prime members, which gives you free access to more than a thousand of the most popular books and magazines. You can download up to 10 titles at a time to your Kindle.

It also includes Amazon First Reads, which gives you early access to one free Kindle book a month, chosen from a collection of editors' picks.

To access these free ebooks, go to the store and click on the words Prime Reading to see the titles you have access to. When you click on one of these ebooks, you'll see the option to Read for Free with Prime Reading. Click on that and download your ebook.

When you finish the book, go to My Library, click on the three dots in the lower left corner of the ebook and select Remove From Device. Then you'll be able to borrow a new ebook.

This is only for Prime Members, so if you don't have Prime yet, get a free 30-day trial of Amazon Prime here.

Read classics and select genre ebooks for free

Amazon has tons of free and cheap ebooks and many of them are classic novels like "Jane Eyre," "Hamlet," and "Alice in Wonderland." You can get them on your Kindle with the click of a button. Browse all the free Kindle ebooks on Amazon here.

Use your library card and Overdrive to borrow free ebooks

If you have a public library card (which you should because it's free and easy to sign up for!), OverDrive is invaluable. Find your local library, sign in with your library card number, then browse all the ebook and audiobooks your library has to offer by subject, language, and keywords.

You can also place holds on titles and add books to a wish list. After you click "Borrow," you'll be directed to your Amazon account to download the title to your Kindle device. Once the loan period expires, the book will automatically be deleted from your account.

OverDrive's latest mobile app is called Libby, and you can download it on iOS here or on Android here.

Download free ebooks from Project Gutenberg

Project Gutenberg has more than 57,000 free ebooks. Most of them are classics that are in the public domain, so you can catch up on all those well-known books you've always meant to read like "Pride and Prejudice," "The Odyssey," "Moby Dick," and more.

You just find the book you want, make sure that it's in a Kindle-friendly format (MOBI is fine), and download it. From there, you can email it to your Kindle email address so it automatically goes to your device.

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