Learn more about Booktrope

Booktrope—online reading for free

Booktrope has a growing collection of recent, in copyright books that are available for free reading. There are books from a variety of publishers, including Redwheel Weiser, Health Press N.A., International Productions, ETC Press, Micah Publications and others, as well as books published under our own imprints, Booktrope and Libertary Editions.

 The idea for Booktrope comes from a simple question—how to connect books to readers? Publishers have traditionally found readers by putting books in stores, getting reviews, asking authors to do personal appearances, and trying to stimulate word of mouth. Today bookstores are disappearing and reviews in traditional publications are losing readers and influence. People connect much more through the web, and new communities are found in social networks, websites, blogs, and forums, where people discuss books every day. But the books themselves aren’t found at most of these sites. Booktrope gives books a home on the web where readers can find them and interact in new ways with the books themselves, authors and other readers.

There are other free book sites, but most of these feature public domain and self-published books. Here at Booktrope you'll find recent books, in copyright, from several leading publishers. We hope you'll read our books and appreciate them.
 

You can read on Booktrope and you can also:

Share books. There are several ways you can share Bbooktrope books with other readers. You can send people emails with links back to a Booktrope book or our home page. You can post comments about our books; feel free to share an excerpt from a book. If there are a few paragraphs you like, please cut and paste them; we ask you to attribute them to the author and title and provide a link back to Booktrope. (We’re working on technology that will make this much easier and more fun to do – keep an eye out!) Keep up with our site by connecting at our Facebook page; http://www.facebook.com/booktrope . Tweet about us, and if you have a blog, spread the word about booktrope and our books. 

You can use this convenient link:

Buy books. If you like a book you’re reading on Booktrope and want to own a paper or Kindle copy, it’s easy to get one by clicking on links we’ve placed on every book page. We ourselves buy books and we hope you’ll buy books too, both Booktrope / Libertary Editions and the books from publishers who are working with us. Also, we have some links to buy other books that readers have recommended and invite you to add your own recommendations.

Join the discussion. Many Booktrope books have discussion forums and there's a forum for Booktrope itself. You can leave comments, suggestions, questions or references. It's a good place to engage with other readers and an author also might turn up in the discussion as well.

About reading on booktrope

Booktrope divides books into sections or chapters for convenient reading. A table of contents appears to the left of the book text. Readers navigate as they choose by clicking on an entry in the TOC, which opens the selection in the reading area of the book page.

Pagination:

The text in each chapter shows page numbers that closely match the print edition of the book.The page number is just a marker so it doesn’t interrupt your reading. But you can tell what page you’re on, making it much easier to share a reference or talk about something in the book with someone else who’s read the printed book.

How can I easily scroll through a book as I'm reading?

Here's a good way to read.  Open the chapter you want to read by clicking on it in the Table of Contents. Now place your curser at the bottom of the scroll bar on the right-hand side of the screen. When you finish reading what you can see on the screen, click on the scroll bar. The browser window will move down just far enough so you can continue reading what's next.

Of course if your mouse has a scroll wheel, another way to read is to simply use the wheel to scroll through the chapter.

If you have a Windows computer, you can also simply hit the "page down" key. The browser window will move down just far enough so you can continue reading what's next. (If you have a Mac, you might have to hold down the Apple key while you hit "page down.")

Booktrope shows page numbers in our books, but the "page down" key doesn't recognize the page numbers.  (The scroll bar click doesn't either.)  Here's why. When you're reading in a browser, the amount of text you can see depends on how big your screen is, what browser you're using, and so forth. "Page down" usually means the next block of text that fits, not the next page number. 

Booktrope actually has page numbers for a different reason. The page numbers on Booktrope are usually the same as in the printed book.  We put them in so that readers of our online books can talk about the same page numbers as people reading the printed books. 

Also, some people like to read by moving the slider gradually down the scroll bar instead of page-downing. This can work well if you're good at moving the slider on the scroll bar, but it's easy to slide down too far.  In that case, if you've noticed what page you're on, you can use the page numbers to find your way back to where you were reading.

Index on the fly:

In Booktrope books, you can enter search terms underneath the list of chapters on the left hand side of the page. The search runs against the contents of the book you're viewing and produces a list of the pages that have all of the words you entered. You'll see the list of pages in the reading area; it's like an index, but you also get to see context of the search term hits. Click on "read more" to go to that page in the book. Then, you can easily navigate to the full chapter and continue reading, using the link at the bottom of the reading page. Or you can use the back button on your browser to return to the search results list.

Booktrope the publisher and Booktrope and Libertary Editions

Our Printed Editions: Booktrope publishes original books under the Libertary Editions and Booktrope Editions imprints. Our approach is team-based and non-hierarchical. We bring together writers, editors, and designers with marketing and business specialists to create book-focused teams on a project basis. Check here for more information. Booktrope also reprints selected titles under agreements with the author or publisher who holds the rights. For books no longer in print and books that are not currently selling, Booktrope can be a great way to find new readers and to revive sales. If you’re interested please contact us at info@booktrope.com

Booktrope, the publisher: We're building a new kind of publishing business with innovative models for publishing fiction and non-fiction and for marketing books online.  We're looking for allies and friends to help us bring more books online and to work with us in promoting, sharing and enhancing books. . Please contact us if you have a web site, if you’re a publisher or author, or if you have a business related to books and you’re interested in working with us.

Working with Booktrope: We’re looking for people to help us market and promote book sales; we call this role a Book Manager.  Compensation is based on total book sales and it's generous. This work can be done your own time and from your home or office. See our community pages for more information about opportunities to work with us. If you’re interested please contact us at info@booktrope.com