Searching for Free Book on Kindle Paperwhite

FizzyWater · 01-12-2017, 07:27 PM

I am sure this has been covered somewhere, but I'm getting way to many "false positives" in my search results and I'm hoping someone will be nice to me.

I bought a used Paperwhite I 3G/Wifi* for a friend who has no access to the internet. I want to show her how to use the 3G to search Amazon's website for the daily freebies...

I know there's a way to do it online, but she doesn't have access to a computer/internet. And after 3 years of her telling me she's going to get it set up, I've given up.

Can anyone give me idiot-proof instructions on how to use the Amazon shop on the Paperwhite to search for free ebooks? Please???

*It arrived today, I haven't seen it yet. It was reasonably priced from an eBay seller with good ratings....I'm hoping I won't find out it's blacklisted.

Edited to Add: I know how to sideload books and how to search on Amazon's web pages, but I want this to be something she can do for herself. I'm so tempted to keep her access login info so I can search on my computer and just send the freebies to her reader.

Barbara1955 · 01-12-2017, 07:47 PM

Turn on Wifi go to Amazon Web site search Free ebooks. OR go to type of books she like to read... Mysteries then set Low to High Price..... When she hits e-books to high for her price she quite. BTW 3G will do the same.

FizzyWater · 01-12-2017, 08:05 PM

So if you go into "Store", it looks like a web page? Or are you saying there's a web browser in the Kindle?

I've always sideloaded my ebooks on any of the various readers I've purchased, so I've never bothered to find out how the shopping menus work.

She won't be using Wifi because she doesn't have internet, for what that's worth. She bought a tablet 2-3 years ago with the plans to get internet set up and then just never did. She has no interest in driving the thing to the library or local Starbucks or McDonalds to search on Wifi. The only things on that tablet are things I've put there for her. Sigh.

That's why I really need idiot-proof instructions for her. She'll never use it otherwise. Makes me crazy, because she complains and complains about the STACKS of paperbooks in her home, and this would save her such frustration....if she'd just use it.

Barbara1955 · 01-12-2017, 09:50 PM

Don't matter which way as long as you get into the e-books. IF it has the 3G & she has service in her area she can stay at home.

Cinisajoy · 01-12-2017, 10:38 PM

Make sure the 3g is working and on. Then do what Katie1 says.

Atunah · 01-12-2017, 11:25 PM

I had to go into the kindle store on my Oasis to see if it shows free books. I don't ever look for free books on amazon so I wasn't sure. The store is part of the kindle with a shopping cart on the top. But going into categories and subcategories doesn't give a filter for free. Sort order is only for average review, popularity and publication date.

This is looking at all the listings just by category.

So I go to the search bar and free kindle books is already a pre-filled search. And no, I never searched for that, its just one of the amazon suggested ones. I get over 89000 results and then you just go to refine and use subcategories there. But it doesn't show the price, or lack thereof on the page listing of the books. You have to click on the book to make sure its free. You'd have to do that anyway to check on blurb and such.

Its doable if that is all one has available.

I do look at non free books all the time from my kindle and at times buy them from the device, I just don't look for free books. I look at what I get recommended to me and KU reads and just my wishlists and such.

So go to shopping cart, tap on search bar on top and type in kindle free books. Then open the refine drop down and sort by subgenres, by reviews, etc.

patrickt · 01-13-2017, 07:26 AM

Thank you, Atunah. You explained it well.

Click on "store", the shopping cart.
Then type "Free Kindle Books" in the search box. That's the box in the menu bar that says, "Search".

How simple but I spent time trying to find a sort by price option and never did.

Atunah · 01-13-2017, 01:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by patrickt

Thank you, Atunah. You explained it well.

Click on "store", the shopping cart.
Then type "Free Kindle Books" in the search box. That's the box in the menu bar that says, "Search".

How simple but I spent time trying to find a sort by price option and never did.

I did too. Try to find a by price sort option that is.
So this was the only way I could even look specifically for free books on the device. The filters and "refine" are a bit limited, or just set up differently on the kindles.

FizzyWater · 01-13-2017, 07:57 PM

Thanks, everyone!

