God Save the AmazonAmazon seems to be running a promotion offering selected Kindle ebooks for free, in return for doing certain easy activities. Unfortunately, it’s only valid for the UK, as far as I can tell – though I’d welcome updates if anyone has noticed it in the U.S. or elsewhere. Anyway, for lucky Brits, here’s your chance to pick up a free title from a fairly attractive shortlist.

According to the Amazon blurb, “you can earn a free Kindle Book by simply doing one of the three activities listed below by 26 February 2016.” These are: download and register the Kindle app; buy a Kindle Book; or simply, Buy a book (presumably through Amazon.co.uk). You will then “receive an email from Amazon with a promotional code. The promotional code [only one per customer] will enable you to download for free one Kindle Book from a selected range displayed at the point of redemption.” The code is valid until end March 25th, 2016.

As for the titles offered, these are Ship of Magic by Robin Hobb, Bernard Cornwell’s Anglo-Saxon historical title The Last Kingdom, Veronica Roth’s Divergent, Payback by Kimberley Chambers, Sleigh Bells in the Snow by Sarah Morgan, and last but definitely not least for the hordes of expectant Brits, The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen. Good luck with that last one, o slaves of Her Majesty.

There should be something in that pile for everyone, even Franzenphobes like me. Furthermore, although the only way you can get an ebook completely free is if you haven’t yet downloaded a Kindle app, there must be quite a few post-Christmas buyers in that category. Also, the terms of the offer state that “The price of the Kindle book or physical book purchased must be equal to or greater than £0.01,” meaning that if you purchase a suitably discounted book or ebook on Amazon.co.uk, you can still get a Kindle ebook almost for nothing.

One thing I do not think this campaign is about is any need to boost moribund Kindle sales in the UK. The recent markdowns in UK Amazon Prime subscriptions, and Amazon plans to improve Prime and other UK services, suggest that Amazon is doing quite well enough in the UK, thank you very much. No matter what the Amazon haters would like to believe.

2 COMMENTS

  1. I’ve bought lots of ebooks, but I haven’t received a promotion email. I suspect it’s because they were all paid for with promotional credits (from ‘No-Rush’ shipping), and Amazon’s counting them as costing £0.00.

    I’ll try registering a new copy of Kindle for Mac.

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