I have started an online (in the Cloud) library using the Kindle Store.
One of the best things about Amazon, besides their huge selections, is that they also put their e-books on sale, and every day, they give some of them away free.
Since they change every day or so; it is important to keep checking the books to see what is on sale.


If you are writing a book, and thinking of publishing it as an e-book, amazon has a lot of tutorial books to help you  learn to write and publish your books.
Many of them are free tutorials, and some of them that cost, will also go on sale as free if you just keep watching them.


How I do this, is I go to the Kindle Store, type in the category that i want to find books in (publishing, health, sewing, cooking, etc), and then ask for the results to be sorted by price from low to high.
You will get all of the free books first, then all of the 99 cent ones, then $1.99, and so on.


To do this, you first need to set up an Amazon account, which is free, if you do not already have one. You can also download a Kindle app for your tablet or smart phone, so you can read your books on the go.
Antoher super feature : If you have a Kindle tablet, and an Amazon Prime account, there is the Kindle lending library, where you can also borrow many of the books that cost money to buy. 

I mentioned this in the little scrolling thingie; but wanted to expand on the subject here. There is a free ebook for writers on Amazon today, in the Kindle Store.
It is called 1,000 Awesome Writing Prompts by Ryan Andrew Kinder.

It is usually priced at $3, but is free today, and until January 4th, so hurry and check this book out ! !

I have been wanting to read the Earth Chronicles by Zechariah Sitchin, but the books are expensive, and I have not been able to afford to get any of them yet.
Today, I found a website that has free e-books and they had the Sitchin book that iI wanted to get; so I downloaded it into my iBooks folder on the iPad
There are all different kinds of books on there for free; but they also are a place that helps people self-publish their own books.
 I know that this os one of the topics that we have discussed here, and before; Kindle was about the only one that I knew of that did help with self-publishing.
I don't know how this site compares; but here is the link so you can check it out and see if it will work for you if you are going to publish an e-book.

Another thing that seems to me like it would work, and may even be an easier thing to do, is to make an audio-book. Then it does not have to be typed into the publisher, it just needs to be read , and recorded.
Of course, this would not work for a book that had illustrations; but it would maybe work for one that was a novel, and didn't have any pictures.
You might even be able to do the reading yourself, since you are the one most familiar with the story ? ?

http://www.epubbud.com

Another feature on Amazon that I just discovers is that sometimes they will give you promotional codes if you buy certain books or games through the Kindle store. My son got a free game for his Kindle and they sent me $1 toward my next purchase. They really are a great company and take care of their customers.

I have seen where they will offer you the discount as well. Often times, when I am buying something, they say that if I take the regular shipping instead of the free 2-day express shipping, then they credit you with a dollar for the next purchase of a movie or something similar.
I seldom watch movies, and always want my order to get there as fast as possible; so I  have never taken advantage of this offer.
I am making a concerted effort to write reviews every single time though, in hopes I  can become an Amazon Vine member, and receive free things to try and write about.

I don't blame you, that vine idea sounds like a fine one. I have not made a purchase on Amazon since around Christmas time and I need to start buying some things again. I have a few promotional credits to spend, and I would like to have some products to review so that I might one day get selected to do some work there too.

I just finished a book on my Kindlle that i got from Bookbub for free. At the end of the book, the information about the author said that she has a website that helps aspiring new authors to have their e-books published.
It looks like she has a service similar to Bookbub, which also helps writers to self-publish, and this one is called Authorsanon, and she has a directory titled e-book soda. I am not sure how it works, but I wanted to share the link because  I  know we have several writers here who are wanting to publish their work, and hopefully, it might be a way to do that.

https://authorsanon.wordpress.com

Thanks for the information Happy, this will come in handy for me...if I can ever get some more work done on my Washington book! We have a couple of summer trips planned where I am going to go and take notes and take some pictures. I even found a nettle soup recipe that I am going to include. Nettles grow rampant around here and you can harvest and eat them for free!