The Kindle showed up yesterday and I was able to register it to her account (which, since I set it up for her, I still had the login info for). I'll test out what you've explained and give her a cheat sheet with the reader. With luck, she'll be willing to do it - I did play with it a little yesterday, and the 3G seemed a bit slow. I'm hoping she'll be patient - it's free access for goodness sake!

Here's a dumb question in case any of you check back into this thread - if there's a browser in there, could she actually read her Google email from within the Kindle browser??

Atunah · 01-13-2017, 10:36 PM

There is a browser, its experimental. But you can only go to wiki and the kindle store on 3G. I think the keyboard kindle K3 was the last one where one can go to other places on the web via 3g. So its limited now.

Even though if it would work, I just used the browser over wifi to sign in to my google account. Its workable in an emergency, although very difficult to read the text on anything. I used my keyboard many books ago before to pull up a google map when I was lost, it worked, but slow.

Technically the browser works, but again, it will not work on 3G. You have to be on wifi to use the browser for anything but wiki and kindle store.

FizzyWater · 01-16-2017, 01:01 AM

Well I gave her the Kindle today when we went out for lunch and she's thrilled! I'm so happy! I don't see her more than every couple of months, but I'm hoping she'll keep me filled in on whether she finds it useful.

She definitely preferred the size/weight of it to the tablet she bought (which was one of the smaller tablets, but I don't know what the weight difference was).

Thanks again for everyone who offered some help.

01-12-2017, 07:27 PM	#1
FizzyWater You kids get off my lawn! Posts: 4,220 Karma: 73492664 Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Columbus, Ohio Device: Oasis 2 and Libra H2O and half a dozen older models I can't let go of	Searching for Free Book on Kindle Paperwhite I am sure this has been covered somewhere, but I'm getting way to many "false positives" in my search results and I'm hoping someone will be nice to me. I bought a used Paperwhite I 3G/Wifi* for a friend who has no access to the internet. I want to show her how to use the 3G to search Amazon's website for the daily freebies... I know there's a way to do it online, but she doesn't have access to a computer/internet. And after 3 years of her telling me she's going to get it set up, I've given up. Can anyone give me idiot-proof instructions on how to use the Amazon shop on the Paperwhite to search for free ebooks? Please??? *It arrived today, I haven't seen it yet. It was reasonably priced from an eBay seller with good ratings....I'm hoping I won't find out it's blacklisted. Edited to Add: I know how to sideload books and how to search on Amazon's web pages, but I want this to be something she can do for herself. I'm so tempted to keep her access login info so I can search on my computer and just send the freebies to her reader.

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01-12-2017, 07:47 PM	#2
Barbara1955 Non-Techy Posts: 4,455 Karma: 15499273 Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: WV---USA Device: Samsung Cell Phone & Amazon Fires & Kobo eReaders	Turn on Wifi go to Amazon Web site search Free ebooks. OR go to type of books she like to read... Mysteries then set Low to High Price..... When she hits e-books to high for her price she quite. BTW 3G will do the same.

01-12-2017, 08:05 PM	#3
FizzyWater You kids get off my lawn! Posts: 4,220 Karma: 73492664 Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Columbus, Ohio Device: Oasis 2 and Libra H2O and half a dozen older models I can't let go of	So if you go into "Store", it looks like a web page? Or are you saying there's a web browser in the Kindle? I've always sideloaded my ebooks on any of the various readers I've purchased, so I've never bothered to find out how the shopping menus work. She won't be using Wifi because she doesn't have internet, for what that's worth. She bought a tablet 2-3 years ago with the plans to get internet set up and then just never did. She has no interest in driving the thing to the library or local Starbucks or McDonalds to search on Wifi. The only things on that tablet are things I've put there for her. Sigh. That's why I really need idiot-proof instructions for her. She'll never use it otherwise. Makes me crazy, because she complains and complains about the STACKS of paperbooks in her home, and this would save her such frustration....if she'd just use it.

01-12-2017, 09:50 PM	#4
Barbara1955 Non-Techy Posts: 4,455 Karma: 15499273 Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: WV---USA Device: Samsung Cell Phone & Amazon Fires & Kobo eReaders	Don't matter which way as long as you get into the e-books. IF it has the 3G & she has service in her area she can stay at home.

01-12-2017, 10:38 PM	#5
Cinisajoy Just a Yellow Smiley. Posts: 19,161 Karma: 83862859 Join Date: Jul 2015 Location: Texas Device: K4, K5, fire, kobo, galaxy	Make sure the 3g is working and on. Then do what Katie1 says.

01-12-2017, 11:25 PM	#6
Atunah Wizard Posts: 1,817 Karma: 23400001 Join Date: May 2012 Location: USA Device: K1/K3/BasicK Voyage/Oasis1/Oasis3	I had to go into the kindle store on my Oasis to see if it shows free books. I don't ever look for free books on amazon so I wasn't sure. The store is part of the kindle with a shopping cart on the top. But going into categories and subcategories doesn't give a filter for free. Sort order is only for average review, popularity and publication date. This is looking at all the listings just by category. So I go to the search bar and free kindle books is already a pre-filled search. And no, I never searched for that, its just one of the amazon suggested ones. I get over 89000 results and then you just go to refine and use subcategories there. But it doesn't show the price, or lack thereof on the page listing of the books. You have to click on the book to make sure its free. You'd have to do that anyway to check on blurb and such. Its doable if that is all one has available. I do look at non free books all the time from my kindle and at times buy them from the device, I just don't look for free books. I look at what I get recommended to me and KU reads and just my wishlists and such. So go to shopping cart, tap on search bar on top and type in kindle free books. Then open the refine drop down and sort by subgenres, by reviews, etc.

01-13-2017, 07:26 AM	#7
patrickt Wizard Posts: 1,221 Karma: 8381518 Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Oaxaca, Mexico Device: Paperwhite 4 X 2	Thank you, Atunah. You explained it well. Click on "store", the shopping cart. Then type "Free Kindle Books" in the search box. That's the box in the menu bar that says, "Search". How simple but I spent time trying to find a sort by price option and never did.

01-13-2017, 07:57 PM	#9
FizzyWater You kids get off my lawn! Posts: 4,220 Karma: 73492664 Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Columbus, Ohio Device: Oasis 2 and Libra H2O and half a dozen older models I can't let go of	Thanks, everyone! The Kindle showed up yesterday and I was able to register it to her account (which, since I set it up for her, I still had the login info for). I'll test out what you've explained and give her a cheat sheet with the reader. With luck, she'll be willing to do it - I did play with it a little yesterday, and the 3G seemed a bit slow. I'm hoping she'll be patient - it's free access for goodness sake! Here's a dumb question in case any of you check back into this thread - if there's a browser in there, could she actually read her Google email from within the Kindle browser??

01-13-2017, 10:36 PM	#10
Atunah Wizard Posts: 1,817 Karma: 23400001 Join Date: May 2012 Location: USA Device: K1/K3/BasicK Voyage/Oasis1/Oasis3	There is a browser, its experimental. But you can only go to wiki and the kindle store on 3G. I think the keyboard kindle K3 was the last one where one can go to other places on the web via 3g. So its limited now. Even though if it would work, I just used the browser over wifi to sign in to my google account. Its workable in an emergency, although very difficult to read the text on anything. I used my keyboard many books ago before to pull up a google map when I was lost, it worked, but slow. Technically the browser works, but again, it will not work on 3G. You have to be on wifi to use the browser for anything but wiki and kindle store.

01-16-2017, 01:01 AM	#11
FizzyWater You kids get off my lawn! Posts: 4,220 Karma: 73492664 Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Columbus, Ohio Device: Oasis 2 and Libra H2O and half a dozen older models I can't let go of	Well I gave her the Kindle today when we went out for lunch and she's thrilled! I'm so happy! I don't see her more than every couple of months, but I'm hoping she'll keep me filled in on whether she finds it useful. She definitely preferred the size/weight of it to the tablet she bought (which was one of the smaller tablets, but I don't know what the weight difference was). Thanks again for everyone who offered some help.

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